In a statement on Saturday to mark the 7th anniversary of the Palestinian Intifada, Hamas warned of a ‘dangerous plot in accordance with a Zionist-American plan aimed at settling the Palestinian issue with the participation of Palestinian symbols’.
The statement said: ‘The blessed Al-Aqsa Intifada enters its eight year more robust, more resolute, and more defiant in the face of the Zionist occupation and its bloody crimes against the steadfast Palestinian people and amid total international silence and unlimited US support for the criminal policies of the occupation against our people.’
Hamas added: ‘Our people have proven their strong position and their true affiliation to their cause, to their homeland.
‘Our people have proven their loyalty to the blood of their martyrs and to the agony of their prisoners.
‘Our people have proven their ability to resist and stand fast, regardless of the sacrifices and agonies, and regardless of the blockade and pain. The flame of resistance will remain blazing against the Zionist occupation and its plans to liquidate the Palestinian issue.’
Hamas pointed out that the Al-Aqsa Intifada completes its seventh year while the Palestinian issue ‘is facing a dangerous plot’ through the agenda prepared by the US administration for the fall conference.
‘The aim of this conference is to cancel out the Palestinian people’s right to Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque, annul the right of the refugees to return to their homes, and settle the Palestinian issue in a way that will enable the occupation to achieve its wicked aims of entrenching its presence in our land of historical Palestine.’
Hamas emphasised that ‘the blessed Al-Aqsa Intifada is continuing with strong momentum derived from the blood of the martyrs and the steadfastness of the Palestinian people against the plots aimed at liquidating the Palestinian issue.
‘Experiences of all the peoples of the world have proved that resistance is the only way to retrieve stolen rights and live in dignity.’
Hamas affirmed its adherence ‘to all our Palestinian people’s rights and national constants, to the Palestinian identity of all our occupied land, to the Arab and Islamic character of Jerusalem, and to the right of the Palestinian refugees to return to their homes’.
It also affirmed its rejection of all compromises calling for the negation of the Palestinian people’s rights.
Hamas said: ‘There is no legitimacy to any symbol or leader who gives up any of the rights or constants of our Palestinian people.
‘Therefore, everything that might come out of the fall conference (called by US President George Bush) and that might diminish our people’s rights and undermine their constants will not represent the Palestinian people or their resistance. Any such results will absolutely be not recognised.’
Hamas added: ‘We call on President Mahmoud Abbas to side with the Palestinian people’s option and support their resistance project, which they chose in the Palestinian Legislative Council elections.
‘We also call on him to leave and not to rely on American and Zionist illusions.
‘The Americans and Zionists do not hesitate to turn their back on any president after his pocket becomes empty of concessions and he cannot give anymore.’
Hamas continued: ‘We renew our call for Palestinian national dialogue distant from American-Zionist hegemony, which fuels the internal division of the Palestinian people. Our hand is still extended and we will not go back on our call for dialogue.’
Hamas addressed greetings to ‘the lions languishing in the occupation prisons’.
It said: ‘We clasp their hands and call for more patience on pain and separation from relatives and beloved ones. Dawn is coming. All means are available to the sons of the resistance to free our prisoners from captivity.’
Hamas also addressed greetings to ‘the Arab and Islamic states that support the steadfastness and perseverance of the Palestinian people on their land’.
It urged them to ‘break the unjust blockade imposed on our people and to offer more political support for the Palestinian issue and rights as well as financial support to strengthen their steadfastness and perseverance in this stifling crisis they are experiencing because of the unjust blockade imposed on them’.
In closing, Hamas called on the Arab and Islamic masses ‘to support the Palestinian people through more cohesion and interaction with the Palestinian issue and by offering all kinds of political, financial, media, and moral support, as we have always known them’.
In its statement to mark the anniversary, Islamic Jihad said ‘our basic mission is to safeguard the resistance and its flaming embers’.
