-Caveat Lector-
Militants hold gun to Arafat's head
http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/Distribution/Redirect_Artifact/0,4678,0-4
17134,00.html
Ewen MacAskill in Ramallah, West Bank
Wednesday January 3, 2001
The Islamic militant group, Hamas, issued a deadly threat yesterday to the
Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, warning that it would turn its campaign
of terror against him should he agree to a peace deal with President Bill
Clinton.
The leader of Hamas on the West Bank, Hassan Youssof, in an interview with
the Guardian, accompanied the chilling warning with a prediction that Mr
Arafat would be forced to reject the proposed settlement.
Until now, Hamas, the most feared of the Palestinian guerrilla groups, has
struck only against Israeli targets. Although it has long opposed Mr
Arafat's peace negotiations, it is now threatening to extend its campaign of
violence to the Palestinian Authority leadership.
Mr Youssof said the political danger for Mr Arafat was that he could end up
being confronted not only by Hamas but also a breakaway from his own
organisation, Fatah, which he claimed had established strong links with
Hamas since the uprising began in September.
The Hamas warning adds to the already enormous pressure on Mr Arafat, who
met Mr Clinton in Washington last night to discuss the US peace plan.
Mr Youssof said all three key elements of the proposed peace settlement -
the fate of the Palestinian refugees, the future of the Jerusalem holy site
and the territorial division - were unacceptable.
He added: "As a Palestinian organisation, we refuse any agreement that does
not give the Palestinian people three things: the right of its refugees to
return to their homes; all of Jerusalem; and gets all settlers out of the
West Bank and Gaza." The US proposals offer none of those.
Mr Youssof, 49, who has been jailed by Israel and the Palestinian Authority,
hinted strongly that Israel could expect a return to suicide bombings, a
campaign that created terror in Israel between 1994 and 1996. "Hamas will
not stop fighting and bombing until the occupation is over," he said.
Israel has suffered two big bomb explosions in the last week, one in Tel
Aviv and the other, on Monday night, in the coastal town of Netanya in which
more than 30 people were wounded. Israeli police said that one of those it
believed to be responsible for planting the bomb was in a critical
condition.
Hamas described the bombing as the "holy right" of the Palestinian people
but did not accept responsibility, which was claimed by a previously unknown
group, the Vanguard of the Popular Army. Hamas often denies responsibility
in order to avoid retaliation or a crackdown.
Hamas, which was partly financed by the Islamic terrorist Osama bin Laden
until he had to flee from Sudan in 1996, was founded in 1987, during the
first intifada.
The first Hamas suicide bomber killed eight Israelis when he rammed a car
filled with explosives into a crowd in northern Israel in April 1994. The
casualty rate over the next two years was high, as was the psychological
toll on Israelis because the willingness of the bombers to die meant they
could strike almost anywhere.
The campaign was brought to an end when Mr Arafat, under pressure from
Israel, jailed about 900 members of Hamas, most of them since released. Mr
Arafat worked against Hamas with the CIA and Israeli intelligence, Mossad.
Mr Youssof said he could not predict what individual cells of the Izzedine
al-Qassem, the armed wing of Hamas, were plotting but he regarded suicide
bombings as a justifiable Palestinian response to Israel's use of all the
weapons in its arsenal other than nuclear and chemical weapons.
"We have a rule from the Koran and Mohammed that we should not kill any
animal or people. [But] we use this kind of bombing to frighten them into
stopping killing our people and children."
If, as Mr Youssof expects, Mr Arafat has no choice but to reject the deal
because of the division it would create among Palestinians, he predicted
that Hamas would join forces with Fatah - the biggest grouping within Mr
Arafat's Palestinian Liberation Organisation - and other Palestinians in a
united and bigger effort against Israel.
"Fatah is now with Hamas," he said.
Confronted by Israelis killing Palestinians, Mr Youssof said the
Palestinians had no choice: "If people go to your home to kill one or two of
your kids or throw you out on to the streets, will we give them roses or
will we fight?"
Hamas had been increasingly isolated within Palestinian society because of
its opposition to the peace process that led to the Israeli-Palestinian
agreement at Oslo in 1993. But support for Hamas has increased since the
latest intifada began in September, especially in universities.
Mr Youssof said the strength of feeling against the peace negotiations would
be underlined in huge demonstrations planned for tomorrow in the West Bank.
"Seven years of negotiation with Israel did not give us anything of our
rights but it has doubled the number of [Israeli] settlements, closed down
our economy, destroyed homes, and given them control of the whole of
Jerusalem."
Israel blames Mr Arafat for the resurgence of Hamas violence because he
released many of the group's members from jail soon after the latest
intifada began.
Palestinian Authority leaders claim that, although they did release them
from jails because they were under threat from Israeli helicopter attacks,
almost all of them have been rearrested. Part of the reason Mr Arafat threw
open the jails was because of demonstrations in favour of the release of
Hamas in places such as Nablus.
However, Mr Youssof said that of the 120 held in Palestinian Authority jails
before the intifada, only 25 had been rearrested. More than 1,200 Hamas
members are held in Israel.
He admitted that the alliance of the Palestinian, Israeli and US
intelligence agencies had weakened Hamas. Its bomb-makers and others with
technical experience had been singled out and assassinated. But Mr Youssof
said Hamas would emerge stronger from the intifada.
Useful links:
=============
Yasser Arafat's office
http://www.p-p-o.com/
Ehud Barak's office
http://www.pmo.gov.il/english
Palestinian National Authority
http://www.pna.org/
Israeli government
http://www.index.gov.il/eng
Hamas
http://www.palestine-info.net/hamas/index.htm
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