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Hamas leader mashal Obama changedUSrhetoric only

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Hamas leader Mash’al: Obama changed US rhetoric only

 

 Bethlehem – Ma’an – Senior Hamas leader Khalid Mash’al on Thursday criticized US President Barack Obama’s historic speech to the Muslim world as insufficient.

In a televised speech in response to Obama’s 4 June address in Cairo, Mesh’al said that Obama had changed US rhetoric toward the Palestinians, but not the situation on the ground.

“What Obama said wasn’t new and wasn’t enough,” said Mash’al, speaking from Damascus where he resides in exile.

While Obama called for the creation of a Palestinian state, Mash’al criticized the US leader for failing to specify the boundaries and nature of that state. He also said Obama had rejected the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes in what is now Israel.

The Hamas leader also noted that years of negotiations with successive Israeli governments had failed to yield an agreement.

With regard to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech in June at Bar Ilan University, Mash’al said the leader made it clear that they reject Palestinian rights to Jerusalem and the right of return, adding that Hamas "rejects the Israeli stance."

 

He also criticized Netanyahu for respecting the right of self-determination for Israel but not for Palestinians, further condemning the Israeli premier's refusal to stop settlements and demand that Palestine be demilitarized. He said Netanyahu wants Palestine to be "a big prison – not a homeland."

He also refused to accept Israel as a "Jewish state," another of Netanyahu's demands, insisting that budging on this issue would "mean canceling the right of return and expelling the Palestinians living inside Israel from their cities and villages."

The Hamas leader urged the US administration and Quartet to accept that the majority of Palestinians "have no interest in promises to resume negotiations," adding that "such negotiations with the current Israeli government would be absurd."

"The Palestinian cause is not an issue of autonomy, authority, security or funds from donor countries; rather it is about homeland, identity, history and sovereignty on the ground," he added.

Mash’al said that "Jerusalem, the right of return and land are more important to us than authority," so "at a minimum we demand the establishment of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital with full sovereignty within the 1967 borders, removing all checkpoints and achieving the right of return."

He also categorically rejected calls from some fringe right Israeli officials that Palestinians be ethnically cleansed from the territories and resettled in Jordan.

The leader in exile affirmed the need to maintain resistance toward Israel, adding that "no one has the right to deprive us from this right."

Mash’al applauded President Obama's offer for direct talks with Hamas, calling it a "step in the right direction," but rejecting preconditions, which the US has deemed would include recognizing Israel, abiding by past agreements and rejecting violence.

"Hamas' priority is not recognition of itself, but rather the recognition of Palestinians and their right to self-determination," Mash’al added.

Concerning the ongoing Egypt-backed unity talked between rival Palestinian factions, Mash’al said that "it is urgent to confront the extremist Israeli government which doesn't want us to launch negotiations," but he insisted that "it is a national issue to end division between Palestinians."

"The decision taken by Hamas since the first day of division – that was imposed on us – is to work quickly on achieving conciliation through dialogue sponsored by Egypt and cooperating with its efforts." He added that "a Hamas delegation will travel to Egypt on Sunday, where they will hold a meeting with Fatah to overcome these obstacles."

Mash’al added that "the main obstacle to the dialogue is what is happening in the West Bank for two years; resistance and unity are paying price in the West Bank.” He said that “what is happening there is a systematic plan targeting the resistance and all of its wings, through oppressive acts carried out there by [Prime Ministry Salam] Fayyad’s government and supervised by [US General Keith] Dayton coordinating with the [Israeli] occupation to kill or arrest fighters, the latest of which is what happened in Qalqilya."

He noted that "the campaign included arresting hundreds of Hamas and [Islamic] Jihad leaders, university students, scholars, university professors, businessmen and women, more than 880 of them. They released orders defining resistance as illegal and outlawed it." He explained that those who were arrested died from torture or were saved after being transferred to hospitals for treatment," adding that charitable societies and various media organizations were shut down.

He urged President Obama to withdraw Dayton from the West Bank in accordance with the change he is calling for.

Mash’al added that "despite every effort made by Egypt, Syria and other Arab countries, the number of those released [by the PA] are just a few, and there are hundreds who were arrested under the 'revolving door policy' against Hamas and its affiliates in the West Bank."

Concerning prisoners in the Israeli jails Mash’al said that “there are thousands of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, 400 of them are children, the youngest of whom is Yousef Az-Zeq, who has been in jail nearly two years with his mother." The Hamas leader added that “we are working on releasing all of the prisoners and we are carrying out difficult negotiations in this respect, and we are still ready to achieve a swap [for captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit].”

He called on Prime Minister Netanyahu to achieve a "serious deal" in that regard.

Finally, he urged the international community and Arab world to resume its initiatives to break the siege imposed on Gaza, protect Jerusalem and its holy sites and confront Israel's settlement activities and separation wall in the West Bank.

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