Mashaal: Palestinians 'ready to starve' rather than submit
Orly Halpern
THE JERUSALEM POST
Feb. 15, 2006
On a day when The New York Times reported that the US and Israel were in
cahoots, intending to destabilize the newly elected Hamas-led Palestinian
government by cutting off funding, Hamas chief in exile Khaled Mashaal attacked
the policies of Western governments and Israel on Tuesday saying Hamas would
never recognize Israel, and calling for the "liberation of Jerusalem."
"Our goal is to free Jerusalem and to purify Al-Aksa Mosque," said the
Damascus-based leader, according to Hamas's Web site. "Islam is strong," he
reportedly said in a speech to a crowd in Sudan's capital Khartoum, "because its
strength is from God, and it will continue to go forward despite those who
oppose it. Don't fear, we will not recognize Israel."
With the possibility of foreign funding being cut off, Mashaal began a tour of
Muslim countries last week in order to drum up financial support. But he told
his audience that "we are a nation which is ready to starve and die." His words
echoed the goal of a plan described by the Times, which said that Israeli and US
officials would try to "starve the Palestinian Authority of money and
international connections to the point where, some months from now, its
chairman, Mahmoud Abbas, is compelled to call a new election.
"The hope is that Palestinians will be so unhappy with life under Hamas that
they will return to office a reformed and chastened Fatah movement."
Professor Shaul Mishal of Tel Aviv University, an expert on Hamas, told The
Jerusalem Post that withholding funds from the Palestinians could have a
"boomerang effect." "I think the problem now is that you can no longer use the
preelection logic that without donor aid the Palestinians can't work and that
they will have to raise their hands and give up," said.
Mishal, who wrote The Palestinian Hamas: Vision, Violence and Coexistence, said
that the reaction of the Muslim world had to be taken into account.
"This is not some corner of the world, this is Palestine," he said. "It is a
litmus paper for the rest of the Muslim world. There could be a civil
uprising... The moment they see the pictures of hungry children, there will be
charity to help them. The West calls for democracy but then rejects it when it
does not suit them."
Mishal said Mashaal's call to liberate Jerusalem was a call to the Muslim world,
because Jerusalem is the third holiest Muslim site.
"This is strategic rhetoric to draft the Muslim world," he said. "Fatah has
America, Hamas has the Muslim world."
Hamas condemned the plan described by the Times, as did Palestinian leaders from
across the political spectrum.
Liberal-minded secular Palestinian leader, Mustafa Barghouti, told the Post that
such a move would be "immoral" saying if "[the US and Israel] expect democracy
they have to accept the results." Barghouti warned that cutting off funds to the
PA would have grave consequences for Israel and the region.
"I believe if they put people under more hardship they will become more
radical," said Barghouti, who ran on the Independent Palestine list in the
recent Palestinian election.
Mushir Al-Masri, a Hamas PLC member from Gaza, said an attempt to cause the
Hamas government to fall was a "rejection of the democratic process, which the
Americans are calling for day and night. It's an interference and a collective
punishment of our people because they practiced the democratic process in a
transparent and honest way."
In his speech Mashaal said the Palestinians no longer trusted the Europeans, and
referred to the Holocaust: "What did you do to us? Do you want us to give you 50
more years? You sowed Israel among us. You did an injustice to the Jews in your
countries and you pushed them on us. We never did to them the injustice that
they did to us. Facing all this, and facing the occupation, you don't want us to
struggle.
"What did international decisions do for us? Is there a single European country
that forced Israel to uphold a single international decision like the one
regarding the fence? We don't believe you and we don't trust you and we won't
wait for you."
Aid organizations made a joint appeal to Western governments on Tuesday not to
stop aid to the Palestinians, reported Agence France Presse.
Thirty-one international organizations, including Oxfam and Medecins du Monde,
said the local Palestinian population was in desperate need of foreign support.
Outgoing Palestinian Foreign Minister Nasser Al-Kidwa urged the international
community not to cut off funding to the PA once Hamas takes power.
"The aid for Palestinians should continue, despite the political situation and
the parties that are in government," Kidwa said after meeting German Foreign
Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
AP contributed to this report.
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