MIDDLE EAST: Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal says pressure should be increased on Israel

Enough with the pressure on the Palestinians to make concessions in peace talks, says Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal.

It's time for Israel to feel the heat.

"The pressure should now be redirected towards Israel," Mashaal said in an interview with Romanian researcher Manuela Paraipan last week. "It is immoral to keep pressuring the Palestinians simply because the Americans and the international community are failing in the face of [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu."

Mashaal was 11 when the 1967 Arab-Israeli war forced him and his family to leave Palestine for Jordan and 33 when his group carried out its first known attack against Israel. In 2004, he became the group's political leader, despite living in exile in Syria, where he continues to advocate armed resistance.

Paraipan, of the Bucharest-based Middle East Political and Economic Institute, sat down with Mashaal for a wide-ranging discussion that touched on Hamas’ ongoing commitment to armed resistance and its vision for a future Palestinian state.

Mashaal credited the success of Hamas in the post-Oslo period with the group's ability to offer an "alternative" to the Fatah-dominated Palestinian leadership. Paraipan pressed him on it.

"What was not accomplished by Oslo has been achieved through our resistance," he told Paraipan. "It compelled [Ariel] Sharon to withdraw from Gaza and to dismantle the settlements.... Should we see our role as providing security for the Israelis, or should we seek a national outcome in favor of the Palestinian people?"

Paraipan questioned Hamas' commitment to armed resistance in light of its participation in the political process.

"We do believe in political work in all its aspects," he told Paraipan. "However, we select the most appropriate type of activity for every stage in the campaign. When there is occupation and people suffering under occupation, the strategic response must be resistance -- a steady and unwavering line of resistance until the occupation is brought to an end.... In 2006 we decided to take part in elections, but we did not do this as an alternative to resistance.... There is no contradiction here."

And when will the "resistance" end?

"When the occupation ends," he said, before adding, "because Hamas is realistic, we have come to an agreement among the Palestinian factions and Arab countries to accept the established state of Palestine on the basis of the borders of 1967, with Jerusalem as the capital, and the right of refugees to return. The biggest compromise has already been made by the Palestinian factions and the Arab states. It was to accept the 1967 borders, leaving us 20% of the whole piece of territory in dispute."

Read the interview in its entirety here on Open Democracy.

-- Meris Lutz in Beirut

Photo: Khaled Mashaal acts as political leader of Hamas from Damascus, Syria. Credit: Karim Jaafar / AFP/Getty

Comments

[Dean Blake]

Thank the Editors for the referral to the entire text, esp.: "The last stage, which has lasted from 2006 till now, started with the participation of Hamas in the election process and the sweeping victory which was such a surprise to everyone around the world.

"Q: Even to you?

"A: The winning as such was not so surprising to us but the size of the vote maybe was. In the immediate aftermath of elections the results were rejected by the Americans, some Palestinians and regional parties.

"The Palestinian people was now collectively punished for this result by besieging it and cutting off its aid. This is the first time in history that a people has been so punished for exercising its democratic choice."

The statement fails to take congnizance that the last terrorist state to have its 'free' election results challanged by the civilized world was Nazi Germany! followd by the Soviet Union, and most recently Mayinmar!

[today]

Hamas are terrorists..who cares what they think!

[mike]

Given the extent to which the Palestinians have now been discredited in the international community, and the extraordinary growth in global support for Israel, at this point it really doesn't matter what Mashaal or other Palestinian leaders say, especially those representing Hamas. Hamas has been defeated. It certainly couldn't even win an election in Gaza today, even if it believed in democracy and would allow elections. Israel has won the war and just needs to stand tough. Eventually the Palestinians will have no choice but to come to their senses and accept the concepts of law, democracy and human rights that the rest of the world so deeply believes in. In the meantime, unfortunately, many Palestinians will continue to suffer. But no one can conceivably blame that on Israel. The Palestinians need to grow up and accept responsibility for their own problems.

[AKBER KASSAM]

I think both Israelis and Palestinians have full right to live, these both nations has problems, I suggest both of this nations to sit to gather and sort it out their differences for the sake of their people. But again Israelis must stop to built houses in Palestinian territory, this will create more problems

Tens of thousands people died in this dispute, now the tine has come to embraced each other and make new start and forget the past. I am not putting any blame on anyone, because blame goes in both direction, now the time has come to end the blame and start new way to normalize their relations.

