Militants Make Unprecedented Push To Gain a Voice in Palestinian Affairs

Raanan Gissin, a spokesman for Sharon, said the proposal represented a power struggle between Arafat loyalists and younger Palestinian leaders. Al-Aqsa, Gissin added, "will replace one regime of intimidation with another. . . . Those who are with them will benefit, and those who are against them will be shot in the street."

However, Hassan Abu Libdeh, chief of staff for Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia, said the document was important because "it shows al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades are very much willing to be integrated into the political team."

Although militant organizations in the Gaza Strip have begun discussions with the Palestinian Authority over shared control of Gaza if Israel completes its proposed withdrawal, the al-Aqsa document is the first formal proposal by a militant group outlining its demands and recommendations for participation in the government.

The report has been widely circulated among senior politicians and officials within the Palestinian Authority but has not been made public, according to al-Aqsa representatives and numerous Palestinian officials. Zbeida and Palestinian officials who have studied the document said the Palestinian government has offered no official response.

The proposals have been made at a time when the Israeli military has increased its assassinations of militant leaders in the West Bank and armed resistance groups have not conducted a suicide bombing inside Israel in nearly four months. Israeli officials say their military operations and the construction of a barrier separating the West Bank from Israel have diminished the ability of the militant groups to attack inside Israel.

The criticisms of the Palestinian Authority echo public sentiments. In an opinion poll released Sunday by Shikaki's Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, 87 percent of Palestinians questioned said they believed institutions throughout the Palestinian Authority were corrupt.

The document recommends that the Palestinian government "open the doors to the absorption of the new generation" of leaders and government officials, a demand that has been sought for years by younger leaders and thwarted by Arafat and his associates. It recommends creation of a professional civil service, a strong and impartial judiciary, freedom of the press and a democratic society.

"There is a generational difference . . . different backgrounds and conditions and privileges," Ziad Abu Amr, an independent, reformist member of the Palestinian legislature and part of that younger generation, said in an interview in Gaza City.

Al-Aqsa also asks the Palestine Liberation Organization -- which has a strong history of secularism and separation from Islamic movements -- to integrate "all the national and Islamic forces." In the Palestinian territories, as across the Arab world, Islamic groups have grown in popularity, partially as a result of the conflict with Israel and the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Iraq.

In Shikaki's poll, a greater percentage of those surveyed said they would vote for Islamic candidates (28 percent) than would vote for Fatah candidates (26 percent) if local elections were held soon.

Researcher Samuel Sockol contributed to this report.