Dahlan speaks out against Palestinian Authority

Fatah's former leading figure Mohammed Dahlan, on Monday condemned what he called "the Palestinian Authority's oppression" against the popular demonstrations held on Saturday to protest against a meeting that was expected to take place between the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israel's Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz, the meeting was later cancelled. "This oppression against our people who were expressing their anger about the occupation and Mofaz in particular, whose hands are still wet with our people's blood, is a sign of the Palestinian leadership's isolation from the aspirations of its people, and it is also a sign of this leadership's inability to defend the Palestinian national cause as well as the Palestinian people," said Dahlan in a statement seen by Arabstoday. Dahlan supported the movements of the Palestinian youth, who insisted in voicing their demands "despite the oppression by the security apparatus of the Palestinian Authority". "The voice of our great people deserves to be heard by their official leadership, which still prefers to listen to the occupation leaders who are luring it with the chance of getting back to meaningless negotiations. Our leadership has to stick up for the wishes of the people which reject the occupation's plans of using the negotiations  as a cover to gain time to allow the completion of the Judaisation process in the Palestinian territories in Jerusalem and the West Bank, so the chances of founding a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital would be killed," he added. Dahlan called for more popular protests against what he called  "the occupation's arrogance and the failure of the Palestinian Authority to ensure democracy and freedom of speech for the Palestinians, who have the right to protest against the occupation's plans without being oppressed." Dahlan also condemned the foiled assassination attempt which targeted Fatah's MP Shami al-Shami in Jenin in the West Bank,  and called on the security agencies to find out who was behind this attempt as soon as possible. He ended the statement by urging the residents of the West Bank to unite against the danger of spreading violence in the Palestinian territories.