A Day to Bare Our Souls - and Find Ourselves

IS THE PALESTINIAN GOVERNMENT COLLAPSING UNDER ITS OWN WEIGHT?

Even within the Palestinian government it appears that no one is listening to each other. At least Neocons walk in lock-step but this bunch, as with any group of radical Islamofascists - are more concerned with power than peace. Chaos reigns where peace will not.

Of course, there is no honor amongst thieves & murderers.

"Can You Hear Me Now?"

Palestinian minister resigns amid Gaza bloodshed
by Sakher Abu El Oun

Interior minister Hani al-Qawasmeh resigned from the Palestinian unity government on Monday amid the deadliest factional fighting in two months in a major blow to the fledgling administration.

A ceasefire announced late Sunday in a bid to stem the violence failed to take hold.

Two activists of president Mahmud Abbas's secular Fatah faction were killed in clashes with gunmen of prime minister Ismail Haniya's Islamist Hamas movement just hours after it was supposed to come into effect.

Qawasmeh, an independent whose appointment was the subject of marathon talks between the two coalition partners, charged he had not been granted adequate authority and accused the government of not taking security seriously.

"I resigned from my position because I am not willing to be a purely decorative interior minister without authority," he told a news conference.

He submitted his resignation late Sunday and prime minister Ismail Haniya accepted on Monday, but Qawasmeh denied that his decision was directly related to the faction fighting that killed six people in the Gaza Strip in 24 hours.

"I reached the conclusion the whole (security) situation is not being dealt with seriously... The combined force that has been agreed are opposing forces that are fighting as we speak," he said.

The Palestinian government took office on March 17 following a landmark power-sharing deal between Fatah and Hamas, and was created precisely to end similar infighting that killed 100 Palestinians in the two preceding months.

Haniya issued an appeal for calm on Monday and urged Palestinians to protect the power-sharing agreement reached in Saudi Arabia and stand by the unity administration as their best hope.

"Prime minister Haniya stresses the need to stop all kinds of armed action, to be patient and committed to the language of dialogue and to respect yesterday's agreement between Fatah and Hamas," said spokesman Ghazi Hamad.

"We should protect the Mecca Agreement, which is in the Palestinian national interest and maintain the Palestinian unity government as the best Palestinian national choice," he added as a weekly cabinet meeting began in Gaza City.Hamad said the premier had accepted Qawasmeh's resignation after trying repeatedly to change his mind and on behalf of Haniya, praised Qawasmeh for doing everything he could to try to overcome the challenges he faced.

The prime minister will now become responsible for the interior ministry -- one of several key portfolios that the power-sharing deal stipulated should be in the hands of an independent -- until a permanent replacement is found.

Despite repeated promises from Palestinian leaders, security services have proved incapable of imposing law and order in the increasingly chaotic territory where kidnappings, clan clashes and factional feuding are rife.

As well as the six dead, more than 50 people have been wounded since the new clashes between Fatah and Hamas erupted on Sunday. The two sides accuse each other of starting the fighting.

A 40-year-old mother, who gave her name only as Um Ahmed and lives in the Makusi neighbourhood where the fighting took place, said she endured a night of fear as residents screamed at gunmen to stop the shooting.

"The bullets broke windows, pierced the wall and into the bedroom. Our children were crying and we screamed for them to stop shooting. We saw two people killed in front of our building. We didn't sleep all night," she said.

Qawasmeh -- a former civil servant and a political novice before acquiring one of the most important portfolios in government -- had submitted his resignation three weeks ago but his request was rejected by Haniya.

Moin Rabbani, an expert on Palestinian affairs at the International Crisis Group think-tank, said the new government was now in jeopardy unless it acted more decisively to exert control and overcome factionalism.

"This government has proven unable to overcome endemic factionalism on one of the key issues that it's meant to resolve, namely the security situation," he told AFP by telephone from the West Bank political capital of Ramallah.

"Unless there is a real effort to resolve these issues, it could be the beginning of the end of this experiment and, should this government collapse, the situation could get very much worse."

PLEASE CLICK HERE TO JBLOG ME