<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><oembed><version><![CDATA[1.0]]></version><provider_name><![CDATA[Occupied Palestine | فلسطين]]></provider_name><provider_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com]]></provider_url><author_name><![CDATA[occupiedpalestine]]></author_name><author_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/author/hajarhajar/]]></author_url><title><![CDATA[Supporters of Abbas rival&nbsp;arrested]]></title><type><![CDATA[link]]></type><html><![CDATA[<div class="article-extension">
<div class="content">Irish Times | Dec 30, 2010 by</div>
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<p class="headline-info">MICHAEL JANSEN</p>
<p class="headline-info">&nbsp;</p>
<p>PALESTINIAN  SECURITY forces have rounded up supporters of former Gaza strongman  Mohammed Dahlan on suspicion of plotting to oust Palestinian president  Mahmoud Abbas. Arms and large sums of money were reportedly seized.</p>
<p>Mr  Dahlan – a former head of security in Gaza once seen as a possible  successor to Mr Abbas – has been suspended from membership in the  central committee of Fatah, the dominant party in the West Bank. He was  removed as Fatah’s media chief and replaced by Nabil Abu Rudeina, a  close presidential aide.</p>
<p>Palestinian Authority (PA) institutions  have been ordered to cease co-operating with Mr Dahlan, his television  station in the West Bank city of Ramallah has been closed down and  investigators are looking into his finances.</p>
<p>He has denied the  charges against him, claiming he is being smeared by figures in the  entourage of Mr Abbas who turned against him after he commented on the  wealth of the president’s sons and called for his replacement.</p>
<p>Mr  Dahlan’s latest dispute with policymakers began last September when he  argued against returning to direct negotiations with Israel, which  collapsed when Israel refused to renew its partial curb on construction  of West Bank settlements.</p>
<p>His career has been repeatedly disrupted  by differences with the ruling clique – former exiles who returned to  the Palestinian territories after the signing of the Oslo Accords in  1993. As a Gazan who spent years in Israeli jails, he criticised the  returnees for riding roughshod over Palestinians who lived under Israeli  occupation.</p>
<p>In 2007, he tried and failed to mount a coup against Hamas in Gaza, resulting in the expulsion of Fatah’s security apparatus.</p>
<p>While  many Palestinians are likely to welcome the removal of Mr Dahlan,  measures taken against him are not expected to boost Mr Abbas’s  standing.</p>
<p>Palestinian lawyer Anis Kassem, a former PA adviser,  observed widespread “rejection” of the prime movers of Oslo. “They are  peacemongers who negotiate while they make money, but we are still at  square one. There has been no movement [toward peace] for 60 years . . .  Fatah and Hamas have split the [Palestinian] cake, which is a rotten  cake.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2010/1230/1224286487346.html">Supporters of Abbas rival arrested &#8211; The Irish Times &#8211; Thu, Dec 30, 2010</a>.</p>
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