ISRAEL/WEST BANK: PALESTINIAN PRIME MINISTER MAHMOUD ABBAS RESIGNS FROM THE FATAH CENTRAL COMMITTEE/ ISRAELI SOLDIERS SHOOT DEAD A PLAESTINAN MAN IN RAID NEAR JENIN

Record ID: 400787

  • Title: ISRAEL/WEST BANK: PALESTINIAN PRIME MINISTER MAHMOUD ABBAS RESIGNS FROM THE FATAH CENTRAL COMMITTEE/ ISRAELI SOLDIERS SHOOT DEAD A PLAESTINAN MAN IN RAID NEAR JENIN
  • Date: 8th July 2003
  • Summary: (W3) RAMALLAH, WEST BANK (JULY 9, 2003) (REUTERS) 1. TILT: EXTERIOR OF RESIDENCE OF PALESTINIAN PRIME MINISTER MAHMOUD ABBAS, ALSO KNOWN AS ABU MAZEN/ WIDE OF ENTRANCE WITH VEHICLE ARRIVING (2 SHOTS) 0.14 2. SCU: (SOUNDBITE)(Arabic) PALESTINIAN PRIME MINISTER MAHMOUD ABBAS, ALSO KNOWN AS ABU MAZEN, SAYING: "Internal differences led to this resigna
  • Embargoed: 23rd July 2003 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BEN-GURION, ISRAEL/ BURQIN VILLAGE, NEAR JENIN AND RAMALLAH, WEST BANK
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Reuters ID: LVA3IO600EZRNSIPNGYFCXVICKHS
  • Story Text: Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas has resigned
    from the general committee, a top ruling body of his Fatah
    faction in a dispute with internal critics after he failed to
    persuade Israel to release thousands of Palestinian prisoners.

    Meanwhile, Israeli soldiers have shot dead a Palestinian
    man and wounded at least two others in a West Bank raid as the
    Palestinian premier struggled with internal opposition to his
    peace moves with Israel that he said might force him to resign
    as prime minister.


    Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, who resigned
    from the Fatah committee on Tuesday (July 8), confirmed his
    resignation on Wednesday (July 9). The crisis confronting
    Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, arose largely from his failure
    to persuade Israel to free thousands of Palestinian prisoners
    to bolster a peace plan unveiled by Washington on June 4th.

    As a plane carrying 500 new immigrants from north America
    prepared to land at Israel's Ben-Gurion International airport
    on Wednesday (July 9), Israeli Immigrant Absorption Minister
    Tzipi Livni said that the Palestinian prime minister's
    resignation from the Palestinian Central Committee showed that
    Palestinian President Yasser Arafat was still playing a major
    role.

    Livni said that the Palestinian Prime Minister's
    resignation from the Palestinian Central Committee shows that
    Palestinian President Yasser Arafat was still an obstacle to
    the peace process.

    "It is clear now as it was cleared before that Arafat is,
    was and is still an obstacle to peace. I hope that Abu Mazen
    (Mahmoud Abbas) will have the courage and the power to act and
    to enforce the road map on the Palestinian people and
    especially on terrorist organisations like Hamas like Jihad
    Islamic, and I do hope that both sides will know how to handle
    this delicate situation in the future," Livni said while
    waiting for 500 new immigrants to arrive to Ben Gurion Airport
    from North America on Wednesday (July 9).

    Meanwhile a Palestinian man was shot dead by Israeli
    troops in Burqin village in the West Bank during an army raid
    on Wednesday (July 9) as the Palestinian Prime Minister
    Mahmoud Abbas struggled with internal opposition.

    Abbas submitted his resignation from Fatah's Central
    Committee, policymaking backbone of the Palestinian Authority,
    after hardliners asked him to step down as premier. His office
    made clear he was not leaving Fatah which he co-founded in
    1959.

    The United States, which authored the road map with the
    European Union, the United Nations and Russia, has tried to
    sideline Arafat. He rejects U.S. allegations of links to
    violence in the nearly three-year-old uprising.

    A U.S.-backed "road map" peace plan was launched last
    month and leading Palestinian factions declared a ceasefire,
    but some local militant groups have refused to abide by it.

    Monday's suicide attack, in which an Israeli woman was
    killed in her home, was the first since the truce was
    announced.

    The crisis confronting Abbas arose largely from his
    failure to persuade Israel to free thousands of Palestinian
    prisoners to bolster a peace plan unveiled by Washington on
    June 4, two-and-a-half years into a Palestinian uprising for
    statehood.

    Israeli leaders stepped up pressure on Abbas. They issued
    a chorus of demands he dismantle militant Palestinian groups,
    as mandated by the "road map" peace plan envisaging a
    Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip by 2005.

    Fearing civil war, Abbas has shied from cracking down on
    militants whose popularity derives in part from Israel's
    crippling military re-occupation and blockade of cities in
    response to suicide bombings.

    A Jenin-based cell of Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility
    for Monday's suicide attack. The leading militant faction's
    Gaza-based leadership said it remained committed to the truce
    but Israel's reluctance to free many prisoners could ruin it.

    Israel has said members of militant groups and prisoners
    who committed or orchestrated attacks on Israelis would not go
    free.

    Militants have made the truce conditional on the release
    of all of the up to 8,000 prisoners in Israeli custody.


    awa/crb
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