Palestine: We will not sell our people or principles for foreign aid

The Guardian, London


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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.

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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@hotmail.com

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