Abbas: Wish Arafat could witness pullout

PA Chairman says, ‘We must preserve the structures and use them for everyone’s benefit; we will not allow personal exploitation of the property’; adds: I wish Yasser Arafat were able to see the fruits of his struggle

Ali Waked
Published: 09.01.05, 00:44 / Israel News

The Palestinian Authority will ‘amputate the arm’ of anyone who will think of seizing lands in the settlements evacuated by Israel, PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas said Wednesday.

"The lands belong to the entire Palestinian nation and must be utilized in a way that would serve its interests," Abbas said, adding that Israel has left behind hotels, university and civil infrastructures.

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“We must preserve the structures and use them for everyone’s benefit; we will not allow personal exploitation of the property,” he said.

“Anyone who will attempt to forge documents or claim the settlement lands belong to him – we will not permit him to do so unless the claims are proven from a legal aspect.”

Abbas added that Israel’s withdrawal must be part of “a major jihad of the building and rehabilitation of the homeland,” after what he referred to as the completion of the small jihad.

The Palestinian leader said deliberations between the PA and Israel are focusing on preventing Gaza from becoming one big prison.

PA wants to control crossings, ports

He reiterated his stance whereby the Palestinians would in now way accept the existence of settlements and areas conquered in 1967, including Jerusalem, adding that the Palestinians are determined to establish a state on all 1967 lands.

“Our capital will be Jerusalem, and our state will not contain settlements. Our goal is to reach a just solution agreed upon solution to the issue of the refugees,” Abbas said.

He said, “For the first time in Israeli racist-settlement history we can see the Israelis destroying settlements, and this proves that injustice cannot prevail and dawn must rise; now the Palestinian dawn is rising over the Gaza Strip, toward more withdrawals and an end to the damned settlements.”

“I wish Yasser Arafat were able to see the fruits of his struggle, which lasted for more than 40 years,” Abbas said.

The PA Chairman added that he hopes the previous violent chapter has ended.

“I hope this chapter is gone forever. All the death, destruction, bombings, bloodshed – I hope all this is over and that our nation is on the brink of a new chapter in which it will live a normal life like all other nations,” he said.

Abbas said the Palestinians demand that the Rafah and Beit Hanun crossings, as well as the sea and air ports will be under their control “so they may be our point of departure to the world and so our people will be free to travel.”

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