MIDEAST: Prominent Palestinian officials and intellectuals yesterday called on their people to refrain from hitting back at Israel for the assassination on Monday of Hamas leader and founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.
In a half-page advertisement in Al-Ayyam, a newspaper said to reflect the views of the Palestinian Authority, the group of 60 argued that revenge attacks would only precipitate more bloodshed and undermine Palestinian hopes for statehood.
They called on the public to relinquish armed attacks and "rise again in a peaceful, wise intifada".
"Responding to Sharon could be by showing his moral and political bankruptcy rather than adopting his methods and exacting revenge," Palestinian legislator Ms Hanan Ashrawi, who put her name to the statement, told Reuters. "Resistance does not have to be violent resistance."
Other prominent members of the group included Mr Yasser Abed Rabbo, who was a co-author of the unofficial peace plan known as the Geneva Accord; Nablus governor Mr Mahmoud Aloul; and Mr Abbas Zaki, a senior member of the ruling Fatah party.
The ad is an indication that many Palestinian leaders believe armed struggle has not brought their people closer to the goal of an independent state. Similar calls in the past, however, have failed to stem the bloodshed.
Despite the call for moderation, the Hamas military wing yesterday released a videotape to the Dubai-based Al-Arabiya TV station in which it vowed "a strong, earthshaking response to make the sons of monkeys and pigs taste a painful death".
In the wake of Yassin's death, the group has also threatened to target Israeli Prime Minister Mr Ariel Sharon. The call for an end to the armed intifada also comes a day after the Israeli army captured a 14-year-old Palestinian boy with an explosives vest strapped to him at a roadblock in the West Bank.
Militant groups came in for rare criticism from their own public over the incident. The boy's mother, Tamam Abdu, said: "He is young, he is small, he should be in school. Someone pressured him. If he was over 18, I wouldn't feel so angry ... then it is his decision."
Iyad Sarraj, a child psychologist and human rights activist in the Gaza Strip, said: "Every Palestinian I spoke to today was appalled and disgusted and ashamed and angry."
Teenagers have been involved in attacks in the past, although Abdu is the youngest so far to agree to carry out a suicide attack. Defence officials fear that militant groups may be using younger assailants in order to get by Israeli security checks. Many Palestinians, however, accused Israel of staging the incident.