Ref: 94/2011 

On Friday
evening, 23 December 2011, Lawyer Raji Sourani, Director of the Palestinian
Center for Human Rights, met in Cairo with Mr. Khaled Mashal, Chairman of the
Political Bureau of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas).  Sourani described the meeting as positive and
constructive, and indicated that he felt a serious and honest will by Mashal to
proceed in the national reconciliation process and stop the Palestinian
political suicide resulting from the conflict between Hamas and Fatah movement,
that has been ongoing for more than five years. 

During the
meeting, Sourani stressed the need to promptly take concrete steps that have
been waited by the Palestinian people for long, in the forefront of which is
the formation of a national unity government. 
He added that the formation of such government and its declaration from
the Gaza Strip, in the presence of Palestinian President Manhoud Abbas and Mr.
Khaled Mashal, would have strong indications and would send a clear message to
the Palestinian people with regard to the end of division.

The meeting
also discussed the illegal and inhuman closure imposed by Israel on the Gaza
Strip.  Sourani asserted that it is time
to intensify efforts to lift the closure, especially following the swap of
prisoners between Hamas and Israel, as the Israeli soldier captured in the Gaza
Strip, Gliad Shalit, who was released under the swap, was the pretext used by
Israel to tighten the closure imposed on the Gaza Strip. 

The meeting
further emphasized the need for accelerating the restructure of Palestine
Liberation Organization, the sole representative of the Palestinian people, as
it is the strategic option and the political harvest for the Palestinian
people.