PALESTINIAN UNITY GOV WITHIN A WEEK-FATAH

Palestinian unity govt within a week: Fatah
AFP – Thu May 12, 2:05 pm ET

RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories (AFP) – A senior Palestinian official said on Thursday he hopes a Palestinian unity government will be formed within a week under an April 27 reconciliation accord.I hope that within a week we will have a new government installed by consensus, Nabil Shaath, a senior figure in the Fatah party of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, told reporters in the West Bank city of Ramallah.He said delegations from rival factions Fatah and Hamas would meet within days in the Egyptian capital to draw up the government list.As soon as that government is installed, the Arab monitoring committee headed by Egypt will go directly to Gaza, and probably it will have offices in Gaza, which is currently ruled by Hamas, Shaath said.With that, the government will start with the unification plan, will set up all the committees that have been agreed to in the Cairo agreement, all by consensus, the Fatah official said.He referred to committees to deal with security, reconciliation, administration and elections.On the choice of prime minister, a post currently held by Salam Fayyad, the favoured candidate of international aid donors, Shaath said: If we cannot reach consensus on him, we will be looking at a range of Palestinians.The deal between Abbas's secular Fatah party and the Islamist movement Hamas calls for the formation of a caretaker government of independents to govern until elections are held within a year.

The Fatah-Hamas Accord
The Nation Mouin Rabbani – Thu May 12, 9:10 am ET

The Nation -- The agreement between Fatah and Hamas to end the schism that has plagued the Palestinian system since June 2007 surprised not only the world but also most Palestinians. More than anything, it reflects the profound changes the Middle East is experiencing and the new regional dynamics unleashed by the ouster of Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak. For the better part of four years, Palestinian reconciliation was not an option. From the perspective of PLO, PA and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas, it came down to a simple choice: US-sponsored bilateral negotiations with Israel, which, accompanied by Western funding and other forms of support, would maintain Fatah control in the West Bank and lead to an independent Palestinian state; or Palestinian reconciliation, which would produce renewed international sanctions while strengthening the relative position of Hamas.Egypt was critical to maintaining this equation. Under Mubarak, Cairo monopolized reconciliation talks; but its proposals were formulated for rejection by Hamas. It then used the failure of its mediation as a pretext to collude in Israel’s punishing blockade of Gaza. At the same time, Egypt deployed its considerable clout to provide cover for Abbas’s increasingly compromised diplomacy and pressured him on America’s and Israel’s behalf when further Palestinian concessions were required.

As the division of the occupied territories into separate Fatah and Hamas fiefdoms solidified, vested institutional, economic and political interests emerged on both sides of the divide. In the West Bank the government led by Salam Fayyad owed its very existence to the schism. In Gaza Hamas developed a taste for arbitrary practices whose denunciation had helped it win the 2006 legislative elections. These comforts and privileges were in turn sustained by a thriving underground economy—literally, through hundreds of tunnels—along the border with Egypt. The main legacy of both governments is a severe blow to Palestinian pluralism and levels of repression that would have been unthinkable under Yasir Arafat.Egypt’s transition and the prospect of further regime changes in the region left Abbas strategically weakened; but Barack Obama deserves equal credit for the recent Palestinian agreement. Having shattered every Palestinian illusion about US-sponsored diplomacy by acquiescing in Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s intransigence—most notably by thrice leading Abbas by the nose on the issue of an Israeli settlement freeze—the US president performed the miraculous feat of convincing Abbas that Palestinians had to explore alternatives to negotiations, because Washington would never deliver on an Israeli withdrawal from the occupied territories. Indeed, the Palestine Papers, leaked by Al Jazeera this January, demonstrated not only the extent to which Palestinian negotiators were prepared to jettison basic rights but also Israel and America’s insatiable appetite for more concessions, dealing a further body blow to the PA leadership’s already shattered credibility. If diplomacy as practiced required a Palestinian schism, the alternatives—including the chosen path of a UN proclamation of Palestinian statehood in September—are strengthened by a unified Palestinian polity. Particularly so since both Fatah and Hamas have now identified a sovereign state in the occupied territories as their strategic objective.While previously Abbas had been the primary obstacle to reconciliation, conventional wisdom had it that Hamas—no fiery advocate of this objective—in the wake of Mubarak’s ouster would show even less interest. Perennially assured that time is on their side, the Islamists appeared to be waiting for the Muslim Brotherhood to gain a foothold in Cairo and hoping that Abbas would self-destruct.

