Hamas calls emergency meeting to discuss new unity government
June 29, 2015 2:49 P.M. (Updated: June 29, 2015 4:58 P.M.)
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=766222

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- The Hamas movement called Monday for an emergency
meeting with Palestinian factions to discuss the formation of a new unity
government, claiming it was "unacceptable" the PLO had taken charge of the
task.

Senior Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzouq invited all factions who signed the
2012 Cairo Agreement to attend the meeting.

He told Ma'an that in keeping with the 2012 agreement -- which saw Fatah and
Hamas agree to form a joint interim government -- the new unity government
"must not have any political agendas."

Abu Marzouq made his comments two days after a committee appointed by the
PLO Executive Committee began consulting Palestinian factions on forming a
new government.

The dissolution of the current government was announced earlier this month
at an annual Fatah council meeting.

While there has been talk of a government reshuffle for months, it is
expected that the new government will have a completely different structure,
with factional leaders replacing independent technocrats.

However, Abu Marzouq said Monday that any unity government should be a
"non-political" entity, completing tasks agreed upon by all factions.

"It is unacceptable that the government adopts the agenda of the PLO because
that has never been mentioned in any of our national agreements," he said.

"The PLO shouldn’t appoint a committee to consult on a unity government
because it has no legal basis to do so."

He added that the Cairo agreement clearly states that Palestinian factions
including Hamas were "in charge of forming a government and the PLO is only
one element of the reconciliation agreement."

Abu Marzouq spoke strongly against Rami Hamdallah's current government,
saying that it had been "running the West Bank only and not a penny of its
budget was allocated to the Gaza Strip."

He alleged that it had not implemented a single project in Gaza, with all
projects instead organized by the UN and NGOs.

"He hasn’t rebuilt any of the houses demolished by the offensive against
Gaza," he said, adding: "When Hamdallah talks about reconstructing 85,000
houses in Gaza it is not true."

The current unity government, formed last June, has repeatedly failed to
overcome divisive issues between the two rival parties, and has been largely
unable to operate in the Hamas-dominated Gaza Strip.

The July-August war in Gaza last year destroyed or partially damaged tens of
thousands of homes, leaving 100,000 Gazans homeless.

Reconstruction, however, has been painfully slow, due to political deadlock
as well as Israel's ongoing blockade, now in its ninth year.