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 *
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
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
