RAMALLAH, May 4, 2011 (WAFA) –News about the ceremonies that will take place by mid-day Wednesday in Cairo to end inter-Palestinian division were highlighted on the front pages of Wednesday’s three Arabic dailies.
“Today is the ceremony in Cairo to end the division,” said the common headline in all papers, which went on to report extensively on this occasion.
Al-Ayyam in a front page exclusive report said Prime Minister Salam Fayyad held talks with Hamas prior to reaching the agreement. It said Fayyad’s plan, which he revealed two months ago, was the base of the agreement and what has contributed to reaching the reconciliation agreement. The paper talked about letters Fayyad exchanged with Hamas leader Ahmad Yousef in Gaza in which Fayyad talked about his plan for reconciliation.
Al-Quds reported extensively about attacks by Jewish settlers on Palestinian property in Jerusalem neighborhoods and in the West Bank.
Also the aftermath of the killing of Osama Bin Laden remained a major topic of the front pages of the Arabic dailies, as well as the ongoing revolutions in the Arab world, mainly in Syria and Libya.
The opinions in Al-Ayyam were split between the reconciliation agreement and the killing of Bin Laden.
Two opinions said the US killed the puppet it had itself created. One headline by Ashraf Ajrami said “The death of Bin Laden: The US kills its own puppet.” The other headline by Ali Jaradat said: “Bin Laden: They made him, they used him, and then they killed him.”
On the reconciliation, the headline for the opinion by Hani Habib said: “National reconciliation or tribal conciliation?”
Al-Quds editorial also focused on the reconciliation, stressing that “the reconciliation demands actual implementation, and not only signing.” An op-ed piece by Aziz Abu Sara had the headline, “Reconciliation revives public trust in the Palestinian political leaders.
Hafez Barghouti, editor of Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, wrote in his daily column in his newspaper that Fayyad remains the right person to run the new government. He said “the agreement, as we see it, is not a coup for the West Bank; rather it is intended to correct the situation in the Gaza Strip.” He said, “If anyone sees it differently, he is not then ready to end the division, rather to continue with it and transfer it from Gaza to the West Bank.”
M.A.
