Palestinians welcome new unity government

Source: AFP, 17-3-2007
Palestinians welcomed Friday the long-awaited announcement of a unity government after a turbulent 12 months of deadly power struggles, international isolation and economic hardship.
Prime minister-designate and Hamas leader Ismail Haniya will present the new government and its political programme to parliament on Saturday.
Lawmakers are expected to give a near unanimous vote of confidence to the incoming coalition that unites the radical Islamic Hamas and President Mahmud Abbas` secular Fatah party.
After Saturday`s vote, incoming ministers will take the oath of office in Gaza City at 5 pm (1500 GMT). West Bank appointees unable to travel to Gaza because of "Israeli" restrictions will be sworn in the following day in the West Bank.
Hamas will take 12 of the 25 portfolios in the incoming cabinet, while Abbas` Fatah faction will take six. Seven ministries, including the powerful finance, foreign affairs and interior posts, will go to independents and smaller factions.
Palestinians hope the new government will usher in an era of calm and economic prosperity after a year of bloodshed and boycott.
"The Palestinian people, all their leaders, factions and parties, have passed the stage of barbaric fighting and realised a historic and important national achievement," the Palestinian Al-Quds daily said.
It underscored that optimism in a cartoon that depicted the new unity government marching through cracks in a stone wall labelled: "International Boycott."
In the teeming streets and impoverished refugee camps of the Gaza Strip, where the Fatah-Hamas power struggle has been fiercest, residents voiced rare hope.
"We are so happy about the unity government because we don`t want more fighting between Hamas and Fatah," said Sana al-Masry, 40, a housewife from Khan Yunis in the south of the territory.
"What`s important is that this government succeeds in ending the siege, providing jobs, opening our borders and paying its employees," she added.
In the Shati refugee camp, poultry farmer Zuhair Abdullah, 52, heaved a sigh of relief.
"We are sick of the problems and the suffering we have endured for over a year," she said. "The time has come to improve the situation for the people."
The West, meanwhile, has given few indications that it will end its punishing aid boycott after the new Palestinian government takes power.
"Israel" has called the unity government agreement a step backwards and called on the international community to continue a boycott of the Palestinian government.
The United States and European Union were non committal, saying they would withhold judgment until they have studied the new cabinet`s platform.
"Israeli" Deputy Defence (War) Minister Ephraim Sneh reiterated his government`s uncompromising stance in an interview with public radio.
"`Israel` cannot give legitimacy to the Palestinian unity government by cooperating with it while it rejects the principles of the Quartet," he said.
The Quartet of major players in the peace process -- the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States -- slapped an aid freeze on the Palestinian government a year ago when "Israeli" occupation-resistance group Hamas, considered a `terror` group by "Israel", came to power.