November 16, 2007	Friday	Ziqa’ad 05, 1428

RAMALLAH, Nov 15: Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Thursday urged the people of Gaza to oust his Islamist rivals who seized control of the territory in June, as he seeks a lasting peace with Israel.

“We must get rid of this clique that took control of the Gaza Strip by force and which is exploiting the suffering and tragedies of our people,” he said in a televised speech from his Ramallah office to mark the 19th anniversary of the symbolic declaration of a Palestinian state.

Hamas routed secular Fatah forces loyal to Abbas in mid-June after a week of deadly violence in Gaza, resulting in the fall of the Hamas-led unity government and a new Western-backed government being formed in the West Bank.

The feuding has split the Palestinians into two separate entities, with Hamas ruling the roost in Gaza and Abbas’s Palestinian Authority administering over parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Abbas denounced what he called “criminal acts by lawless gangs in Gaza where they opened fire in cold blood on crowds commemorating the third anniversary of the death of the martyr Yasser Arafat.” Abbas’s comments were slammed by Hamas.

“Hamas is a pillar of the Palestinian people and not a clique that one can simply remove,” it said in a statement.

Abbas also used his speech to reach out to Israel ahead of a peace meeting in the United States expected later this month.

“I address the Israeli people and government directly and say that we are determined to agree a real peace with them in the interests of both our future generations,” he said.

“The occupation brings security to nobody. Peace and good neighbourly relations based on equality and respect will bring an end to decades of war, suffering and the spilling of blood.” He said the planned meeting in Annapolis, Maryland must mark “a serious and decisive departure point to arrive at a just settlement that would guarantee the rights of our people, who aspire to liberty and independence.

“Our people are determined to create their own state which, with the grace of God, will one day see our territory with Jerusalem as its capital.” The two sides have been struggling to thrash out an agreed joint document for the conference that would serve as the basis for future negotiations aimed at creating a Palestinian state.

Palestinians want the document to address core issues — borders, the fate of refugees, settlements, and the status of Jerusalem — while Israel prefers a more general statement of shared principles.

Abbas said colonisation of the West Bank by Jewish settlers “must cease completely, the siege must be lifted, prisoners must be allowed home and the cycle of violence and assassinations must become a thing of the past.—AFP