Palestinian President Yasser Arafat told parliament yesterday he condemned terror attacks on Israeli civilians, confirmed that elections would be held in early January and offered -- apparently in jest -- to give up executive powers.
The rambling speech was Arafat's first to parliament in 18 months. His lower lip quivering, Arafat repeatedly fumbled with the microphones and strayed from the text, launching into asides that were sometimes incomprehensible.
The speech, which came just hours after 60 Israeli tanks encircled three Gaza refugee camps and blew up the home of a suspected militant, was both conciliatory and packed with accusations against Israel. Arafat skipped over some passages of an earlier draft, including one that called on parliament to ban suicide attacks.
Arafat said he condemned "attacks against Israeli civilians and at the same time of any attacks against Palestinian civilians." But he did not explicitly call for an end to attacks on Israelis.
He said such attacks served Israel's interest by drawing attention away from the suffering of the Palestinians under Israel's occupation.
At one point, Arafat said that reforms should be based on a separation of powers, then added: "Unless you want to bring somebody else in the executive authority. I wish you could do it and give me a rest."
Arafat aides later said he has repeatedly made the offer, always in jest, in internal meetings.
Israeli banned 12 legislators from making the trip from Gaza to the West Bank town of Ramallah, saying they were involved in attacks on Israelis. In solidarity, other Gazan lawmakers stayed behind and participated by video conference.
Several Palestinian legislators complained that Arafat had failed to present his new Cabinet -- the result of a June reshuffle -- to parliament for approval, and that he had not set a specific election date, as legislators had demanded.
When Arafat mentioned that elections would be held in January, one of the legislators shouted: "What is needed is a presidential decree with a specific date."
The vote on the Cabinet was to have been an important test of Arafat's standing and it was not clear whether he commands a majority in the 88-seat legislature. Several lawmakers have said they would withhold approval.
Raanan Gissin, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said the speech was meaningless and that Palestinian reform would not work with Arafat in power.
"Peace and reforms can only happen when Arafat is not there," Gissin said.
In the Gaza Strip, Ismail Abu Shanab, a spokesman for the Islamic militant group Hamas, said Arafat's speech was a disappointment and that he had no clear strategy on how to confront Israel.
"We need to ... find a way to challenge the Israeli aggression," said Abu Shanab, whose group has carried out scores of suicide attacks that have killed more than 250 Israeli civilians in the past two years.
Yesterday's parliament session was held at Arafat's sandbagged headquarters, which has been heavily damaged in Israeli raids.
His aides said he preferred to stay in the compound to avoid possibly embarrassing encounters with Israeli troops who control the city.
‘TAIWAN-FRIENDLY’: The last time the Web site fact sheet removed the lines on the US not supporting Taiwanese independence was during the Biden administration in 2022 The US Department of State has removed a statement on its Web site that it does not support Taiwanese independence, among changes that the Taiwanese government praised yesterday as supporting Taiwan. The Taiwan-US relations fact sheet, produced by the department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, previously stated that the US opposes “any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side; we do not support Taiwan independence; and we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means.” In the updated version published on Thursday, the line stating that the US does not support Taiwanese independence had been removed. The updated
‘CORRECT IDENTIFICATION’: Beginning in May, Taiwanese married to Japanese can register their home country as Taiwan in their spouse’s family record, ‘Nikkei Asia’ said The government yesterday thanked Japan for revising rules that would allow Taiwanese nationals married to Japanese citizens to list their home country as “Taiwan” in the official family record database. At present, Taiwanese have to select “China.” Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said the new rule, set to be implemented in May, would now “correctly” identify Taiwanese in Japan and help protect their rights, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. The statement was released after Nikkei Asia reported the new policy earlier yesterday. The name and nationality of a non-Japanese person marrying a Japanese national is added to the
AT RISK: The council reiterated that people should seriously consider the necessity of visiting China, after Beijing passed 22 guidelines to punish ‘die-hard’ separatists The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has since Jan. 1 last year received 65 petitions regarding Taiwanese who were interrogated or detained in China, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. Fifty-two either went missing or had their personal freedoms restricted, with some put in criminal detention, while 13 were interrogated and temporarily detained, he said in a radio interview. On June 21 last year, China announced 22 guidelines to punish “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists,” allowing Chinese courts to try people in absentia. The guidelines are uncivilized and inhumane, allowing Beijing to seize assets and issue the death penalty, with no regard for potential
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
RSS