60 Palestinian leaders urge non violence

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Sixty prominent Palestinian political figures and intellectuals published a statement Thursday urging restraint and peaceful protest instead of violent revenge for Israel's assassination this week of Sheik Ahmed Yassin, founder of the militant group Hamas.

 

The unusual appeal came after Hamas and other armed factions vowed to strike Israel on an unprecedented scale in retaliation for the killing of Yassin in a helicopter missile strike Monday in the Gaza Strip. It also came a day after a 16-year-old boy wearing an explosives vest was disarmed in the West Bank, an event that shocked many, including the boy's family.

 

 

 

 

The Palestinian statement, published on half a page of the Al-Ayyam newspaper, called on Palestinians to break the violent cycle of strike and response, reflecting a growing assessment among mainstream leaders that armed attacks have hurt the Palestinian cause.

 

"Despite being filled with pain," the statement said, "we call on our people ... to take the initiative from the hands of the criminal occupation gang, to repress their rage and rise once again in a peaceful and widespread popular uprising with clear goals and sound rhetoric."

 

Such action would deny Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon "the opportunity of completing his aggression against our people ... and putting the finishing touches on his security plan."

 

The signatories included senior members of the mainstream Fatah movement, lawmakers, academics and peace advocates.

 

"We feel Sharon has dictated his agenda on both sides, condemning the Israeli people to acts of retaliation and more suicide bombings, and he has also forced the hand of the Palestinian organizations to exact revenge," said Hanan Ashrawi, a lawmaker who signed the statement.

 

"We want to expose Sharon's policy and prevent the Palestinians from reacting constantly, and to say that there is a way to resist occupation through non-violent means," she added.

 

Another signer, Ahmad Hilles, the head of the Fatah movement in the Gaza Strip, said that "it is not in the Palestinians' interest for the conflict to become an armed conflict, . . . the arena preferred by Sharon."

 

It was unclear whether the appeal would gain any traction among ordinary Palestinians hardened by more than three years of violence.

 

Members of the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, promised huge retaliation for their leader's death at a rally Wednesday night in Gaza City that marked the end of a three-day mourning period.

 

"Our message to the Zionists is ... wait for the earthquake, one like you have never seen before," said a masked gunman, reading a message from the wing's leaders.

 

Hamas has killed hundreds of Israelis in suicide bombings and shootings in the current conflict.

 

The 16-year-old Palestinian youth, Hussam Abdo, was dispatched with an explosives vest and stopped and disarmed by Israeli soldiers Wednesday at a checkpoint south of the West Bank city of Nablus.

 

His mother, Tamam Abdo, said Thursday that while she supported suicide bombings, her son was too young.

 

She said that the day before he left home, Hussam hugged her in a way that suggested he was bidding farewell. He prayed, took a bath, and the next morning said he was going to school. The family later learned that he had been caught wearing a suicide bomber's vest.

 

"I was shocked," his mother said. "I cannot see such an innocent child do such a thing. Someone must have manipulated him."

[Texsox]

When the Palestinians who want peace can join with the Israelis who want peace, good things will happen. Until then, it is great business to sell missles and explosives in the middle east.