Several factors persuaded Hamas that time is not only a friend. Within the occupied territories, the emergence of a youth movement operating outside the strictures of the established system seemed to be growing fastest in Gaza—whose rulers surely recognized that if Arab uprisings are about bread and freedom, Gaza was a more logical point of departure than Tunisia. Second, the Islamist leadership quickly recognized the benefit of resetting relations with the new Egypt. In exchange for the latter’s achievement of reconciliation, the blockade of Gaza is gradually being lifted, and Hamas is no longer a dirty word in the most important Arab state. And more recently, the extension of the revolt to Syria, where the Hamas exile leadership is based, has let Hamas see that it needs all the friends it can get in uncertain times.Precisely because the agreement amounts to a maintenance of the status quo in the occupied territories, it is unlikely to unravel as quickly as the ill-fated Mecca agreement of 2007. That said, there are also key challenges—such as the release of political prisoners in the short term and, over the course of the next year, the conduct of elections and the integration of Hamas and Islamic Jihad into the PLO.The more pertinent questions are whether Palestinian pluralism can recover to challenge an attempt by Fatah and Hamas to share hegemony under a new guise. And, more important, whether any of this makes a difference to the strategic issue of achieving Palestinian self-determination. The two are not unrelated. Only if the Palestinian national movement is set right, and re-established on an inclusive basis that represents and mobilizes its various political and geographic constituencies, can an effective strategy for self-determination be formulated and implemented. It is a profound challenge that under the circumstances is nothing short of existential. For all its shortcomings, the current agreement provides an opportunity—perhaps a final one—to overcome it.

Palestinian PM urges Arab donors to meet wage bill
Reuters By Mohammed Assadi – Wed May 11, 2:32 pm ET

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – The Palestinian Authority appealed to Arab countries Wednesday to pay the salaries of 155,000 government workers after Israel decided to suspend the transfer of tax funds to the PA.We say to our Arab brothers: save us. We need your help more than any time before. It is the moment of truth, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad told a news briefing in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Public sector workers' April salaries were about a week overdue following Israel's decision, taken in protest at a Palestinian unity deal involving the Islamist group Hamas.The Israeli government decided on May 1 to halt the transfer of Palestinian customs and other levies which make up 70 percent of PA revenues, citing fears that the money would go to Hamas, a militant group hostile to Israel.Monday Fayyad said the PA had not been able to pay public sector salaries for the first time since 2007, putting it in an impossible financial position.Fayyad said the April bill totals $170 million which the PA will not be able to pay unless Arabs and others intervene.It is not a must. Rather we are seeking their help for us in this difficult time, Fayyad told Reuters.He said Arab countries had paid only $52 million in Palestinian aid since the beginning of 2011 -- $42.5 million from the United Arab Emirates and $10 million from Oman. This compares with $236 mln from Arab countries in 2010.The European Union paid 145 million euros ($210 million) during the same period. The EU announced Friday it would provide an additional 85 million euros ($122 million) in aid in 2011, with 45 million euros of this earmarked for salaries for key workers. It was not clear when these funds would arrive.

CALL TO PRESSURE ISRAEL

The PA, which is heavily dependent financial support from donors including the United States and the European Union, has called for international intervention to persuade Israel to reverse the decision. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Friday Israel should not withhold the revenues of customs and other levies Israel collects on behalf of the PA on goods imported via Israel to PA-controlled areas.He said he had intensified his contacts with many world governments to press Israel to release the funds.Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Silvan Shalom told members of parliament in Jerusalem that the 1993 Olso interim peace accords which set up the transfers states that a group that calls for Israel's destruction cannot take part in the elections.You can't come along and say: I want the part of the Oslo Accords that's convenient for me, and I don't want the part that isn't convenient for me,he said.Fayyad said: "Israel does not have the right to hold our money. This is an act of piracy. Israel is not doing us a favor when they transfer it.Israel charges 3 percent for collecting funds, he noted.Fayyad said the PA had to borrow from banks to meet its expenditure before the Israeli decision. The monthly cost was $30 mln and total bank debt has reached $890 million, he said.The salaries paid by the PA include those of around 70,000 employees in the Gaza Strip, who continued to receive their wages even after Hamas seized control of the territory in 2007.

