Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas yesterday [Saturday] called his people to a referendum that would in effect recognise the state of Israel, a move that was immediately denounced by the radical Hamas government as a coup.
Abbas called the vote just hours after dramatic scenes in Gaza when thousands of mourners expressed grief and anger during the funeral of the family killed by an Israeli attack as they picnicked on a beach. The sobs of seven-year-old survivor Huda Ghalia disturbed onlookers as the girl screamed ”Don’t leave me, don’t leave me” to the shrouded bodies of her mother, father and three brothers and sisters. A total of seven people died in the shelling of the beach on Friday.
But if condemnation of the Israeli attack led to a display of unity between the deeply fractured Palestinian factions, it was all too brief. Hamas ended a 16-month truce by firing rockets at Israel and then immediately rejected Abbas’s call for the July 26 referendum, which will ask Palestinians to endorse the policy of creating a state in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, side by side with Israel.
The referendum implicitly recognises Israel as a separate state, the first time the Palestinian people will have been asked to decide on such a fundamental issue. Without such recognition, Israel will not even consider beginning peace talks with the Palestinians.
But the referendum is seen as undermining the mandate of the democratically elected, Islamic-based Hamas government, which refuses to recognise Israel, and draws the Palestinians closer to civil war. ”It was a declaration of a coup against the government,” said Mushir al-Masri, a leading Hamas legislator, as he urged Palestinians to boycott the vote. ”Whoever announced the referendum should shoulder the responsibility for the dangerous consequences that may result.”
The two factions have attempted to gain control of the streets of Gaza with their police forces by day, while attacking each other by night. Yesterday [Saturday] a senior officer in the Palestinian security service, which is controlled by Abbas’s Fatah, was killed in a bungled kidnapping attempt by members of Hamas. Following the funeral in Gaza City, Hamas and Fatah gunmen engaged in sporadic gunfights, causing several injuries.
The stand-off was complicated by claims that the military wing of Hamas, which has been on a ceasefire for almost 18 months, was renewing hostilities against Israel. Hamas claimed it fired more than 10 rockets in retaliation for Israel’s attack.
While Hamas has fired rockets at Israel earlier this year, it has not launched any suicide bombings against Israel and has mostly maintained its ceasefire. A resumption of attacks would lead to Israel targeting the political leaders of Hamas, which would make it very difficult for them to govern.
Israel has fired thousands of shells at Gaza this year, in retaliation, it says, for Palestinian rockets. Israeli artillery is normally accurate, but several shells have strayed off target, killing at least 15 Palestinian civilians.
It is not yet clear if human or technical error was responsible for Friday’s shelling, but the horror on the Gaza beach caused international outrage: even the United States called for restraint.
Ali Ghalia, a farmer from Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza, had taken his two wives and nine children for a picnic. The family heard several explosions, which they thought were sonic booms, and decided to pack up and go home. They were waiting for a taxi to come for them and little Huda had gone for a last swim in the sea when the shell landed in their midst, mutilating their bodies and covering the beach in blood and body parts. The three dead children were aged four months, three and 10 years. Two other people on the beach also died.
Egypt said the shelling of civilian areas was against international law. France said it deplored Israel’s ”disproportionate” actions. Margaret Beckett, the British Foreign Secretary, said she would raise the matter with her Israeli counterpart, Tzippi Livni, when they meet tomorrow [Monday]. ”The killing of innocent civilians is utterly unacceptable, and we urge the Israelis to undertake an investigation,” she said.
The deaths will overshadow the visit to London by the Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, which starts today [Sunday]. Olmert is seeking approval for his plan to withdraw from much of the West Bank while holding on to strategic settlements in the occupied territory.
In an interview to be broadcast today [Sunday], Olmert will claim that he has much respect for Abbas, but views Hamas as an enemy. Speaking to Sky News, Olmert says he is willing to make ”painful and decisive” concessions during negotiations with the Palestinians but, if Israel found that it could not negotiate, then he would pursue unilateral policies.
”Then the question is, what shall we do? Do nothing, stalemate, freeze the situation? Or shall we try to do something that will move things forward? That’s what I’m interested in and I don’t think that we should wait too much,” he says. — Guardian Unlimited Â