Is Abbas’s Camp Being Subjected to Internal Collapse?

President Abbas dismisses senior aide over comments to Al Jazeera

28 June 2007

Bethlehem - Ma'an - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas decided on Wednesday evening to dismiss the former minister of interior and member of Fatah's central committee, Hani Al-Hassan, from his post of chief advisor to the Palestinian president, sources close to the presidency affirmed. The dismissal came after Al-Hassan gave a controversial interview to the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera TV, severely criticising Fatah.

Several Fatah leaders telephoned Ma'an News Agency on Wednesday night and confirmed that they requested from Abbas to suspend Hani Al-Hassan after what he told Al-Jazeera.

The speaker of the Fatah bloc in the Palestinian Legislative Council, Azzam Al-Ahmad, was quoted as saying, "What Hani Al-Hassan told Al-Jazeera does not represent the standpoint of any Palestinian teenager, and he only represents himself."

Other Fatah leaders considered Al-Hassan's claims to be extremely harmful to the Fatah position, namely when he considered the Hamas takeover in Gaza Strip as a defeat to an alleged plan of the US security coordinator to the Palestinians, Keith Dayton, and a defeat to the allies of the USA.

Others accused Al-Hassan of being unbalanced and said that Al-Jazeera should not have hosted him in such a way.

Israeli sources mentioned at midnight that gunmen opened fire at Hani Al-Hassan's home in Ramallah in the central West Bank after the interview on Al-Jazeera.

Fatah spokesperson Ahmad Abed Ar Rahman said: "The pre-prepared claims by Hani Al-Hassan during the program "Without Limits" on Al-Jazeera mark a complete disagreement with the Fatah central committee's position against the bloody coup in the Gaza Strip. This is a conspiracy plot, with regional plans. That was what the Iranian president Ahmadinejad revealed in his affirmation of support to the bloody coup which Hamas conducted."