Hamas and Fatah, the mainstream Palestinian faction led by PA President Mahmoud Abbas, reached a surprise agreement to end their feud in Egyptian-mediated talks, sealed with a public ceremony in Cairo at the end of April.Hamas is opposed to the peace negotiations Abbas has pursued with Israel with the aim of reaching an agreement creating a Palestinian state on land alongside Israel. Hamas, which has Iranian and Syrian support, is committed to fighting Israel.In the Cairo agreement, Hamas and Fatah agreed to the creation of a new, technocratic government that will hold elections within a year. The United States has said the new government must recognize Israel and renounce violence -- terms Hamas has previously rejected.(Editing by Douglas Hamilton and Philippa Fletcher)

Palestinians to ask UN to stop Israeli tax freeze
AFP– Wed May 11, 2:30 pm ET

RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories (AFP) – The Palestinian leadership on Wednesday voted to ask for United Nations intervention to lift an Israeli freeze on transfers of tax revenues owed to the Palestinian Authority.The executive committee has decided to turn to all international bodies, including the UN Security Council, to demand that Israel unblock Palestinian Authority funds, Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) official Yasser Abed Rabbo told AFP after a meeting of the committee.Earlier, Israel's finance minister brushed off international pressure over the freezing of tax revenue transfers to the Palestinians, warning that the Jewish state could take even harsher steps.The delay in transferring funds is a yellow card for the Palestinian Authority after the signing of the agreement with Hamas, Yuval Steinitz told public radio, referring to Israel's decision to delay the transfer of 60 million euros ($86 million) to the Palestinian Authority.Until now, it is a delay of a week to 10 days, but it could become a red card, he said, adding that Israel would decide what to do depending on clarifications from the Palestinians.

Israel announced the freeze on May 1, just days after Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas announced a reconciliation deal with Hamas aimed at ending years of enmity between the Islamist militant group and his secular Fatah movement.The deal envisages the two sides working to set up a caretaker government of independents not allied to either faction which will govern until elections are held within a year.The tax revenues make up two thirds of the Palestinian Authority's annual budget, excluding foreign aid.Earlier on Wednesday, Abed Rabbo, in an interview with official Palestinian radio, described the Israeli freeze as part of a policy of collective punishment.The Israeli government, he said, fails to meet the minimum international humanitarian norms which rule relations between states, even if one of the parties is an occupied people.

Venture lets Palestinians buy piece of West Bank
Reuters By Tom Perry – Wed May 11, 12:29 pm ET

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – Palestinians can make a political statement and a financial return by buying a piece of the West Bank in a new venture designed to anchor their ownership of the Israeli-occupied territory.With the aim of putting Palestinian land in Palestinian hands, the TABO project seeks to promote broader ownership of the West Bank by making land more affordable and encouraging formal registration of land holdings in official title deeds.Though the Palestinians claim to know who owns every hill and valley in the West Bank, only a third of the territory occupied by Israel since 1967 has formal title deed, or tabo in Arabic.

Palestinian and Israeli activists say that loophole has reduced the legal risks to Israel of settling the territory opening the door to what they describe as a land grab that has undermined Palestinians' hopes of founding an independent state.The plots for sale in the project launched by Union Construction and Investment (UCI) come with title deeds acquired from the Palestinian Authority in a process which the project manager said would deter most.We've been working on this for three years, said UCI General Manager Khaled Al Sabawi, explaining how much of the land being offered in the venture was bought from owners holding it under power of attorney -- legal status far short of title deed.It's been an exhausting procedure with so much red tape to cut through to buy land which does not have title deed and to issue the title deed for it, he said.It's an obstacle course that requires a lot of patience and is very difficult for an individual to do on their own, he said, unfurling a three-page long flow chart detailing the steps required to secure title deed from the Palestinian Authority.

