Some 70 prominent Arabs have signed a petition calling on Yasser Arafat’s Palestinian Authority to scrap the Oslo Accords, warning that the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq would place all the Arab countries under the control of Israel and the US, the Jerusalem Post reports today.
The Post says this is the first time such a large group of widely respected and influential Palestinians have issued a public demand to abolish the Oslo Accords and return to the ''option of resistance'' against Israel.
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Signatories include members of the Palestinian Legislative Council and Palestinian National Council, as well as university teachers, academics, lawyers, former mayors, physicians, political activists, workers student union members and businessmen.
The four PLC members who signed the petition are Muawiyah al-Masri of Nablus, Abdel Jawad Saleh of al-Bireh, Ahmed Irsheid of Jenin, and Ali Abu al-Rish of Hebron. Among the academics are Hisham Sharabi, who lives in the US, Talal Okal, a writer and journalist from Gaza City, and Abdel Sattar Kassem, a professor of political science from Nablus, who has announced his intention to run against Yasser Arafat in the next general election.
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Former mayors Bassam Shaka of Nablus, Wahid Hamdallah of Anabta, and Khaled Awad of Kabatiya added their voices to the call to rescind the Oslo Accords.
''We call on the Arab states and their leaderships, first and foremost the Palestinian Authority, to reject the Oslo Accords,'' reads the petition, a copy of which was reportedly sent to Arafat yesterday. ''We also call for the rejection of separate and bilateral agreements that are imposed against the will of liberation and [against] Arab solidarity.''
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The petition calls on the PA to ''unite the national will to resist.''
''The goal of these initiatives, agreements, and positions is to dismantle the Arab nation and pave the way for [Zionist and imperialist]
dominance of the region,'' the petition states.
The petition blasts the US for preparing to wage a war against Iraq, and warns that Arab and Islamic countries would be the next target after Iraq.
''Taking control over Iraq would facilitate the liquidation of those neighboring regimes which have maintained their independence and liberty, such as Syria, Lebanon, and Iran,'' it claims.
