Obama's Visit Just to Sightsee, Says Abu Zaida
In an interview with Shlomi Eldar, senior Fatah member Dr. Sufian Abu Zaida reveals that he isn’t placing much hope in the US president’s visit — or in the new Israeli government, for that matter.
Dr. Sufian Abu Zaida, how is the Palestinian Authority preparing for President Barack Obama’s visit next week?
''We don’t expect anything to come of it. The fact that he said, ‘I’m not coming with any diplomatic plan,’ speaks for itself. In other words, he is just coming to sightsee.”
Abu Zaida, a senior member of Fatah, has been living in Ramallah for almost six years now or, more accurately, he’s in exile there. The house where he was born lies in the Jabalya refugee camp, but when Hamas seized power in the Gaza Strip, he and most other Fatah activists were forced to flee for their lives.
Before that Abu Zaida spent thirteen years in an Israeli prison for belonging to a hostile organization, possession of weapons, recruiting activists, and harming collaborators. He was released as part of the Oslo Accords and immediately became the Palestinian spokesperson in greatest demand by the Israeli media. This was because of his fluent Hebrew, which he learned in prison.