The Islamic Jihad Movement statement said: ‘O masses of our steadfast people; O masses of our Arab and Muslim nation: The intifada of our Palestinian people is entering its eighth year as our cause is passing through one of the most serious stages of its history.
‘The Zionist aggression – in the form of killings, detentions, siege, destruction, and building of settlements – is escalating and the plots of the alliances of global evil are not stopping as they try to harm our people’s steadfastness and liquidate our just cause by seeking to isolate our people from their Arab and Islamic depth.
‘They are also targeting the countries and peoples that support and back our people’s resistance and their adherence to their rights using all means to mislead and deceive the peoples of the world and mobilise them in support of the evil and rancorous intentions of the US Administration in its crusader war against our Arab and Islamic world.
‘The vicious onslaught against our people and nation is intensifying in concurrence with the wicked call for an international conference and the secret and public meetings, contacts, and negotiations, particularly security negotiations, with the Zionist enemy.
‘The various threads of the onslaught are being woven and will be crowned with open normalisation in which Arab towns and capitals would become a breeding ground for Zionist decadence.’
The statement stressed: ‘The Zionist scheme against the land of Palestine does not target only the land of Palestine. It is a western scheme that aims at imposing its control on the entire Arab and Islamic region.
‘It aims at preventing our ummah from rising and regaining its pioneer role in civilisation. Thus, it is a colonialist scheme based on violence and terrorism, the usurpation of fortunes, and the dissemination of division and estrangement.
‘What has been happening in the past few years in Palestine, Iraq, Lebanon, Sudan, and elsewhere clearly demonstrates the linkage of the schemes and alliances of evil.
‘With the advent of the eighth year of the blessed intifada and based on the above, we in the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine affirm the following:
‘First, the Palestinian people and resistance stand in the forefront trench in defence of the future and honour of every single Arab and Palestinian Muslim in a battle that is the battle of everyone.
‘All Muslims, Arabs, and Palestinians are one united side in this battle despite the differences that arise here and there.
‘Second, this long and open-ended battle that has been raging for almost centuries requires patience, perseverance, and strong endurance.
‘It will not end with a political or security agreement and the Zionist enemy cannot win it despite its arrogant power and the total bias of the powers of evil in its favour.
‘If the enemy has a surplus of power, our people have a surplus of will and steadfastness.
‘Third, the most important achievement that our people accomplished in this round – that began with the intifada of the stones in 1987 and developed to the intifada of Al-Aqsa – is that all our Palestinian people now endorse the plan of resistance in confronting the Zionist schemes.
‘Fourth, our people are determined to continue their jihad and resistance as they protect their blessed intifada, cling to their unity, and reject the policy of separation and division that is part of the plot against the people and the cause.
‘Fifth, one of our most basic missions is to protect the resistance, safeguard its flaming embers on the land of Palestine, and restore our ummah’s role in the struggle with the Zionist enemy.
‘It is high time for the ummah to unite in confronting the global alliance of evil. There is no other way for the ummah to unite except it champions and rallies behind Palestine, the central issue of the ummah.
‘Sixth, we warn against any attempts to abort the blessed Al-Aqsa intifada through a humiliating political agreement reminiscent of the Oslo agreement that destroyed the accomplishments and legendary sacrifices of our people during the blessed intifada of the stones.
‘We emphasise that our people will rise to reject any such attempt and will not allow their sacrifices to be sidelined under any pretext.
‘Finally, as we recall the Alley of Death Operation in Hebron, the heroic Khaybar Conquest Operation, the heroic martyrs, headed by heroic martyr Muhammad al-Shaykh Khalil, and as we observe the anniversary of the blessed intifada that is providing us with shade in this month of blessings and victories, we salute and express our pride in and appreciation for the families of the heroic martyrs and our brothers the heroic prisoners and wounded.
‘We salute the masses of our people in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. We salute the heroes of the October resurgence, our steadfast 1948 kinfolks, and all the sons of our people in the diaspora. The jihad will continue until victory or martyrdom.’