JERUSALEM (Reuters):
SEVERAL TOP Fatah officials have asked President Mahmoud Abbas to resign, dissolve the Palestinian Authority and return responsibility for the occupied territories to Israel in protest at unilateral Israeli moves.
Senior Fatah officials said on Friday the idea of scrapping the Authority was debated for the first time on Thursday night by the Fatah Central Committee, which controls Abbas's faction.
The discussion highlighted frustrations within Fatah, beaten by Hamas in January elections, following Israel's seizure of a radical Palestinian leader in a West Bank prison raid this week.
SPARKED DEBATE
A senior Fatah official said Abbas's top aide, Tayeb Abdel-Rahim, had sparked the debate in the Central Committee, winning support from several members. Others were opposed.
"Abdel-Rahim said at the meeting Abbas must consider resigning and dissolving the Palestinian Authority if Israel continues with its attacks and unilateral measures," said the official, who asked not to be named.
"Why should we accept blow after blow to President Abbas whom the world claims to support?" the official quoted Abdel-Rahim as saying.
CONSIDER PROPOSAL
Abbas, who resigned once when he was prime minister and has threatened to quit since becoming president, told the Central Committee he would consider the proposal, the official said.
The Islamist group Hamas, which is about to form a government that Fatah and other factions have refused to join, said it opposed dissolving the Palestinian Authority.
"This is not the right national position to take," said Hamas lawmaker Khaled Suleiman.
Aid groups and an international envoy have warned of the risk of chaos and violence if the Palestinian Authority collapsed amid moves to isolate a Hamas-led government.
