One document spells doom for another, writes Saleh Al-Naami Abu Mohamed Youssef, 22, was determined to attend Monday's session discussing the implications of the Palestinian Authority's decision to suspend action on the Goldstone Report. Youssef, a resident of Jabalya refugee camp, lost his leg when he was injured by shrapnel after an attack by an Israeli tank in the eastern part of the camp. He struggled to wheel himself into the conference room of what is left of the Palestinian parliament after Israel destroyed most of it in its war on the Gaza Strip. The Goldstone Report accuses both Israel and Hamas of committing war crimes last winter, and could lead to the prosecution of Israeli officials. The 47-member UN Human Rights Council was expected to vote this week on a resolution to refer the report to the UN General Assembly, moving one step closer to possible prosecutions. However, the Palestinian Authority agreed on Friday to drop their support for the resolution, reportedly in reaction to intense US lobbying. With the Palestinians out of the picture, the council's Arab and Muslim states followed suit. A vote was delayed until March, meaning the report will now lie dormant while the UN decides what, if anything, to do with it. Aides to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) defended the decision to defer the vote, saying Palestinian diplomats needed more time to win international support for the document. They insisted the report wasn't being shelved. Youssef is unconvinced. He met as many Hamas members of parliament as possible, pleading with them not to return to talks with the Palestinian Authority under any circumstances. Following the Goldstone incident he believes any dialogue between Hamas and Abbas will help absolve the president of his crimes against the Palestinian people. Youssef told Al-Ahram Weekly that although he is not a member of Hamas he voted for the group in the last parliamentary elections. He has, however, become a wholehearted sympathiser after he lost his leg. "But I will not vote for Hamas if it relaunches talks with Abbas," he stated doggedly. "Hamas has to either choose the side of the people and their just cause, or dialogue with the agents of occupation in Ramallah." After the role of Abbas and his government in the Goldstone fiasco was revealed the reaction of people like Youssef comes as no surprise. Yet Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit remained optimistic after meeting Abbas in Jordan on Monday, announcing that the signing of a reconciliation deal will take place on 25 October. Abul-Gheit added that the final draft of the agreement will reach all parties within days. While Hamas's Political Bureau Chief Khaled Meshaal was the first to announce the conclusion of a reconciliatory agreement, to which he said his group is committed, the backlash from the Goldstone revelations is causing more Hamas leaders to hint that there is nothing further to discuss with Abbas. Salah El-Bardawil, a leading figure in Hamas, told the Weekly that Hamas should ask Egypt to postpone the national reconciliation agreement with Fatah, in protest at the Goldstone incident. "It has become clear that Hamas would risk its credibility with the Palestinian people if it signed a deal with Abbas," El-Bardawil said, adding Palestinian factions and civil society must now take a stand and bring Abbas to justice for his crimes. "This takes precedence over any other issue," urged El-Bardawil. Not all factions agree with Hamas. Kayed Al-Ghoul, a member of the Executive Committee of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), supports the Egyptian stance separating the implications of the Goldstone issue and national dialogue. "I want to make it very clear that we want to investigate and bring to justice all those who conspired to freeze the Goldstone Report," El-Ghoul assured the Weekly. "But this should not be done at the expense of the national dialogue." In reality, however, both Fatah and Hamas officials insist that the Goldstone incident is not the only obstacle hindering reconciliation. In a statement to the Weekly, Osama Hamdan, member of Hamas's Political Bureau, said that Hamas has yet to receive the official final draft of the reconciliation agreement or a proposed date. "Until today, we have not been officially invited or been given an official document by Egypt outlining reconciliation," stated Hamdan. "Neither have we seen the responses of all the other parties regarding the proposal." Mohamed Dahlan, a member of Fatah's Central Committee, suggests other obstacles to agreement. These include points in the Egyptian proposal which Abbas is seeking to clarify with the Egyptians. Dahlan also noted Hamas's rejection of an idea to create a joint factional committee to oversee the Gaza Strip until elections are held. Palestinian observers agree recent events will shore up support for Hamas and weaken Fatah in any future legislative elections. Ibrahim Abrash, a leading figure in Fatah and former minister of culture, is convinced that reconciliation is no longer viable in light of the Goldstone revelations. "After all that has passed reconciliation, which implies the reunification of the West Bank and Gaza Strip under one authority, government and president, is next to impossible. The most that can be achieved with the Egyptian proposal is to be able to manage current splits. But even this requires good intentions and reasoning, in order to close the gap between our people in the West Bank and our people in Gaza, who are threatened by wider cultural, moral and popular divisions." While the future of national dialogue in light of the Goldstone incident has sparked much discussion, there is little debate over the future of Abu Mazen. Calls for him to face trial are gaining momentum, not only among Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the factions of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, but also among the Fatah leadership. Palestinian organisations in Europe have demanded Abbas be deposed and investigated by an independent Arab human rights committee. Some 35 organisations issued a statement condemning the Goldstone debacle, equating it to "a cover-up of the massacres against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, a denial of more than 1,400 deaths and the suffering of thousands of families in the besieged Gaza Strip." Iyad El-Serag, chairman of the Campaign for National Reconciliation, wants to see Abbas removed from power. El-Serag described the president's actions as "an unforgivable, atrocious crime against the rights of the Palestinian people, and a betrayal of trust. He must be removed from his post while awaiting investigation." (see p.5, 10-11)
