{"id":898,"date":"2013-01-28T15:29:40","date_gmt":"2013-01-28T13:29:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/palthink.org\/en\/?p=898"},"modified":"2013-01-28T15:29:40","modified_gmt":"2013-01-28T13:29:40","slug":"a-special-meeting-with-the-head-of-the-hamas-international-relations-department","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/palthink.org\/en\/2013\/01\/898\/","title":{"rendered":"A Special Meeting with The Head of the Hamas International Relations Department"},"content":{"rendered":"

[highlight]Gaza, Wednesday 23rd of January 2013\u00a0[\/highlight]<\/p>\n

Preface<\/p>\n

Palthink for Strategic Studies hosted Osama Hamdan the International Relations Officer of Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas). \u00a0The two-hour special meeting was attended by more than 200 people representing civil society figures, activists, academicians, representatives of the Christian community, representatives of political parties, journalists and social media activists, youth and women. The meeting comes as part of Palthink\u2018s effort to address issues of significance to the Palestinian and International levels through building a bridge between decision makers and the society.<\/p>\n

Opening<\/p>\n

Omar Shaban, the director of Palthink for Strategic Studies, who moderated the session , welcomed the guests, \u00a0and put forward a number of questions that pivoted around significant issues like, the new changes sweeping across the Arab World, the conflict in Syria, the Israeli elections, the Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations in case they were resumed, the performance of Hamas government in Gaza and the principle of accountability and Fatah movement anniversary celebration that took place in Gaza a few weeks ago.<\/p>\n

Hamas and the International Community<\/p>\n

\u201cHamas is open to the entire world,\u201d with these words Osama Hamdan described Hamas doctrine in dealing with the world. He recognized the significance of the international context in affecting the reality of the Middle East in general, and the Palestinian issue in particular.<\/p>\n

Hamdan pointed out that Hamas was regarded by the United States of America as a terrorist organization and was included in designated terrorist organizations list in 1993. Hamadan also referred to the European Commission position which took similar step in 2003. However, Hamas held several meetings with a number of European political figures from various European capitals as the EC decision was binding all kinds of relations with Hamas only to the European institutions, and not to the EU member states. Hamdan explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had talks with 12 European countries,\u201d Hamdan stated. He also referred to \u201cchannels of communication\u201d with the American Administration which were stopped because of having them known by the public.<\/p>\n

He also added that Hamas movement did not confine its relations to the West but also opened up to the rest of the world and established relations with China, Russia, South America, Africa and some Islamic countries in East Asia like Malaysia and Indonesia.<\/p>\n

Addressing the significance of the Palestinian issue and its relation to the world. Hamdan stated that \u201cending occupation will contribute in promoting international stability.\u201d<\/p>\n

In this context of Hamas’s relations with the West, Hamdan mentioned that the West encouraged Hamas to participate in the Palestinian legislative council elections of 2006 and asked Hamas to accept the results of the elections. When Hamas won the elections, he added, the West made a decision to besiege and boycott the government formed by Hamas and imposed three conditions to deal with Hamas. The conditions, according to Hamdan, were recognizing Israel; recognize the previously signed agreements between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, and to renounce violence.<\/p>\n

\u00a0“The West should not impose conditions to talk with any of the Palestinian parties and should accept them as they are without thinking about reformulating them in accordance with its interests. Hamas will not recognize Israel and it refuses to negotiate with Israel, but if the international community wants us to negotiate, we should first revise the track of negotiations which continued more than twenty years without yielding any results and this should happen for the good of the Palestinian people” Hamdan elaborated.<\/p>\n

The Syrian Crisis<\/p>\n

With regard to the current conflict in Syria, Hamdan pointed out that Hamas made great efforts for not involving the Palestinians in the ongoing conflict in Syria and condemned the Syrian regime’s killing of both the Palestinians and the Syrians. “Hamas is moving at all levels to stop the Syrian Regime’s targeting of the Palestinian refugee camps in Syria, especially in Al-Yarmouk camp and to oust the Palestinians from the equation of the conflict.” He said.<\/p>\n

Hamas Position from the Israeli Elections<\/p>\n

In his answer to the question about the Israeli elections, Hamdan said that there are differences between the Israeli rightist and leftist parties; however, the strategy of the \u201cIsraeli entity,\u201d according to Hamdan, is one. Hence, any Israeli party comes to power will follow the same strategy which is to continue the occupation of the Palestinian land and the oppression and deportation of the Palestinian people.<\/p>\n

He also expected Benjamin Netanyahu to preside over the next Israeli government and to continue his same old policy if not becoming even more strict as a result of the new political agenda and this, Hamadan added, entails that the Palestinians should expedite the Palestinian reconciliation to stand as one people against the Israeli occupation and they as well as the Arabs should sever all ties with the occupation.<\/p>\n

Back to Negotiations?<\/p>\n

In his comment on the possibility of the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbass\u2019 \u201cback to negotiations\u201d option, Hamdan called for rethinking the entire peace process. \u00a0\u201cThere is something wrong with this long peace process. We call for a comprehensive national rethinking of the peace process. We need to a fair and balanced evaluation of the peace process in order to decide the next step,\u201d Hamdan stated.<\/p>\n

Evaluation of Hamas\u2019 Gaze Government Performance<\/p>\n

With Regard to a question about Hamas\u2019 evaluation of the performance of its government in Gaza, Hamdan stated that \u201cWe are not an impeccable movement,\u201d referring to Hamas movement. He added \u201cThe core idea of being involved in governance is to serve the Palestinian society. Thus, there is nothing wrong with reviewing the performance of our government in Gaza as we do not claim that we are a movement that does not commit mistakes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fatah Rally<\/p>\n

Hamadan emphasized the significance of Fatah movement. He said that it is normal to see Fatah\u2019s masses in the latest rally. Hamdan said that Hamas did not repress the Fatah masses and that he was \u201chappy\u201d to see the scene of the rally taking place within a \u201ctolerant\u201d and \u201charmonious\u201d atmosphere.<\/p>\n

Discussions<\/p>\n

Hamda\u2019s speech was followed by a hot discussion as the attendees addressed significant issues such as national unity and reconciliation talks, latest arrest of journalists in Gaza, elections.<\/p>\n

Hamdan emphasized Hamas\u2019s commitment to national reconciliation as he mentioned \u201cmajor progress\u201d to take place in February referring to the excepted Cairo talks to be held in February. \u201cWe will not accept division,\u201d he said, and added \u201cending political division does not necessarily mean the presence of one absolute political program\u2026reconciliation means having the basic foundation for victory…it means a unified position against Israel and this was proved during the last aggression when Palestinian stood unified and Israel was forced to cease fire.\u201d<\/p>\n