ABD-AL-AZIZ ALl-DUWAYK, speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), said in Amman yesterday that Hamas’s recognition of Israel’s final borders is linked to Israel’s definition of its borders and is subject to a Palestinian public referendum on this issue.
He said that this referendum, which would pave the way for Hamas to accept or reject recognition of the State of Israel, requires prior knowledge of Israel’s borders and the borders of the proposed Palestinian state.
Then ‘we would be able to hold a public referendum giving the Palestinians the right to express their opinion on this issue.’ Until such a referendum is held, Hamas is ready to conclude a long-term truce with Israel in exchange for its return to the 1967 borders, Al-Duwayk stressed in a statement to Al-Dustur.
Al-Duwayk said that the chairman of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) and the former government had recognised Israel, but this did not please Israel because its course is one of expansion and enlargement at the expense of others.
He asked: ‘Where are the borders of the Palestinian state? Can anybody on the surface of this earth, including Bush or Solana, draw up for us borders that will be acceptable to our Palestinian people?’
He added: ‘Therefore, I say that the borders of Palestine are a national issue on which the Palestinian people must be consulted and say their word. The view and decision of this people – who have been unfairly treated for a long time and on whose rights those remote and those near have jumped – must be respected. This is what we will work to achieve from our position in the PLC and the government, which will have an agenda that conforms to the PLC decisions.
Al-Duwayk hinted that Hamas would revise all Palestinian-Israeli agreements and would choose from them those that are in line with the Palestinian people’s interests. He said the criterion used by Hamas, which controls the PLC and the government, is the national interest. He emphasised that Hamas supported and would implement everything that is in line with the Palestinian people’s higher national interests. He criticised US unilateralism in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, stressing that the US position is biased in favour of Israel, demanding that this unilateralism be replaced with a balanced position in which other major powers, including Russia, which had received a Hamas delegation, would participate.
Al-Duwayk said: ‘We do not like the fact that the United States is a monopoly in the political world. There must be a kind of a balance. I believe that Russia is capable of undertaking this task and implementing it successfully. We cannot ignore a state like Russia, which is considered a pioneer in the international arena. Russia is capable of supporting a balance in the world. We like Russia and we believe the Russians are supporting us in the face of the US position.’
He added that the Palestinians are awaiting not only political support but also economic support from Russia. He expressed the belief that Russia can really help the Palestinians to stand on their feet and to build their economic life and that matters would proceed normally afterward. But he noted that Hamas would not accept demands made by the Moscow administration that it renounce violence, recognise Israel and adhere to all Palestinian-Israeli agreements.
Al-Duwayk said: ‘As regards violence, I would like to stress one thing, namely, that the Palestinians are the victims of violence at the hands of the Israelis who have occupied the land of Palestine. Therefore, our dictionary does not contain the word “violence,” but we do have the right to resist the occupiers.’ He added that he does not understand any meaning in the demand that Hamas recognise Israel, saying recognition of a state must be done by another state, not by a political bloc.
He continued: ‘The fact of the matter is that Israel has killed the Oslo accord and the roadmap, which provide for the establishment of a Palestinian state in 2005. We are now in 2006, and as everybody sees, Israel continues to carry out its aggression on the ground in contravention of all signed agreements. Israel is trying to gain more time to confiscate the land and impose a fait accompli policy.’
Duwayk does not agree with PNA President Mahmud Abbas, who calls for the adoption of negotiations as a means to settle the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. He said: ‘Regrettably, the concept of negotiations is now linked, in the minds of the Palestinians, to concessions.
‘The Palestinian street is fed up with these futile negotiations. I believe President Abbas realises this fact and knows that negotiations will not finally lead to the achievement of the Palestinian constants and rights.
‘This was evident in one of his speeches in which he said that Israel did not stop confiscating land, Judaizing Jerusalem, building the separation wall, arresting thousands and killing innocent people daily from the furthest north to the furthest south. The occupation’s latest crime was its imposition of its control over the entire Jordan Valley, which represents one-fourth of the area of the Palestinian land occupied in 1967.
‘Here I ask shall we start the negotiations, which will continue endlessly, without the ordinary citizen feeling new facts?’
He stressed that resistance in all its forms is a guaranteed right for every people suffering under the yoke of the occupation. He said peaceful and popular resistance is a form of struggle, ‘but in view of the existence of an arrogant and criminal enemy that does not acknowledge the rights of others, the Palestinian people should not be deprived of their options guaranteed by international charters and before that by Almighty God’.
On the agreements signed between the Palestinian and Israeli sides, Al-Duwayk said: ‘Our position is clear and frank regarding the signed agreements. We have said and continue to say that we will adhere to any agreement that serves the Palestinian people’s interests and achieves their aspirations. We find no embarrassment in this, because we won the trust of the people on this basis. However, we oppose the agreements that do not serve the Palestinian people’s interests.’
On the relationship between the presidency establishment on the one hand and the PLC and government on the other hand, Al-Duwayk said: ‘We are keen that President Mahmud Abbas remains an esteemed president whose views are respected. We will not put any obstacle to his movement to serve the Palestinian issue and people.’
He stressed that a conflict with the president is out of the question, ‘and if there is a conflict, it is with the arrogant occupation which has turned our land into a reserve place for its unjust expansion. Our relationship with the presidency establishment will be predicated on the basis of dialogue and understanding, since we all have sworn to protect the Palestinian people and their higher interests’.
Al-Duwayk criticised the decision by the European Commission and the United States to cut financial aid to the PNA, saying ‘no one has the right to cut this aid. Whoever is threatening us to cut aid knows well that this is an unjust decision and that we exercised our legitimate right to elect our representatives.
Those who speak about democracy commit an error and contradict their democratic values; this is what we call political hypocrisy, which will utterly fail.
‘The whole world is watching those who are singing the praises of democracy. I tell them that their interests will be affected, if not in the short run, then in the long run’.
He said the Hamas government will continue its efforts to ‘ensure continuity with our Arab and Islamic peoples and to find alternatives that, God willing, can achieve the Palestinian people’s economic interests’. He added: ‘I believe the current economic situation has hit the bottom. The economic situation will improve and the Palestinian people will feel this improvement on the ground of reality.’
