Abbas to Israel: Reconsider decision to cut off Gaza electricity

Friday October 26, 2007 17:59 by Rami Almeghari - IMEMC

In a meeting with the Israeli Prime Minister on Friday, the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, begged the Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, to reconsider his decision to cut off fuel supplies and electricity to Gaza.  

Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, right, Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, left during a previous meeting/ archive photo

His plea comes just days after the Israeli government announced their intention to cut off electricity to Gaza as 'collective punishment' of the Palestinian population for the firing of homemade rockets.  Such collective punishment is a violation of international law.

Senior Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Ereqat, told the press today that the Israeli government's decision to punish the Palestinian population in this way is wholeheartedly rejected by the Palestinian leadership, adding that Israel should not involve the population in politics through collective punishment of the population.

Ereqat added that during Friday's meeting, the two leaders had agreed on commencing some parallel measures, starting with the Palestinian side dissolving Palestinian armed groups; and the Israeli side halting all illegal settlement expansion in Palestinian territories.

Both sides also agreed to continue to hold regular meetings until an agreement on core issues is secured. The Palestinian president also decried the latest events inside the Israeli Ketziot prison, where a 23-year-old Palestinian prisoner was killed and scores more were wounded when Israeli guards used lethal force to quell a prisoner uprising.

Despite U.S efforts to bridge the gap between the Israelis and Palestinians on the core Palestinian demands: the return of Palestinian refugees, and the creation of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, an agreement is yet to be reached.

The regular meetings between Abbas and Olmert are in anticipation of a Washington-sponsored conference on Middle East peace, scheduled for late next month in Annapolis, Maryland in the United States.

Israeli defense minister, Ehud Barak, approved yesterday the Israeli cabinet’s decision to cut off power and fuel supplies to the Gaza Strip.  The Cabinet stated that the electricity cut-off was punishment for the firing of homemade shells across the border from Gaza into the nearby Israeli town of Sderot -- a town provocatively built by Israel just five kilometers from the Gaza border.

Since the Hamas party won the Palestinian elections last year, the Israeli government has imposed strict sanctions on the Palestinian territories.  The sanctions and closure became even more restricted in June of this year, when Hamas took control of the government in Gaza (as was their mandate by the Palestinian constitution).

Israel, which has no Constitution, accused the Palestinian ruling party of being somehow undemocratic for  following the rule of law, and closed all entry and exit from the Gaza Strip for goods and people.  This has led to a lack of basic commodities and unprecedented high prices of goods, at a time when unemployment rates in the Gaza Strip have soared to over 90%, also due to the Israeli closure.

jerusalem | palestinian politics | news report rami at imemc dot org