RAMALLAH, Feb 18: Hamas took over as the dominant party in the Palestinian parliament on Saturday and swiftly rejected President Mahmoud Abbas’s call to pursue his peacemaking efforts with Israel.
The swearing-in of the parliament, elected last month, paves the way for Hamas to form a government that is on a potential collision course with Mr Abbas and faces a boycott by major powers unless it ‘renounces violence’ and its vow to destroy Israel.
Israel is considering tougher restrictions on Palestinians to apply pressure on Hamas. Senior Israeli sources said that if a new government did not recognise Israel, halt violence and accept peace accords, it would be seen as a ‘hostile entity’.
In a speech at the opening of parliament, Mr Abbas said the new government must recognise past peace deals with Israel and commit itself to pursuing statehood through talks, but he stopped short of setting conditions for forming a cabinet.
“The presidency and the government will continue to respect our commitment to the negotiations as a strategic, pragmatic political choice,” Mr Abbas said.
“At the same time, we must continue to strengthen and develop forms of popular resistance of a peaceful nature.”
Mr Abbas’s words won applause from Fatah lawmakers but not from Hamas members.
“We were elected on a different political agenda,” said Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh as sessions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, joined by video link, broke off for prayers.
One newly elected Hamas lawmaker prayed on the floor of the building in Gaza.
Hamas won control of the Palestinian Legislative Council in a Jan 25 parliamentary election, beating Mr Abbas’s long-dominant Fatah, which is widely accused of corruption and mismanagement. Hamas won 74 seats in the 132-member parliament.
Hamas boycotted the previous parliamentary election
in 1996 because it rejected interim peace accords with Israel. It says those deals are now dead and it will not be bound by them.
TRUCE WITH ISRAEL: Hamas officials have said the group will soon present an initiative to parliament, including a proposal for a long-term truce with Israel if it withdraws from land captured in the 1967 that Palestinians seek for a state.
But the group has repeatedly said it will not rescind its call for Israel’s destruction or recognise the Jewish state.
Israel’s cabinet will consider on Sunday whether to impose tough new measures against the Hamas-led government, possibly banning labourers and goods from entering Israel from Gaza.
Israeli officials said that to take a full decision on relations they would wait to see whether Hamas in government continued in its refusal to recognise Israel, to reject the peace accords and to give up its weapons.
“If that is the government that is established, this government will have defined itself as a hostile entity,” said one senior Israeli source.
Mr Abbas said any new restrictions on the Palestinians would amount to ‘blackmail’.—Reuters
RAMALLAH, Feb 18: Hamas took over as the dominant party in the Palestinian parliament on Saturday and swiftly rejected President Mahmoud Abbas’s call to pursue his peacemaking efforts with Israel.
