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| Sunday, 9 January 2005 |
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Abbas, set to win the Presidential election by M.P. Muttiah Palestinians vote today to elect a new President to fill the vacuum
created by the demise of Yasser Arafat. Mahmoud Abbas, popularly He is considered one of the leading Palestinian figures devoted to the search for a peaceful solution to the century-old Palestinian-Israeli conflict, which was engendered by the Zionist Conference that decided in 1904 that the Jewish homeland should be established in Palestine. Mahmoud Abbas Mahmoud Abbas was appointed as the interim head of the PLO. He advocated negotiations with Israelis and initiated a dialogue with Jewish and pacifist movements. He led negotiations with Matiyahu Peled that resulted in the announcement of "principles of Peace" based on a two-state solution in January 1977. He led the Palestinian negotiating team to the secret Oslo talks. It was Abbas who signed the 1993 peace accord with Israel. He had also served as the first Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority in 2003. The election of Mahmoud Abbas as President would facilitate a peaceful settlement to the ongoing disputes between Israelis and Palestinians. Israeli Prime Minister Sharon has said that he hope to meet Abbas soon after his election. The establishment of a Palestinian State is in the hands of the new President. Balfour Declaration The British government issued the Balfour Declaration in 1917 in the form of a letter, to a British Zionist leader from the Foreign Secretary Arthur J. Balfour, promising him the establishment of a national home for Jewish people in Palestine. Britain also captured Palestine from the Ottoman Turks. After World War One ended, the Jews began to migrate to Palestine, which was set aside as the British mandate with the approval of the League of Nations in 1922. Large-scale Jewish settlement and extensive Zionist agricultural and industrial enterprises in Palestine began during the British mandatory period that lasted until 1948. The opposition and protests of Palestinians to the Balfour Declaration were ignored by the imperialist powers. The White Paper published by the British government in 1939 said it would restrict Jewish migration and assured independence for Palestine within ten years. Zionist leaders rejected the plan, and organised terrorist groups and began a bloody campaign against the British and the Palestinians. Britain decided to end its mandatory in 1947 and urged the United Nations to make a recommendation. In response, the first Special Session of the UN General Assembly was held on November 29, 1947, and adopted a plan calling for the partition of Palestine into Jewish and Arab states, with Jerusalem as an international zone under UN jurisdiction. When the British visited Palestine on May 15, 1948, Jewish leaders decided to implement that part of the Partition Plan calling for the establishment of a Jewish state. The armies of Transjordan, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq joined with Palestinians and other Arab guerillas and fought a full-scale war against Israel. In this first Arab-Israeli war, the Arabs failed to prevent the establishment of a Jewish state, and the war ended with four UN-arranged armistice agreements between Israel and Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria. Out of the more than 800,000 Arabs who lived in Israeli held territory before 1948, only about 170,000 remained. The rest became refugees in the neighbouring Arab countries, ending the Arab majority in the Jewish state. During the second Arab-Israeli war in 1956, Britain and France seized the Gaza Strip and the Sinai peninsula within a few days. Although the fighting was halted and forces withdrawn, Israel refused to leave Gaza until 1957. The PLO In the crisis that developed in Palestine over the Balfour Declaration, Jewish immigration and partition, the Arab states assured the role of guardians of the Palestinian cause. As a result, the Palestinians relied mainly on the Arab states to safeguard their rights. However, the poor showing which the Arab states made in defending Palestine in 1948, and the failure of the UN to redress the wrongs done to them, convinced the Palestinians that they should take matters into their own hands. Continued aggression and attacks on Palestinians compelled them to establish the Palestinian Liberation Organisation in 1964. The political program of the PLO was set out in the Palestine National Charter, originally aimed at the restoration of the national rights of the Palestinians in their own country. It was also recognised in the international level as the sole representative of the Palestinians. The six-day war in 1967, ended with an Israeli victory. Israel occupied Gaza Strip, Sinai Peninsula, Arab East Jerusalem, West Bank and Golan Heights. In 1973, Egypt and Syria joined hands in a war on Israel to regain the territories lost in 1967. Arab forces gained a lot of advanced positions in Sinai and Golan Heights, and was able to defeat Israeli forces for more than three weeks. Israel was able to stop the Arab forces with the massive economic and military assistance of the United States. The Intifada Relations between Israelis and Palestinians entered into a new phase with the Intifada. The Palestinian National Council which met in Algiers in 1988, declared the State of Palestine, as authorised in the UN partition plan. However, secret negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians was singed with the Oslo Agreement on September 13, 1993. Israel agreed to allow Palestinian Self rule, first in Gaza and the West Bank town of Jericho and later in the other areas of the West Bank. Thus in 1994, Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitshak Rabin signed the Declaration of Principles and Arafat returned to Palestine. The assassination of Rabin in 1995, changed the course of events. Right-wing Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu became Prime Minister, and expanded Jewish settlements in Arab East Jerusalem which caused outrage among Palestinians. However, Netanyahu and Arafat signed a peace-for-land agreement. Arafat established Palestinian National Authority and was elected as its first President in 1996. The year 1988 was an important milestone towards improving relations between Israelis and Palestinians, when hundreds of Palestinian leaders renounced a call for the destruction of Israel. The following year Prime Minister Ehud Barak promised to forge a secure peace with the Palestinians and pulled troops out of Lebanon. Continued violence triggered the second Intifada, and Israeli hawk Aeriel Sharon became Prime Minister. Palestinians were targeted mercilessly. President Arafat was virtually under siege in his Ramallah headquarters until he left for Paris for treatment where he passed away. |
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known as
Abu Mazen, interim Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organisation is
expected to win the election.
