THE MIDDLE EAST: Palestinians reacted in widely different ways to the speech given yesterday by President Yasser Arafat.
Dr Ghassan Khatib, a leading Jerusalem commentator, said Mr Arafat's address was cleverly crafted. On one hand, he reiterated his demand for an independent Palestinian state and his support for the peace process which is still backed by his people. These positions, Dr Khatib said, "are positive for his popularity".
On the other hand, Mr Arafat put himself squarely into the camp of the majority, who "demand change and are critical of the performance of the Palestine Authority", Dr Khatib said. Mr Arafat "admitted there have been mistakes" - such as the authority's failure to introduce the rule of law, and mismanagement - and vowed to institute change.
However, Dr Khatib said serious reform could not take place "in our current situation of siege, closure and occupation. He cannot convene his cabinet, he cannot convene his parliament, he cannot hold elections for local councils, all the necessary conditions for reform, for change". Ms Rawya Shawa, a member of the opposition Democratic Alliance in the Palestinian Legislative Council, told The Irish Times: "The speech is a disaster. He is repeating promises he has been making" ever since he established the authority in 1996. "We are still waiting for change. I don't believe we will have any change as long as he has the same faces around him, who had been in his entourage for the past 35 years. The question is how to introduce laws to control these people."
She continued: "He has no clear programme for reform. How can he create one or two security services from the 14 which are currently competing with each other for power? We have a feeling he will engineer an exchange of roles without introducing genuine innovations to start a new era." The powers exerting pressure on Mr Arafat for change "do not really want to create a democratic society which will refuse to put people in jail for resisting Israeli occupation". She said Mr Arafat came under severe criticism for accepting US and European-brokered agreements which ended his imprisonment in the compound and the stand-off between Israeli troops and Palestinians in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. The price Mr Arafat paid - jailing six activists in Jericho and exiling 13 militants to Europe - "is seen as unacceptable by a majority of Palestinians", she asserted.
Calls for reform resurfaced with the lifting of Israel's siege on Mr Arafat's presidential compound in Ramallah. Ordinary Palestinians were angry about the failure of his police to protect them from Israel's armed onslaught and of his administration to provide basic services. On May 4th, his minister for parliamentary affairs, Mr Nabil Amr, resigned in protest at Mr Arafat's refusal to initiate reforms.