BUY ONLINE

Now, Palestinians with some $20,000 to spare can buy one of the 200 plots that went up for sale on the TABO web site last week. Partly aimed at the Palestinian diaspora from Chile to the Gulf, the site allows visitors to view a 3-D image of their prospective land,add to cart and begin buying online.The plots, mostly around one dunam (1,000 meters square) in size and spread over three locations, are outside the main West Bank towns where land prices have been driven up by buoyant economic growth in the last few years.In Ramallah, the Palestinians' administrative capital, a dunam can cost more than $1 million, Al Sabawi said.In Ramallah, small plots are only affordable for people with serious money to invest. It is difficult to buy outside the main urban centers due to the fact that land only comes in large tracts, he said.Sami Elkhatib, a Palestinian based in Abu Dhabi, said he was considering buying one or two of the plots in the sites between Ramallah and Nablus. UCI has mapped out the sites with essential infrastructure.I already put some money in equities, said Elkhatib, a private banker. This is another way to invest to help the economy, he said in a telephone interview.UCI declares it is an ethical investment that helps prevent illegal land confiscation in Palestine.Since Israel captured the West Bank in 1967, around half a million Jews have settled in the territory -- to Israel, the biblical Judea and Samaria. They include 200,000 who live around Jerusalem on land formally annexed to Israel after the war.

MAPS, MEASURES AND PATIENCE

Many of the Jewish settlements built in the West Bank have been constructed on what Israel has declared state land.To do that, Israel has used a 19th century law that entitled the Ottoman authorities to take control of land that was not being used and whose ownership was not officially registered, said Peace Now, an Israeli activist group.Since Israel began invoking the law in the 1980s, around 16 percent of the West Bank has been declared state land, said Hagit Ofran, who monitors and analyses settlement construction for Peace Now.What Israel did was to survey the whole West Bank to find the land that is not cultivated and not registered with anybody. The fact that it is not registered does not mean there is no ownership,she said.This trick would not have been valid if it wasn't for the lack of registration, she added. The process of land registration in the West Bank came to a halt in 1967 when Israel captured the territory from Jordan. Ofran said Israel's justification was that some Palestinian landowners had fled in the conflict and therefore to continue registration would be unfair on the absentees.In 2002, the Palestinian Authority, which governs around 40 percent of the West Bank, including the main Palestinian towns, established its own land authority to resume the process.But it has made little headway in a costly and time-consuming procedure involving maps, measures and patience.Nadim Barahmeh, head of the land authority, believes it is no coincidence that Jewish settlement is thinnest in the northern West Bank where land registration is most widespread.The land authority has moved from a series of pilot projects funded by international donors to start work registering land in Bethlehem and Salfit, two areas further south, and will start work in a third area in 2012.The areas where there is final settlement of land ownership definitely helped put a limit to the erection of settlements,he said.

Talks with Hamas not impossible: Israeli president
AFP – Tue May 10, 3:30 pm ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) – The possibility of talks between Israel and Palestinian Islamist group Hamas should not be entirely ruled out, Israeli President Shimon Peres told Ynet news in an interview published Tuesday.Peres said it was important to remember that Palestinian former president Yasser Arafat was regarded with suspicion and even hatred by many Israelis when he was engaged in the negotiations that yielded the Oslo Accords.Even when I began negotiation with Arafat, they said: There's no chance,Peres told the Israeli website in an interview published on the Jewish state's Independence Day.I think the same thing about Hamas. The name does not interest me, what matters is the content. Anything can happen, because Hamas has problems too, and it's not so strong.Israel has repeatedly said it will not talk to Hamas, and the Islamist group has also said it has no interest in holding negotiations with the Jewish state.Peres, who was jointly awarded -- with Arafat -- the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994 as architects of the Oslo self-rule accords, spoke to the news site after a surprise unity deal between Hamas and the secular Fatah movement of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.

