Jerusalem – A power-sharing deal by rival factions won approval of the Palestinian parliament Saturday, ending a year of one-party rule by the militant Hamas movement and producing the first crack in an international aid embargo against the Palestinian Authority.
Moments after the Palestinian Legislative Council’s vote of confidence, Norway recognized the new coalition government and said it was restoring political and economic ties. They were cut off after Hamas came to power last year and refused to renounce calls for Israel’s destruction.
Norway’s left-of-center government became the first to break with an international boycott led by the United States and European Union, and its announcement raised expectations that other European countries would follow suit.
Members of the Palestinian parliament jumped to a standing ovation after giving the coalition of Hamas, its more moderate rival Fatah and some smaller parties an 83-to-3 vote of confidence after two hours of debate. Later, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas swore in the 25-member Cabinet.
The power-sharing accord, aimed at ending the embargo and months of deadly fighting between Hamas and Fatah gunmen, embodied conflicting stances toward Israel that were starkly evident in speeches to the video-linked session of lawmakers in the West Bank city of Ramallah and in Gaza City, Gaza Strip.
“We reject all forms of violence,” Abbas, the Fatah leader, declared as he opened the session at parliament headquarters in Gaza City. “We extend our hand once more to reach a settlement (with Israel) that will give future generations a hope of peaceful coexistence.”
Following him to the lectern, Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas spelled out a new government program that called for extending a 4-month-old truce with Israel in Gaza to the West Bank, but he yielded no ground on Hamas’ founding principle of hostility to the Jewish state.
“The government affirms that resistance in all its forms to the occupation is a legitimate right,” said Haniyeh, who retained his position at the head of the government. “It is the right of our people to defend itself in the face of continuing Israeli aggression.”
After Hamas won elections last year, the U.S., the European Union, Russia and the United Nations jointly backed an embargo, saying it would be lifted only if the Palestinian government recognized Israel, renounced violence and accepted previous Arab-Israeli peace agreements.
Hamas’ only concessions Saturday were a declaration that the government would “respect” those peace accords and the addition of the words “especially nonviolent resistance” to the sentence in the program about resisting Israeli occupation by any means.
