Palestinian civil society organizations in Jerusalem view the incidents that took and continue to take place in Gaza and the West Bank. These incidents are disastrous and horrendous and are a mere fight over control and power and are by no means justified. The plethora of outside influence has had a critical effect in pushing Palestinian against Palestinian, nevertheless, the actions and results of those actions, internally, remain the responsibility of Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), Hamas and Fateh.

This internal Palestinian factional fighting, if continues, will ultimately lead to further fragmentation of the occupied Palestinian territories and will eventually destroy any prospects of realizing an independent Palestinian State based on UN resolutions 181,194, 242 and 338, a solution acceptable to the vast majority of Palestinians. The recent developments in the Palestinian political arena if not rectified immediately, will not only disrupt our lawful struggle against the Israeli occupation to achieve freedom and independence but will also divert the attention from the atrocities and crimes Israel is committing on daily basis against the Palestinian people and its failure to end its illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories of the past 40 years.

We, Palestinian civil society organizations in Jerusalem, strongly condemn the latest bloody internal fighting and all attempts to divide the land and the people. Additionally, we condemn all measure taken thus far by Hamas and Fateh that do not aim at reconciliation and unity, regardless of whether these measures are considered constitutional.

We view as extremely destructive the conspicuous support of the International community led by Israel and the USA to one party over the other, thus furthering fragmentation the conflict.

We, national and religious organizations in Jerusalem therefore call on the two parties to:

• Immediately cease from further internal fighting.

• To work on providing the necessary conditions for an investigation of the latest incidents to legally prosecute and punish the perpetrators.

• To immediately embark on honest and comprehensive talks that will include a revision and an evaluation of our political performance both in terms of signed political agreements and our resistance strategy. It is only through a process of dialogue and constructive self criticism that we will be able to save our cause and move forward.

For further information, please, contact:

Telephone: 02-2950841
Fax: 02-2989788.
Email: pcc@palnet.com