The agreement has caused consternation in within Israel's right-leaning government, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warning Abbas he must choose between unity with Hamas and peace talks with Israel.But Peres said Israel should not be focusing on the unity agreement.If they want to unite, let them unite, he told Ynet.We are discussing our own security issues, and if they establish a union with an organisation that continues to espouse the destruction of Israel, it's no longer an interior affair, it's a foreign affair, and it concerns us.We see among the Arabs two camps -- the camp that is ready to negotiate peace -- the Fatah -- and the camp which doesn't denounce terror, he said.The two camps are trying to unite. It is not our business, we don't want to intervene in their decision to unite. What is our business is that the West Bank will not become a Gaza, we would like Gaza to become a West Bank.Peres said he was convinced it was still possible to reach a peace deal with the Palestinians, despite the fact that talks have been on hold since September 2010 over the issue of settlement building and show no sign of resuming soon.But he said it was crucial to reach an understanding quietly, adding:Publicly, there's no chance.Peres also weighed in on the controversial issue of Jewish construction in east Jerusalem, which Israel captured in the 1967 Six Day War and annexed later, in a move never recognised by the international community.The president said it would be better for Israel to focus its energy on building upwards, rather than expanding into Arab neighbourhoods of east Jerusalem, which the Palestinians want for the capital of their future state.You can sometimes house 10,000 people in one tower, he said. Today the whole world is building vertically.

Israel's Netanyahu to address Congress on May 24
Reuters By Matt Spetalnick – Tue May 10, 3:29 pm ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will address the U.S. Congress on May 24 on a Washington visit that will cap a U.S.-led diplomatic flurry seeking to advance stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts.Netanyahu will deliver his speech to lawmakers four days after White House talks with President Barack Obama, whose relationship with the Israeli leader has sometimes been strained.

Obama's attempts to broker a Middle East peace deal have yielded little since he took office but he has insisted there is an urgent need to seize the opportunity created by political upheaval in the broader Arab world.John Boehner, Republican speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives who extended the invitation to Netanyahu, announced Tuesday that Netanyahu would address a joint meeting of both chambers of Congress.Some Israeli news reports have suggested Netanyahu could float new ideas on restarting peace talks, which broke down late last year in a dispute over continued Jewish settlement building in the occupied West Bank.But Netanyahu, who heads a right-leaning, pro-settler coalition, has stopped short of saying he would present new peace proposals.America and Israel are the closest of friends and allies, Boehner said in a statement. We look forward to hearing the prime minister's views on how we can continue working together for peace, freedom and stability.
Netanyahu's visit comes against a backdrop of Middle East upheaval that has unsettled many Israelis. He has condemned a new reconciliation deal between the mainstream Palestinian Fatah faction and its rival, the Islamist Hamas movement, saying it undermines peace prospects.U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on April 12 that the Obama administration planned a new push to promote comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace in coming weeks.

But it remained unclear how hard Obama was willing to push Netanyahu for concessions. That could risk alienating Israel's strong base of support among the U.S. public and in Congress as well as the influential pro-Israel lobby in Washington as Obama seeks re-election in 2012.Obama's launch of direct Israeli-Palestinian peace talks last year went nowhere and he is under pressure to forge a new initiative or face the prospect of the Palestinians seeking the U.N. General Assembly's blessing for a Palestinian state in September.Obama will host Jordan's King Abdullah on May 17 just three days before meeting Netanyahu at the White House.
(Additional reporting by Susan Cornwell; Editing by Bill Trott)

Israel FM slams West for inconsistencies on Mideast unrest AFP – Tue May 10, 2:45 pm ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Ultra-nationalist Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman hit out at Western governments on Tuesday for giving greater support to rebels in Libya than in the Jewish state's main foes Syria and Iran.The repression that has met the demonstrations in Syria, Yemen, Libya and elsewhere in the region cannot possibly be justified, Lieberman's office quoted him as telling a diplomatic reception.However, it remains confusing why the international community intervenes in Libya but not in Syria or Iran, he added.These inconsistencies send a damaging message to the people of the Middle East and further erode the path to peace, security and democracy for our region.NATO leads an air campaign authorised by the UN Security Council to protect civilians against forces loyal to veteran Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi but Western support for protest movements in Iran and Syria has been far less substantial.Lieberman renewed his opposition to any new moratorium on Jewish settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank, as demanded by the Palestinian leadership as a precondition for a return to peace talks.We are ready for immediate talks without preconditions. However, there will be no new moratorium in Jerusalem or Judaea and Samaria (the southern and northern West Bank) -- not for three months, not for three days and not even for three hours, said Lieberman, who himself has a home in a West Bank settlement south of Jerusalem.At least for me, it is clear that they are only looking for excuses to avoid meaningful talks that will lead to a comprehensive solution.Direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians collapsed late last year over a dispute about persistent settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank, including annexed Arab east Jerusalem.Israel declined to extend a limited moratorium on new building.

