- Title: WEST BANK: MAHMOUD ABBAS SPEAKS AT ELECTION RALLY IN JENIN REFUGEE CAMP
- Date: 30th December 2004
- Summary: (EU) JENIN, WEST BANK (DECEMBER 30, 2004) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. WIDE OF PALESTINIAN FLAG WAVING OVER JENIN BUILDINGS 0.06 2. WIDE OF MONUMENT IN MAIN CEMETERY AT JENIN REFUGEE CAMP, WHERE THE PALESTINIAN MARTYRS ARE BURIED 0.11 3. WIDE OF CROWD GATHERING AROUND MAHMOUD ABBAS, LEADING PALESTINIAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE AND PLO (PALESTIN
- Embargoed: 14th January 2005 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: JENIN, WEST BANK
- City:
- Country: Palestinian Territories
- Reuters ID: LVA3VIOUGUOAWU3MJ20HZ6JFHTNE
- Story Text: Front running presidential candidate Mahmoud Abbas
begins his campaign for the Palestinian leadership.
Palestinian gunmen cheered Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday
(December 30) in a West Bank refugee camp where the
front-running presidential candidate was welcomed by a
leading militant on Israel's most-wanted list.
Zakaria Zubeidi, commander of al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades
in the camp said that the campaign's purpose was to ensure
Palestinian refugees right of return.
(Q: Why did you invite Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas) to
Jenin refugee camp?) "In order to ensure refugees' right of
return" (Q: What is the Palestinian position regarding this
issue?) "We are committed to the return of the refuges,"
Zubeidi told reporters.
The brigades are part of the late Yasser Arafat's
Fatah faction, which named Abbas its candidate in the Jan.
9 election to replace him as president.
Abbas advocates non-violence in a Palestinian struggle
for statehood. Nonetheless, the brigades say their gunmen
will vote for Abbas "to give him a chance" because he wants
to root out corruption and carry out democratic reform.
Gunmen escorted Abbas at the camp, where he placed a
wreath at a "martyrs memorial" to Palestinians killed in
violence with Israel.
Later, at the Jenin town cemetery, he gathered about 40
armed men around him for a private talk, after which the
militants again chanted their support for him.
Jenin was the scene of some of the fiercest fighting during a
crushing military operation that Israel launched
in the West Bank in 2002 after a spate of suicide bombings
in the Jewish state.
The brigades, like other militant groups, have resisted
Abbas' calls for a truce with Israel, although violence has
abated markedly in most areas since Arafat died in November.
"When we are asking for security and safety for the
Palestinian people, we are also asking at the same time for
security and safety for the lives of our brothers who are
wanted by Israel," Abbas told the cheering crowd.
Abbas has been met by cheers at election rallies in the
West Bank that seem to be drawing the publicity-shy deputy
to Arafat out of his shell.
Fatah draws around 40 percent in polls followed by the
Islamist militant group Hamas, which is not contesting the
election, at about 20 percent.
Looking for the first time like a natural-born
politician, Abbas has vowed to follow in Arafat's footsteps
in demanding a full return of Palestinian refugees to homes
in what is now Israel.
But he also has called for a resumption of peace talks
aimed at establishing a Palestinian state alongside a
secure Israel.
Israeli officials have voiced disappointment over what
they saw as Abbas' uncompromising line on land-for-peace.
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