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Abu Mazen: Stop the Intifada
(Hael a'aretz) Daniel Sobelman and Arnon Regular - Palestinian violence has in the last two years cost the Palestinians everything they had gained until then and must be halted immediately before it does even greater damage, Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas), the head of the PLO's executive committee, told a closed lecture in Gaza on Monday. But his remarks were greeted angrily by the listeners. According to a transcript published Tuesday in the London-based Arabic daily Al-Hayat, Abu Mazen - who was once considered a leading contender to succeed Arafat - said those who began using guns turned the intifada into a "military campaign" rather than "a popular uprising." Abu Mazen called for an immediate end to the violence, as "people can no longer endure the burden of life under these conditions." Gaza, he said, was the logical place to begin this new approach. "I call on the Palestinians to say 'enough,' clearly and determinedly, because if we stop, we can prevent an Israeli invasion of Gaza," he said. Abu Mazen also criticized Israeli Arabs for having engaged in large-scale rioting when the intifada first broke out, saying this had caused Israelis to view them as disloyal to the state. Because of this, he said, it will now be much harder to persuade Isrto agree to let Palestinian refugees return to its borders.