First Palestinian corporate bonds issued
AFP – Tue May 10, 12:42 pm ET

RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories (AFP) – Palestinian investment firm PADICO announced on Tuesday the Palestinian territories' first issue of corporate bonds, worth $70 million (49 million euros).At a press conference in Ramallah, PADICO said it was issuing 7,000 five-year bonds, which will be privately placed and neither traded nor listed on the Palestinian stock exchange.The investment company, which is publicly traded, focuses on investment in the Palestinian economy, and has interests in infrastructure, real estate and tourism projects.Chairman Munib Masri hailed the issue as a sign of the firm's commitment to investing in Palestine and ... confidence in the local economy.We are taking the long view on things and hope to raise money through our corporate bonds to finance additional long-term investments; that is our vision and that is our strategy for Palestine, he said in a statement.

Masri acknowledged the political risk involved in investments in the Palestinian territories, but said the firm had maintained a sustained track record of commercial achievements.In February, PADICO declared profits of $38.1 million for 2010, a 22 percent increase in overall revenue.Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad welcomed the bond issue, saying it showed the progress made by the Palestinian economy.This is a happy and important occasion and a significant step towards further strengthening capacity and encouraging investment in Palestine, he said.Maher al-Masri, the chairman of the Palestine Capital Markets Authority, said he hoped the issue could encourage the Palestinian private sector to diversify its financing options, breaking its dependence on bank loans.We are hopeful that other competent and solid companies in Palestine will follow suit and issue financial instruments that will augment the variety of financial intermediation tools in Palestine, and will also improve our credit standing as a financial market, he said.PADICO said each bond would be issued at a par value of $10,000 with a minimum subscription of 10 bonds per subscriber.The five-year bonds will carry an annual fixed interest rate of 5.0 percent for the first 30 months, and a variable annual interest of between 5.0 and 6.5 percent for the remaining 30 months.

Give unity deal a chance, Palestinian PM urges
Reuters – Tue May 10, 12:35 pm ET

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – Palestinian unity is crucial to peace with Israel and the pact between the secular Fatah and Islamist Hamas movements must be given a chance, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said on Friday.I am satisfied that we are on the verge of the process of putting the country back together, he told France 24 television in an interview.Starting the process of reconciling the two rival factions, which fought a brief civil war in 2007 over the Gaza Strip, is absolutely essential, even if it was not achieved immediately, Fayyad added.The reconciliation agreement between Hamas and Fatah, announced in Cairo at the end of April, came as a surprise after 18 months of Egyptian mediation, and was greeted with caution the West and by some skeptical Palestinians.Hamas does not accept Israel's right to exist, unlike Fatah which is trying to negotiate a two-state solution creating a state living in peace alongside Israel on West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, lands the Jewish state captured in the 1967 Middle East war.

Fayyad indicated he was also surprised by the deal but called it a good starting point.It's great that we have it. The real test is implementation, said the Western-backed former World Bank economist.A consensus government of independents, to which Fatah and Hamas agreed, must be formed in short weeks to demonstrate the deal would have concrete consequences, he said.The deal includes a security component that is adequate from our point of view ... and consistent with what is necessary, Fayyad said.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the leader of Fatah, to reject reconciliation. He said the pact would let Hamas block all hopes of a peace treaty with Israel.Fayyad said Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal had made it clear he accepted the goal of a state of Palestine based on 1967 borders. Hamas's charter calls for reclaiming all the land of the former British mandate, including Israel.He that like the Israeli coalition, the Palestinian national movement is made up of different factions which do not share the same views uniformly.It's important to find a way to govern ourselves effectively, taking into account that we do not all have the same political persuasions, Fayyad told France 24.

The deal announced in Cairo does not live up to the gold standard but, relative to the status quo, it is vastly superior, he added.The reconciliation pact can take us to a much better place, vastly superior to where we are today, he said.How is it going to be possible for us Palestinians to get a sovereign state of Palestine where we can live with dignity unless Gaza is an integral part of that mix? We can't.
(Additional reporting by John Irish in Paris)(Writing by Douglas Hamilton; editing by Andrew Dobbie)