Hamas Chief: 'We want the world to hear from us, not about us'

During a meeting with foreign reporters, Chief of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), Ismail Haniyeh, outlined on Thursday the goals and priorities of his movement.

“We want the world to hear from us, not hear about us from the Israeli occupation,” Haniyeh told the reporters at the beginning of the meeting, which was simultaneously translated to English.

“We only want to give a truthful narrative about the Israeli crimes, which amount to war crimes, including killings, detentions, erasing identities, settlements, use of lethal force against civilians and peaceful protesters,” he said.

Giving examples about the Israeli crimes, he said: “In Jerusalem, there is judaisation, house demolitions, partitioning of Al-Aqsa Mosque, barring of our Christian brothers from reaching the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

“In the West Bank, besides the 100s of checkpoints, settlements, Separation Wall, the Israeli occupation is dividing it into cantons, cutting short the possibility of establishing a contiguous Palestinian state.”

About these crimes, he said: “The Israeli occupation is ignoring all international resolutions and continue building settlements to bring more settlers. Going beyond this, it is now planning to annex these settlements.”

He continued: “Gaza, is under a 13-year-old siege because of its democratic choice; however, the elections which brought Hamas to power were monitored by international bodies, including the Carter Centre.

“Gaza was subjected to four Israeli military offensives that resulted in thousands of deaths, wounded and handicapped. During these offensives, the Israeli occupation used internationally-banned weapons.”

Great March of Return

Regarding economy, Haniyeh said: “The siege imposed on Gaza has resulted in much suffering, restricting the freedom of movement of students, patients and everyone in Gaza. In response, the Palestinians thought of all means to break the siege, including the Great March of Return (GMR).

“Thousands took part in the GMR peacefully, but the occupation faced them with live ammunition and deliberately killing –more than 300 martyrs, wounding and maiming thousands.

“International bodies found that the Israeli occupation forces used lethal force, yet its Western allies ignored all of these reports. The Israeli occupation ignores these reports and continues its attacks, targeting everything in Palestine.”

Understandings in danger

“We did not spare any effort to end the Gaza siege, including the ongoing understandings,” he said. “We stuck to these understandings, remained committed to ending the suffering of our people in Gaza to afford a decent life for our children, women and youth, as well as to avoid any Israeli aggression on our people.”

Haniyeh said that the ongoing understandings are being mediated by Egypt, Qatar and the UN and “Hamas respects these sides and respects their mediation.”

Equally, the Israeli occupation must also respect this mediation. “But the occupation is apparently disrespecting these understandings by refusing to fulfil their terms. They are now in danger of collapsing.”

Palestinians in (Israel)

About the Palestinians in Palestine occupied in 1948 (Israel), Haniyeh said: “They are suffering discrimination and apartheid. The last form of discrimination and apartheid is the Jewish-State Law which means annulling Palestinian rights and discarding their history.

This law aims to displace all the Palestinians force them to the West Bank, Gaza Strip or elsewhere.”

Palestinian diaspora

Haniyeh said: “There are more than seven million Palestinian refugees who have been deprived of uniting with their relatives, returning to their homes.

On the occasion of the International Refugee Day, we stress that all attempts to cancel the Right of Return will not succeed.”

Haniyeh condemned the international silence regarding the Israeli occupation crimes against the Palestinians.

Hamas priorities

About Hamas priorities, Haniyeh said: “Based on its being a resistance movement and part of the Palestinian people and the fact that it believes in democracy, Hamas is committed to restoring Palestinian unity. “We are ready to make all the necessary concessions to achieve unity, but not to concede anything related to our political principles,” he said.

About how to achieve unity, Haniyeh said: “By holding elections, forming a national unity government, rearranging and rebuilding the PLO to include Hamas, Islamic Jihad and all factions.”

He said the US proposed Deal of the Century poses a threat to the Palestinian national cause by giving the green light to annex West Bank and maintain the blockade of Gaza. Hence it is rejected.

Haniyeh also referred to the Manama Conference and the attempts to turn the Palestinian cause from political to economic issue. “We reject the Manama Conference and its attempt to become a gateway to the normalisation of ties with Israel.”