VARIOUS: Israeli Prime Minister Olmert says Israel will not work with new Palestinian Government

Record ID: 730668

  • Title: VARIOUS: Israeli Prime Minister Olmert says Israel will not work with new Palestinian Government
  • Date: 18th March 2007
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) ATEF HADAD, RESIDENT OF GAZA, SAYING: "We wish they (Hamas and Fatah) stay united, and things go to the best way."
  • Embargoed: 2nd April 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVAA5FTBKCI0W6H2TDNRDUTR7PTY
  • Story Text: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert convenes his cabinet and says Israel will not work with the new Palestinian government, but would maintain contacts with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Olmert says the Palestinian government should adhere to Quartet of Middle East negotiators conditions. In Gaza, Palestinians say they are hopeful the new government will result in increased security.

    Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Sunday (March 18) convened his cabinet, a day after the Palestinian legislature approved a new coalition government largely composed of Fatah and Hamas ministers.
    Israeli cabinet ministers Isaac Herzog said that the new Palestinian government needed abide by guidelines set by the Quartet of Middle East mediators.
    "The international prerequisites that were laid down to the Palestinians are normal, are logical, are fair: recognising Israel, denouncing terror, adopting the agreements. There's nothing more fair than that. And the world should adhere to these rules. They are the basic prerequisites for any advancement in the process in the region," Herzog said.
    Galeb Magadla, the only Arab-Israeli cabinet minister, said that there is a clear interlocutor on the Palestinian side
    "As far as I am concerned my partner for a political negotiation would be (chosen) according to what has been determined by the Palestinian constitution - that is Chairman of the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organisation), the President, Chairman of the (Palestinian) Authority, Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas)," Magadla said.
    Olmert said Israel decided to shun the new Palestinian unity government but continue talking to moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, a policy promoted by Western peace mediators in hope of a breakthrough.
    "Good morning. Yesterday a new government was sworn in in the Palestinian Authority and the platform it had presented does not meet the conditions agreed upon by the international community from the start of the process, mainly a recognition of the state of Israel, renunciation of violence and dismantling terror infrastructures - meeting the Quartet's demands - and accepting past agreements signed with Israel including the road map. In addition the platform of the new government include very problematic elements that cannot be acceptable to Israel or to the international community such as (perceiving) the resistance as a legitimate right, the use of terror, and as mentioned before, a refusal to recognise Israel. We have said in the past that we will continue to maintain contacts with the Palestinian Authority Chairman Abu Mazen (Abbas) but we will not be able to pursue contact with the government or its members considering the fact that this is a government which does not accept the international community conditions and perceives terror as a legitimate means to pursue its goals," Olmert said at the beginning of the cabinet meeting.
    At the start of the cabinet meeting Israeli ministers to the right and left of him made clear they would challenge his initial response.
    Strategic Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman, the sole far-right member of Olmert's centrist coalition government, called for a total boycott of the Palestinians, including Abbas.
    But a member of the centre-left Labour Party, the biggest coalition partner of Olmert's Kadima Party, suggested it was a mistake to shun non-Hamas ministers who have shown a commitment to a negotiated peace.
    In Gaza City, Palestinians on the street said that they were hopeful about their new government.
    "God will, and I wish it will be the exit way of all our troubles, and it survives us to the interior fights, which used to be a nightmare for us. I wish things will be perfect," Kamal Alian, a Gaza resident said.
    "We wish they (Hamas and Fatah) stay united, and things go to the best way," Atef Hadad said.
    "I wish so, (they will) end the siege and stop the Palestinian suffering," Yousef Nassar said.
    Hamas has rejected Western demands that it recognise Israel and foreswear violence. While its 1988 founding charter calls for Israel's destruction, Hamas has proposed a long-term truce in exchange for a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza.
    Abbas heads the Palestine Liberation Organisation, which in 1993 signed interim peace accords with Israel. He has endorsed a Saudi proposal for a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace deal if Israel quits all land it occupied in the 1967 Middle East war.
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