No state in Gaza, no state without Gaza, says Haniyah

Date: 04 / 09 / 2007 Time: 17:06

Gaza – Ma'an -

Deposed Palestinian Prime Minister, Isma'il Haniyah said on Tuesday that the de facto government in Gaza believes that there is no state in Gaza, yet no state can be established without Gaza.

Haniyeh was addressing the deposed cabinet in their weekly meeting in Gaza city and said the solution to the political stalemate in the Palestinian Territories can only be achieved through dialogue, geographical unity and commitment to the unity of the political system. Constitution and basic law should be respected, he added.

"The solution lies in five points: restructuring the security services; establishing a unity government; adherence to Mecca agreement, Cairo agreement, and the national agreement accord; accepting legitimacies as a whole; and accepting that the Palestinian institutions and public properties belong to all Palestinians," Haniyah said.

Haniyah also reiterated his rejection of the presidential decree amending the electoral system, describing it as a usurping of the powers of the Palestinian Legislative Council, who are the only body authorized to amend the system.

In his address, Haniyah welcomed all Arab meditation aimed at repairing the gaping rift that is tearing apart the Palestinian Territories, and at restoring Palestinian unity in Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

Haniyah also applauded the Algerian ambassador to Cairo, Abed Al-Qadir Hajjar who called for the fact-finding committee on Hamas' takeover Gaza Strip to become a reconciliation committee between the Palestinians.

According to Haniyah, Hajjat also said that ignoring Hamas and the deposed government in Gaza would not achieve stability, security and prosperity in the region.

Haniyah also called on Javier Solana, the European Union's foreign policy chief, to refrain from a policy of double-standards and to respect the democratic choice of the Palestinian people.

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Note to Translators:

The Arabic definite article, Al (or its variant, El) should be written with a hyphen separating it from the noun it is associated with, for example Al-Aqsa. If a hyphen is not used, as in Al Aqsa, it confuses non-Arabic readers. They may think that it is an abbreviation of the name Albert, as many Americans do.

The Arabic definite article Al (or El) should be written as such, whether it is Shamsiyah or Qamariyah in pronunciation, simply because we are dealing with the written form of the language, not the spoken one. Using the Shamsiyah so many forms in writing is inaccurate and confusing to non-Arabic readers, to say the least.

Only standard (fasih) pronunciation of Arabic names should be used. Non-standard ('ammi) should be avoided avoided. Example: Names like Abu Sunainah, Abu Rudainah, and Abu Shebak are written by some translators in the non-standard forms of Abu Snainah, Abu Rdainah, and Abu Shbak.

The standard pronunciation of the vowel at the end of names is (a), not (e), particularly if it is followed by (h), like in the cases of Haniyah and Rudainah, not Haniyeh and Rudaineh.

The standard pronunciation of vowels in the following names is (ai), not (ei) as written by some translators: Hussain, not Hussein and Hassanain, not Hassanein. This is the same long vowel pronounced in the English words "rain" and "brain."

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