Fatah's Jerusalem general strike call to deflect anger away from Abbas?

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All Gaza crossings have been closed. Israel has bombed the tunnels again and restrictions on Palestinian movements have been imposed around Jerusalem. Israel is also talking about withdrawing its ambassador from Sweden over the country's support for the Goldstone report.

Meanwhile Fatah's general strike call looks more and more like an attempt to defend Abbas than a serious mobilisation against Israel. Hopefully events today will move beyond the control of the so called leadership, with the people themselves taking matters into their own hands to defend al-Aqsa and stop the ethnic cleansing of Jerusalem.
The Fatah Central Council has called for a general strike in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip on Friday in protest of Israel's "measures against al-Aksa Mosque."

The call comes as the faction and its leader, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, are facing a wave of unprecedented protests over the decision to withdraw support for the UN fact-finding mission's report into Operation Cast Lead.

The council expressed "deep concern" over Israel's security measures in Jerusalem following an outburst of violence over the past week.

It said Israel was "besieging" the mosque, preventing Muslims from reaching the area and "colluding" with Jewish extremists by enabling them to enter the compound.

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