http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=331916&version=1&template_id=37&parent_id=17
Hamas will not follow PLO line, says Haniya
Publish Date: Monday,14 December, 2009, at 10:50 PM Doha Time
Agencies/Gaza
Palestinians shout slogans during a rally in Gaza City yesterday
marking the 22nd anniversary of the foundation of Hamas
The Islamist movement Hamas served notice yesterday that it would ignore
any decisions by the Palestine Liberation Organisation this week about future
leadership and peace talks with Israel.
"Hamas will not retreat from Jihad and resistance until it achieves
freedom and independence for our people," Gaza Strip Prime Minister Ismail
Haniya told a huge rally. "We will not recognise Israel and we will not abandon
resistance," he said.
In a speech underlining the split in Palestinian ranks between his
movement and the secular Fatah group, the Hamas leader in Gaza said any
decisions taken by the PLO Central Council meeting in the West Bank would be
unconstitutional.
"We say to PLO Central Council members who will meet tomorrow in Ramallah
that any decision that contradicts the constitution and contradicts the will of
the people, will not be binding," he told tens of thousands of supporters.
Hamas rules the cramped Mediterranean enclave, which was hammered by an
Israeli military offensive a year ago. Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005 and
after driving out the mainstream Fatah movement in 2007, Hamas took full power.
Fatah said in a statement that the speech showed Hamas wanted to entrench the
Palestinian division. Hamas had closed the door on Egyptian reconciliation
efforts, it added.
As supporters celebrated the anniversary of the foundation of Hamas 22
years ago, Haniya promised no wavering from the goal of "a Palestine from the
sea to the river (Jordan), a land of Islamic Waqf (religious endowment)".
Hamas does not recognise Israel's right to exist and opposes the Fatah strategy
pursued by President Mahmoud Abbas of seeking to negotiate a permanent peace
deal.
Haniya said Israel's December 27-January 18 offensive against Gaza,
launched with the stated aim of quelling rocket fire into Israel by Hamas and
other armed groups, had failed to crush Hamas. "Those who planned the war and
executed it did not expect these crowds to come today waving their
flags...Hamas did not collapse after the war, the enemy leaders collapsed," he
said.
He also defied Israel's blockade of Gaza, which bars materials to rebuild
homes and factories destroyed by the offensive, in which Palestinian say 1,400
of their people were killed. Thirteen Israelis lost their lives. "After four
years of blockade, we say the fortresses will never collapse and the castles
will never be penetrated and we will never make political concessions," Haniya
said.
Supporters carried large green banners and portraits of Ahmed Yassin, the
wheelchair-bound cleric who founded and led the group until he was killed in an
Israeli air strike in 2004. "In the 22 years since its founding, Hamas has been
able to realise a large part of its goals and to overcome every obstacle it has
faced, from prison, exile, assassinations and elections," senior Hamas leader
Mahmoud Zahar said.
"Our understanding of the resistance is total, and is not limited to
armed conflict," he added in an interview with a news website close to the
smaller Islamic Jihad faction. Abu Obeida, a spokesman for Hamas's armed wing
the Ezzedine Al Qassam Brigades, which was responsible for scores of deadly
attacks and suicide bombings in Israel, praised the group's military evolution.
"We have been able to build an army for resistance and to haunt the Zionist
enemy," he said in a statement on a Qassam-linked website.
<<spacer.gif>>
<<2_331912_1_248.jpg>>
