Hizb al-Tahrir slams Islamist, Palestinian parties at Gaza rally

Hizb al-Tahrir held a mass rally in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, where the pacifist Islamist group called on Palestinian factions to leave aside petty affairs and support the Arab revolutions. Supporters marched from Al-Samer square to Al-Shawaa square in Gaza City, carrying banners with caricatures of fallen Arab leaders and slogans calling for the revival of the Islamic Caliphate. The event followed a festival in the West Bank city of Hebron on Sunday, commemorating the 91st anniversary of the fall of the Islamic Caliphate. Hizb al-Tahrir representative Abu al-Saeed called on the leaders of Arab revolutions to stick to their principles. "In every revolution people used slogans supporting Palestinians at their rallies, but now we are surprised by the Islamic parties," he said. Al-Saeed continued: "Instead of using these revolutions to reform the relations with the Jews as enemies, we found that the Islamic parties accept and respect the agreements, and announced their commitment to the Camp David agreement," referring to Egypt's peace deal with Israel. He criticised Palestinian parties for petty repetition of internal slogans such as reconciliation, elections and security. They would be better to support Arab revolutions rather than just wait around for them to catch on in Palestine, he said.