Our President Barack Obama is ready to witness this peace proposal between these two Nations.

NYC.

[anon]

vc..... Yes, just maybe the Palestinians deserve to get punished? Wow, by the trend of that logic. Maybe, just maybe, the Jews provoked the Nazis.
Jeez, that's the most racist comment I've heard.

[Rachele]

The following, from today's newspaper, is an example of what Israelis have to confront.

Paramedics treating injured Palestinian flee Issawiya after stones damage their vehicle
Yair Altman

Stones were thrown Saturday at an ambulance and an MDA mobile intensive care unit near the village of Al-Azariya just a day after some young Israelis were attacked as they drove through nearby Issawiya, in east Jerusalem. The ambulance teams had been called to the village to treat a young man who had fallen from the fifth floor of a building.

At about 6 pm, an ambulance was called to Al-Azariya, in the vicinity of east Jerusalem. Due to the critical condition of the patient, the intensive care unit was called. As paramedics treated the patient, a number of teens from Issawiya began throwing stones at the vehicle, making the paramedics' task difficult. The windscreen of the vehicles was damaged, as was another Israeli vehicle that was driving behind them.

Hagai Bar-Tov, an MDA paramedic, spoke of those minutes of fear. "On the way to the hospital, as the paramedics treated the patient… we had to take care of our own lives at the same time," he said. "A shower of stones fell on us… Luckily the vehicle was armored, so the windscreen was damaged but not completely broken in."

"Unfortunately, we see once again how terror groups operate without limits, even when it's clear to all that ambulances don't do any damage anywhere in the world" said Danny Rotenberg, MDA spokesman in the Jerusalem region. "The team, which was in the middle of intensive treatment saving the life of a seriously wounded Palestinian patient, feared for its life, making the situation even worse."

Police said they had begun searches in the area to find those responsible for throwing the stones. The police view the incident gravely, as they do the attempted lynch of three students from Givatayim and an Australian tourist. Police sources said they intend to increase operations against stone throwing in Issawiya, to pressure the local population to keep public order.

The students and tourist, who only wanted to go to a pub in the city, almost paid with their lives after making a wrong turn. They said they followed the directions of children in the neighborhood and almost reached the center of Issawiya. When they tried to go back they saw the street was blocked, and the eldest child, who had given directions, throw stones at them. None of the group was injured, despite the shower of stones.

"Luckily the [ambulance]was armored" - This should speak for itself. Israelis have to have armored ambulances in order to save the lives of Palestinians.

"Police sources said they intend to increase operations against stone throwing in Issawiya..." Would police anywhere else in the world do otherwise?

[VC]

In 1967 Israel did not wake up one morning and decide to go to war and take over the Palestinian territory, Israek woke up one morning and found she had to defend herself.
I am not a Jew, I am a Christian, the fact is that the Palestinians are not victims in this conflict.
Israel is surrounded with enemies that underestimated it, and paid the price of their own mistake.
If they had won the 6 days War, they would care less of the predicament of the Israeli people.

Palestinian leaders like Mr.Mashaal continue using the same formula used in 1967, "Aggression" and "Death" , therefore they will continue losing their highest purpose: "a place to call Home".

It is hard to believe that they were the perpetrators and now play the role of the victims, demanding what they lost in the "War" that they provoked in first place.

[Onboard Skeptic]

From Rachele:

"Unlike South Africa, where restrictions were racially motivated, Israel is forced by incessant Palestinian terrorism to take actions, such as building checkpoints and the security fence, to protect its citizens. Israel has consistently demonstrated a willingness, however, to ease restrictions when violence subsides."

And what was the source of the "terrorism"? The fact that enough of the Palestinians could never forgive Israel for the Nakba, the fact they were driven out of their lands when waves of European immigrants came in and seized the Palestinians' territory resulting in the exodus of some 750,000 people. Add to that the '67 War when Palestinians in Jordan were once again dispossessed of their land which when confiscated was then turned into the Settlements.

If your property was seized in such a fashion, maybe you'd just 'turn the other cheek' but clearly a fair number of the Palestinians weren't about to accept these acts in such a "civil" fashion. Hence, the creation of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, etc.

