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Hamas Rejects Joining PA, Wants Polls
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“We believe that the right way to do it is through elections,” said
Yusuf.
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GAZA
CITY, July 5, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - The
Palestinian resistance movement Hamas officially rejected an
invitation from the mainstream Fatah faction to join a unity
government, saying the right way to do it is through elections.
“Hamas
has decided not to take part in a cabinet of national unity but the
movement insists that a unitary national committee be set up to
supervise the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza,” Hamas spokesman Mushir
Al-Masri told Agence France-Presse (AFP) Monday, July 4,
On
Friday, July 1, Hamas said it was ready to work with the Palestinian
Authority to prepare for Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip that
is due to start in mid-August.
Hassan
Yusuf, head of Hamas political wing in the West Bank, said it was not
the right time to join forces with Abbas’s Fatah faction inside the
PA.
He
added Hamas would rather await the outcome of legislative elections
which are penciled in for January.
“We
are not interested in being in the PA just for the sake of it,” he
told AFP. “We believe that the right way to do it is through
elections.”
The
popularity of Hamas has soared during more than four years of
Palestinian Intifada, especially in the Gaza Strip, where it made a
strong showing in municipal elections earlier this year.
It
also beat Fatah in four out of five major cities in the second stage
of municipal polls in May before court rulings cancelled results in
three main municipalities and ordered a run-off election, originally
set on July 17 but later put off sine die.
Hamas
also plans to challenge Fatah in the coming legislative ballot.
‘Unacceptable’
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Shalom said any talks with Hamas were unacceptable.
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Meanwhile,
Israel renewed its attack on the European Union Monday for opening
contacts with Hamas, saying even low-level talks “legitimized” the
movement.
Foreign
Minister Silvan Shalom said any talks with the movement were
“unacceptable.”
“Any
European government or organisation which maintains even low-level
contacts with Hamas must know that they are speaking with and
according legitimacy to an organisation which is seeking the
destruction of the state of Israel,” he said in a statement
following talks with his Romanian counterpart Razvan Ungureanu.
British
Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, whose country has just assumed the
revolving presidency of the European Union, recently revealed that
London had held talks with newly elected Hamas mayors.
The
EU special envoy to the Middle East, Marc Otte, also acknowledged
contacts with Hamas last week, saying that they had been limited to
mayors, community leaders and private citizens.
US
officials and diplomats said in June that the Bush administration was
showing signs of easing its hard-line stance on Hamas in response to
the group’s political clout and soaring popularity.
They
said that the policy shift also follows a behind-the-scene push by
European allies, including Britain and France, for Washington to drop
its call to dismantle Hamas altogether.
In
December of last year, Hamas confirmed
that the United States and the European Union had been in indirect
contact with its officials.
In
addition to its resistance to Israeli occupation, Hamas has
infiltrated the ranks of the Palestinian society in all life walks. On
July 1, it organized a mass wedding ceremony for 28 couples in the
West Bank town of Tulkarm.
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