[Peace-discuss] Hamas statement

[Morton K. Brussel]

It is strong in standing by its positions, while sending out a hand  
of peace to Israel --mkb
It is true that ithe Hamas charter calls for the destruction of  
Zionist Israel, but it is also true that Israel has usurped the land  
of the Palestinians and largely destroyed its society. It has not  
been a balanced conflict, morally or existentially. --mkb

Comment (published in The Guardian)

We will not sell our people or principles for foreign aid

Palestinians voted for Hamas because of our refusal to give up their  
rights. But we are ready to make a just peace

Khalid Mish'al
Tuesday January 31, 2006
The Guardian

It is widely recognised that the Palestinians are among the most  
politicised and educated peoples in the world. When they went to the  
polls last Wednesday they were well aware of what was on offer and  
those who voted for Hamas knew what it stood for. They chose Hamas  
because of its pledge never to give up the legitimate rights of the  
Palestinian people and its promise to embark on a programme of  
reform. There were voices warning them, locally and internationally,  
not to vote for an organisation branded by the US and EU as terrorist  
because such a democratically exercised right would cost them the  
financial aid provided by foreign donors.
The day Hamas won the Palestinian democratic elections the world's  
leading democracies failed the test of democracy. Rather than  
recognise the legitimacy of Hamas as a freely elected representative  
of the Palestinian people, seize the opportunity created by the  
result to support the development of good governance in Palestine and  
search for a means of ending the bloodshed, the US and EU threatened  
the Palestinian people with collective punishment for exercising  
their right to choose their parliamentary representatives.
We are being punished simply for resisting oppression and striving  
for justice. Those who threaten to impose sanctions on our people are  
the same powers that initiated our suffering and continue to support  
our oppressors almost unconditionally. We, the victims, are being  
penalised while our oppressors are pampered. The US and EU could have  
used the success of Hamas to open a new chapter in their relations  
with the Palestinians, the Arabs and the Muslims and to understand  
better a movement that has so far been seen largely through the eyes  
of the Zionist occupiers of our land.
Our message to the US and EU governments is this: your attempt to  
force us to give up our principles or our struggle is in vain. Our  
people who gave thousands of martyrs, the millions of refugees who  
have waited for nearly 60 years to return home and our 9,000  
political and war prisoners in Israeli jails have not made those  
sacrifices in order to settle for close to nothing.
Hamas has been elected mainly because of its immovable faith in the  
inevitability of victory; and Hamas is immune to bribery,  
intimidation and blackmail. While we are keen on having friendly  
relations with all nations we shall not seek friendships at the  
expense of our legitimate rights. We have seen how other nations,  
including the peoples of Vietnam and South Africa, persisted in their  
struggle until their quest for freedom and justice was accomplished.  
We are no different, our cause is no less worthy, our determination  
is no less profound and our patience is no less abundant.
Our message to the Muslim and Arab nations is this: you have a  
responsibility to stand by your Palestinian brothers and sisters  
whose sacrifices are made on behalf of all of you. Our people in  
Palestine should not need to wait for any aid from countries that  
attach humiliating conditions to every dollar or euro they pay  
despite their historical and moral responsibility for our plight. We  
expect you to step in and compensate the Palestinian people for any  
loss of aid and we demand you lift all restrictions on civil society  
institutions that wish to fundraise for the Palestinian cause.
Our message to the Palestinians is this: our people are not only  
those who live under siege in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip but  
also the millions languishing in refugee camps in Lebanon, Jordan and  
Syria and the millions spread around the world unable to return home.  
We promise you that nothing in the world will deter us from pursuing  
our goal of liberation and return. We shall spare no effort to work  
with all factions and institutions in order to put our Palestinian  
house in order. Having won the parliamentary elections, our medium- 
term objective is to reform the PLO in order to revive its role as a  
true representative of all the Palestinian people, without exception  
or discrimination.
Our message to the Israelis is this: we do not fight you because you  
belong to a certain faith or culture. Jews have lived in the Muslim  
world for 13 centuries in peace and harmony; they are in our religion  
"the people of the book" who have a covenant from God and His  
Messenger Muhammad (peace be upon him) to be respected and protected.  
Our conflict with you is not religious but political. We have no  
problem with Jews who have not attacked us - our problem is with  
those who came to our land, imposed themselves on us by force,  
destroyed our society and banished our people.
We shall never recognise the right of any power to rob us of our land  
and deny us our national rights. We shall never recognise the  
legitimacy of a Zionist state created on our soil in order to atone  
for somebody else's sins or solve somebody else's problem. But if you  
are willing to accept the principle of a long-term truce, we are  
prepared to negotiate the terms. Hamas is extending a hand of peace  
to those who are truly interested in a peace based on justice.
· Khalid Mish'al is head of the political bureau of Hamas  
hoood88 at hotmail.com



-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.chambana.net/cgi-bin/private/peace-discuss/attachments/20060131/33a5a1ef/attachment.htm