[Rachele]

geo88a - The fact that a man who commits murder against innocent civilians appears rational to you, says more about YOU than him.
You continually refer to Israel as an apartheid state, while nothing could be further from the truth.
Since the United Nations Conference on Racism in August of 2001, anti-Semites and racists have tried to delegitimize Israel by calling it an apartheid state. Their hope is that this false equation will tar Israel and encourage measures similar to those used against South Africa, such as sanctions and divestment, to be applied to Israel.

The comparison is malicious and insults the South Africans who suffered under apartheid.

The term “apartheid” refers to the official government policy of racial segregation formerly practiced in South Africa. The whites sought to dominate the nonwhite population, especially the indigenous black population, and discriminated against people of color in the political, legal, and economic sectors.

•Whites and nonwhites lived in separate regions of the country.
•Nonwhites were prohibited from running businesses or professional practices in the white areas without permits.
•Nonwhites had separate amenities (i.e. beaches, buses, schools, benches, drinking fountains, restrooms).
•Nonwhites received inferior education, medical care, and other public services.
•Though they were the overwhelming majority of the population, nonwhites could not vote or become citizens.
By contrast, Israel’s Declaration of Independence called upon the Arab inhabitants of Israel to “participate in the upbuilding of the State on the basis of full and equal citizenship and due representation in all its provisional and permanent institutions.”

The 156,000 Arabs within Israel’s borders in 1948 were given citizenship in the new State of Israel. Today, this Arab minority comprises 20% of the population.

It is illegal for employers to discriminate on the basis of race and Arab citizens of Israel are represented in all walks of Israeli life. Arabs have served in senior diplomatic and government positions and an Arab currently serves on the Supreme Court.

Israeli Arabs have formed their own political parties and won representation in the Knesset. Arabs are also members of the major Israeli parties. Twelve non-Jews (10 Arabs, two Druze) are members of the Seventeenth Knesset.

Laws dictated where nonwhites could live, work, and travel in South Africa, and the government imprisoned and sometimes killed those who protested against its policies. By contrast, Israel allows freedom of movement, assembly and speech. Some of the government’s harshest critics are Israeli Arabs in the Knesset.

Arab students and professors study, research, and teach at Israeli universities. At Haifa University, the target of British advocates of an academic boycott against Israel, 20 percent of the students are Arabs.

Israeli society is not perfect — discrimination and unfairness exist there as it does in every other country. These differences, however, are nothing like the horrors of the apartheid system. Moreover, when inequalities are identified, minorities in Israel have the right to seek redress through the government and the courts, and progress toward equality has been made over the years.

The situation of Palestinians in the territories is different. While many Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip dispute Israel’s right to exist, nonwhites did not seek the destruction of South Africa, only of the apartheid regime.

Unlike South Africa, where restrictions were racially motivated, Israel is forced by incessant Palestinian terrorism to take actions, such as building checkpoints and the security fence, to protect its citizens. Israel has consistently demonstrated a willingness, however, to ease restrictions when violence subsides.

Beyond limits placed on their ability to attack Israel, roughly 98% of the Palestinians in the territories are governed by the rules of the Palestinian Authority, which do not permit freedom of speech, religion, assembly or other rights taken for granted by Westerners — and guaranteed in Israel.

If Israel were to give Palestinians full citizenship, it would mean the territories had been annexed and the possibility of the creation of a Palestinian state foreclosed. No Israeli government has been prepared to take that step. Instead, Israel seeks a two-state solution predicated on a Palestinian willingness to live in peace.

The clearest refutation of the calumny against Israel comes from the Palestinians themselves. When asked what governments they admire most, more than 80 percent of Palestinians consistently choose Israel because they can see up close the thriving democracy in Israel, and the rights the Arab citizens enjoy there.

[Rachele]

Khaled Mashal was born in the village of Silwad, north of Ramallah, then ruled by Jordan. Mashal attended Silwad Elementary School until the 1967 Six-Day War. His father moved the family to Kuwait (not Jordan) afterward for financial reasons. The were not forced to leave. Most of the residents remained in their towns, cities and villages after the war. In fact very few people left.

[geo88a]

The Israelis denounce this man as "terrorist". He sounds perfectly rational to me.
It's time for the world to stand together in the face of injustice, and stop the assault of men, women, and children in Palestine. Like, we pulled together, to stop another apartheid state, South Africa.
It's time to BOYCOTT, DIVEST, SANCTION ISRAEL.
No more occupation, no more settlements.