Popular uprisings in the Middle East could not reach the West Bank because of Israel, the head of the Hamas-dominated Palestinian parliament said Thursday.
"If there was no Israeli occupation in the West Bank, the uprising would have been possible," said Aziz al-Dewik, the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC)'s speaker, who was released recently from an Israeli prison.
Al-Dewik accused the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), led by rival Fatah party of President Mahmoud Abbas, of "establishing a repressive regime with the help of Israel."
According to al-Dewik, Israel and the PNA forces invest heavily in chasing down Hamas supporters in the West Bank. He warned that the supporters of the Islamic movement can respond to this repression by elections, uprising against Israel or a revolution against the PNA.
Hamas won the parliamentary elections in 2006 and entered in a power struggle with Fatah. A year later, Hamas routed pro-Abbas forces and took over the Gaza Strip, leaving Abbas's authority confined to the West Bank.
Efforts to reconcile the two parties deadlocked and Hamas said new elections can never be held as long as its West Bank members are targeted by Israel and the pro-Abbas forces.
Al-Dewik's sharp criticism of the PNA is rare, given that he lives in the West Bank and usually it is the Gaza-based Hamas officials who harshly attack the Palestinian leadership.
Praising the Arab Spring as a victory to the Palestinian cause, al-Dewik stressed that the Palestinians should reconcile to benefit from the changes in the region, especially the rise of Islamic movements.
He revealed that efforts are being exerted to arrange a meeting with Abbas to discuss pushing the reconciliation forward.
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