Abbas to ask Hamas to form government

Thousands of activists from Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah Party protested throughout the Gaza Strip today, burning abandoned cars, shooting in the air and demanding corrupt party leaders resign in the wake of their devastating election loss to the militant Hamas movement.

With Hamas winning a strong majority in the parliamentary elections this week, Abbas said he will ask the Islamic group to form the next Palestinian government, but Fatah rejected a role in the new Cabinet and Israel ruled out peace talks in what could be the first steps to isolate the militant group after its election victory.

Acting Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni appealed to the international community not to legitimise a Palestinian government led by Hamas, saying elections are not a “whitewash” for terrorist groups.

Speaking to reporters, Livni said Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip last summer opened a window of opportunity in peace efforts between Israel and the Palestinians. With the election of Hamas, she said, “the Palestinians slammed it shut.”

In the first real violence since the vote, an argument between about 20 Hamas and Fatah loyalists in the Gaza town of Khan Younis degenerated into gunfire and rock throwing Friday that left three people injured.

One man was treated for moderate gunshot wounds and two for minor injuries caused by rocks, according to witnesses and hospital officials.

This evening, thousands of Fatah activists burned cars and shot in the air in demonstrations demanding the resignation of corrupt party officials and insisting that Fatah form no coalition with Hamas.

About 1,000 angry party activists, including 100 gunmen, drove by Abbas’ Gaza residence. Abbas was in the West Bank town of Ramallah at the time.

The Fatah defeat was seen as a rebuke to veteran, and corrupt, party leaders.

Those leaders have resisted repeated calls for party reform by the Fatah young guard.

“This demonstration is a natural reaction of Fatah supporters and members.

We have one demand that the (Fatah) Central Committee and the Revolutionary Council should resign immediately,” said Samir Mashrawi, a local Fatah leader who was defeated in the election.

The demonstrators, however, did not specifically call for Abbas’ ouster.

Polls published today in Israeli newspapers showed strong support among Israelis for talks with a Palestinian government led by Hamas.

The United States and some European nations said Hamas must renounce violence and drop its demand to destroy Israel.

But Mahmoud Zahar, an incoming Hamas parliamentarian and one of the group’s top leaders in Gaza, said the organisation had no immediate plans to change its policy to recognise Israel or to restart peace efforts.

“Israel has nothing to give for the Palestinians. All the time they were wasting our time ... implementing nothing,” he said. “If the Israelis have something to fulfil the basic demand of the Palestinian people concerning the occupied territories, detainees, question of Jerusalem, our national interests, we are going to re-evaluate this argument.”

Former US President Jimmy Carter said the United States would have to cut off direct funding to the Palestinian Authority as soon as Hamas takes control, but it should look for other ways to give money to the Palestinians, such as through the United Nations. Hamas has been branded a terrorist group by the U.S. and Europe.

“United States law would require that the money would be cut off if Hamas is in the government, so that’s a foregone conclusion,” Carter told The Associated Press.

European parliament members spoke of the possibility that donors would cut off vital aid to pressure Hamas to moderate its hard-line positions.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is to meet in London on Monday with UN, Russian and European leaders as the so-called Quartet of would-be international peacemakers evaluates the results and tries to decide how to proceed.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said he had asked Abbas to meet on Sunday to discuss forming a new government. Abbas’ office said no appointment has been made yet. Abbas said separately he would ask Hamas to lead the next government.

Israel was unprepared for the Hamas landslide. Foreign and Defence Ministry scenarios had put such a stunning blow to the long-ruling Fatah as a low probability, officials said.

But after the rout, acting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert quickly ruled out talks.

“The state of Israel will not negotiate with a Palestinian administration if even part of it is an armed terrorist organisation calling for the destruction of the state of Israel,” Olmert said.

Hamas ideology does not recognise the presence of a Jewish state in an Islamic Middle East.

In recent years, however, some Hamas leaders have grudgingly accepted the idea of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, as long as it is understood to be only a stage toward freeing the rest of Palestine – meaning Israel.

Meeting with reporters, Livni said she spoke to several foreign ministers and told them of the need to send “a very clear, unequivocal message ... that elections are not a whitewash for terror.”

“In these talks, I also made clear what was decided in the consultation with the acting prime minister, that Hamas cannot be a partner of Israel and the fact that it will lead the Palestinian Authority, if indeed this is what will happen, this means the Palestinian Authority also cannot be a partner, in the eyes of Israel and the whole world,” she said.

Avi Dichter, a former Israeli security services chief, said he didn’t expect terrorism to rise once Hamas takes over.

“The moment they become partner to the Palestinian government, reality will become a lot more complicated for them than it was when they were a terror organisation alone,” Dichter told Army Radio.

“I think it would be illogical – even insane – for them to toe the extremist line they have been following until now,” he added. “I think we need to wait and see if common sense dictates.”

Economic constraints are also likely to curb Hamas’ extremism. With the Palestinian Authority dependent on foreign aid for its survival and on Israel for day-to-day needs such as electricity, water and the movement of people and goods, Hamas will have a hard time ignoring international calls to renounce violence.

Carter said the United States should increase its donations to UN and other aid groups earmarked for the Palestinians to make up for the cut in direct aid “so that the people can still continue to have food and shelter and health care and education.”

Outgoing Palestinian Finance Minister Salam Fayyad said the Palestinians received a total of £15 million a month in direct foreign aid from all sources.

Carter today met with Abbas, who told him that the Palestinian Authority did not have enough money to pay salaries at the end of the month, even with foreign aid.

If the aid is cut off, “it would create an element of chaos unless the money is made up by other sources,” he said. “If the Arab countries come through and the European countries continue to help and maybe Japan, they could continue to operate.”

Hamas leaders themselves have hinted that despite their hard-line ideology, they will be pragmatic and not disrupt daily life in the territories.

A poll conducted yesterday and published in the Maariv daily said 40% of Israelis say Israel should negotiate with Hamas if the group renounces its determination to destroy Israel. Another 27% say talks should be held with no conditions, based on the “road map” peace plan.

The poll showed 29% of Israelis favoured cutting off all contacts with the Palestinians, freezing talks and resuming targeted killings of Hamas leaders.

A second poll in the Yediot Ahronot newspaper showed that 48% of those questioned by the Dahaf Research Institute said Israel should negotiate with Hamas, while 43% said Israel should shun a Hamas-led government.