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Fatah mocks end of "mini-state in Gaza and Sinai downed by Egyptian revolution"

February 12, 2014 at 3:34 pm

A spokesman for Fatah has claimed that the Egyptian coup, which he called a “revolution”, has “downed the establishment of a mini-state in Gaza and Sinai”. Osama Qawasmi referred to what he claimed was an “unspoken” agreement between Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.


In a press statement issued on Sunday by Fatah’s Media and Culture Commission, Qawasmi said, “The Egyptian people’s revolution of June 30 was an expression of national awareness of the Palestine question; and thanks to the alert revolutionary forces and the Egyptian army, June 30 has prevented the isolation of the Gaza Strip from the home nation.”

He claimed that the first manifestations of a multilateral conspiracy that aimed to resolve the refugee crisis and establish a Palestinian state on Egyptian territory were demonstrated in the establishment of economic, commercial and industrial projects, offering thousands of Palestinians Egyptian citizenship and enabling some of them to own land in the Sinai.

“Isolating the Gaza Strip from the nation was an Israeli goal that was announced in the mid 20th century and renewed by Israel during Sharon’s time in charge,” he asserted. “Israel sought to designate a Palestinian entity that would act as an alternative to a Palestinian state within the pre-1967 borders.” That, claimed the Fatah official, would have paved the way for tighter Israeli control on the West Bank and Jerusalem, ending the Palestinian national project and preventing the establishment of a Palestinian state.

MEMO’s senior editor, Ibrahim Hewitt, called Qawasmi a “fantasist” who overlooks the reality on the ground. “The actions of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah, controlled by Fatah, have done more to tighten Israeli control over occupied Palestine than anything that the Islamic movements in Palestine or Egypt have ever done,” he said. “Fatah’s collaboration with the Israeli occupation means that there is little unoccupied land left for the proposed Palestinian state in any case. He’s a fantasist, pure and simple.”