Ramallah, January 26: The Palestinian Authority (PA) on Monday accused Qatar, home to the al-Jazeera satellite television station, of plotting against it, with the aim bringing the Islamist Hamas movement to power in the West Bank.
The charges came after al-Jazeera broadcast a report Sunday revealing documents it claimed show that the PA was ready to give up many Arab neighbourhoods in East Jerusalem as part of a deal with Israel.
The broadcaster says it has obtained over 1600 documents detailing what went in the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations over the past decade.
Yasser Abed Rabbo, general secretary of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Executive Committee, told a news conference in Ramallah that al-Jazeera would not have broadcast the report without approval from higher political sources.
‘A campaign of this sort cannot only be the responsibility of al-Jazeera. Such a campaign comes with a political decision from the highest level,’ he said, referring to the Emir of Qatar.
Abed Rabbo said the purpose of this campaign was not only to smear the reputation of the PA, but also to weaken it.
‘If the PA gets weak,’ he said, ‘another political faction will be ready to replace it.’ He was referring to the PA’s main rival, Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, and which is backed by Qatar.
Abed Rabbo also accused al-Jazeera of taking issues out of context in order to ‘smear and distort’ the image of the PA.
–Agencies