Palestinians welcome Tunisia uprising

AFP, Saturday 15 Jan 2011

Palestinians hailed the uprising in Tunisia, saying the north African country's people were an inspiration to the rest of the Arab world

Palestinians
In this 1 October 2001 file photo, Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, left, welcomes Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat prior to their talks in Tunis. (AP)

In a carefully worded statement, the Palestine Liberation Organisation, an umbrella group of Palestinian factions, praised the "the unparalleled courage of the Tunisian people and their heroic sacrifices to achieve their demands."

The PLO, which had close ties with ousted Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, did not mention the deposed leader in the statement, instead choosing to emphasise the close ties between the Palestinians and the Tunisian people.

Tunisia was home to the PLO headquarters after the Palestinians were driven out of Lebanon in 1982 until the establishment of the Palestinian Authority in 1994.
"The Palestinian people, who have a debt of gratitude to the Tunisian people who embraced the Palestinian revolution and its leadership at a time when a lot of places wouldn't, stresses the deep brotherly link that connects our people with the great Tunisian people," the statement said.

Other Palestinian factions, particularly the Islamist groups, were more vocal in their support of the overthrow of Ben Ali. "We congratulate the Tunisian people for their uprising against the tyrannical regime," Daoud Shihab, a spokesman for the Islamic Jihad group, said after Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia.

The events in Tunisia "demonstrate that the Arab masses are able to bring change for freedom and rejection of tyranny and injustice," he told AFP.
The Gaza Strip's Hamas rulers also praised the events, saying it represented the will of the Tunisian people.

"We are with our brothers, the people of Tunisia, in choosing their leaders no matter what the sacrifices are," Hamas' Interior Minister Fathi Hammad told reporters.
"This is an application of the people's will after being patient for a long time," he said.

Ben Ali was not popular with Islamic groups, having cracked down on the Islamic opposition in Tunisia.

However the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a smaller member of the PLO, praised the uprising as "a great victory" for the Tunisian people.

What happened was "a lesson for all," the DFLP statement said, calling on "Arab masses to start rising up in the face of their treacherous rulers."

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