Hamas to keep opposing Israel
DAMASCUS, Syria – Days after Hamas’ victory in Palestinian parliamentary elections, the group’s exiled political leader vowed Saturday to continue a confrontation with Israel and suggested that the radical Islamic movement would turn its military wing into a national army for defensive reasons “like any other country.”
“As long as we are under occupation then it is our right to resist,” Khaled Meshal, who lives in Syria’s capital, said at a news conference.
Meshal added that as long as Israel targets Palestinians, Hamas would continue to target Israelis.
His comments marked his first formal statement since Hamas won a huge majority in the Palestinians’ next parliament, throwing the political system into uncertainty.
They came on a day when young activists from the defeated Fatah movement, whose monopoly on political power ended with Hamas’ triumph, demonstrated in several West Bank cities and in the Gaza Strip.
Early in the day, Fatah gunmen briefly occupied the parliament buildings in Gaza City and Ramallah, in the West Bank, although the legislature was not in session. In Nablus, roughly 2,000 Fatah members, some firing into the air, marched through the streets, angry at their party’s leadership for the election defeat.
Hamas, formally known as the Islamic Resistance Movement, is designated a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States and the European Union. Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority’s president and leader of Fatah, has said he will invite Hamas to form the next cabinet.
Meshal said Saturday he would consult with Abbas in the coming days in hopes of forming a “national partnership.” Fatah leaders, however, have said they would not participate in a Hamas cabinet.
Officials from the Bush administration, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations are scheduled to meet Monday to begin discussing whether to continue funding a Palestinian government that will include Hamas in a prominent role. Israel and the Bush administration have demanded that Hamas renounce violence, recognize the Jewish state and disarm its military wing before joining the government.
“I say to the American administration and to the Europeans and to the international community who are asking us to stop the resistance – or as they call it, terrorism – that if they don’t like the way our armed groups look, we are ready to unify them with the consensus of all Palestinians and make them an army like any other country,” Meshal said.
Mark Regev, a spokesman for Israel’s Foreign Ministry, said, “Hamas shouldn’t be playing verbal gymnastics.”
“If they want people to see them as a legitimate part of a political process, it is very clear what they must do,” Regev said. “First and foremost, they must renounce terrorism and disarm. And secondly, they have to support peace and accept Israel’s right to exist.”
Meshal said he had received calls from the leaders of Yemen, Qatar and Syria and from religious figures throughout the Muslim world to congratulate Hamas on its victory. He also called for a larger European role in mediating the conflict with Israel and said the group would be willing to open a dialogue with the United States provided it was not based only on U.S. terms.