Former PA minister: Abbas may be trying to kill me

Former PA minister Abba

By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
The Palestinian Authority's former ambassador to Egypt, Nabil Amr, on Sunday expressed fear that PA President Mahmoud Abbas was seeking to harm him because of his criticism of the decision to abandon a vote in support of last month's Goldstone Report on Operation Cast Lead. Amr expressed this fear after the PA decided to strip him of his armed bodyguards. Amr, who has been living in Ramallah for the past decade, was shot and seriously wounded during a failed attempt on his life several years ago. That assassination attempt was ordered by some of Yasser Arafat's top aides after Amr repeatedly criticized the PA leadership because of financial corruption and lack of transparency. Amr, who is also a Fatah legislator and a former information minister, has since undergone a series of operations on one of his legs. Until recently, Amr was one of Abbas's most trusted aides and advisers. Tensions between the two began when Amr condemned the elections-tampering during Fatah's recent conference in Bethlehem. Amr served as spokesman for the conference. But as soon as the results of elections for the Fatah Central Committee and Revolutionary Council were announced, he resigned, accusing Abbas and his senior advisers of stealing the vote. Abbas's controversial decision regarding the Goldstone Report also saw Amr launching a scathing attack on the PA president. In a series of public statements over the past few days, Amr called on Abbas to assume personal responsibility for the "Goldstone scandal." Over the weekend, the PA security forces asked Amr's bodyguards to hand over their weapons and to stop escorting him. The bodyguards were told that the decision had been made by Abbas himself. Amr said he held Abbas responsible for any harm to him or any member of his family following the decision. Amr denied that he had been inciting against Abbas. "I'm not the one who incited," he said. "Abbas's decision to withdraw the resolution from the UN was behind the escalation."