Hamas warns of new intifada if Palestinian rule fails

September 29, 2003, Palestinian school boys demonstrate for Peace in the third anniversary of the Intifada, Photo by; Nayef Hashlamoun 

By Roula Khalaf in London

April 30 2006

FT.com

A senior Hamas official has warned that attempts to bring down the Palestinian government could provoke the dissolution of the Palestinian Authority and lead to a new, more violent uprising.


Moussa Abu Marzouk, second in command in the Syrian-based leadership of Hamas, said in an interview with the FT that Washington was making a strategic mistake in isolating the new government, a policy he said would backfire.

In a rare reference to the possible collapse of the government now led by the militant group, Mr Abu Marzouk said this would return the situation to the pre-1993 Oslo peace accords, which created the Palestinian Authority, and would force Israel to assume again its responsibilities as an occupying power.

“We will try everything we can to make the government successful and serve the people but if we’re unable to do it, we’ll go back to before.” This meant, he explained, a return to an intifada “even more violent than in the past”, and the collapse of the Palestinian Authority itself.

“You cannot relieve the occupier of all responsibility. Israel used to pay everything, hundreds of millions of dollars; the PA took over responsibility without having sovereignty and they got more than $1bn in yearly financial aid,” he added.

Since the Hamas victory in the January elections, the US has led a campaign to isolate the new government. International donors, including the EU, have cut off direct aid, demanding that Hamas recognise Israel, abide by previous PA agreements and renounce violence.

Some Arab states’ support for the Palestinian government has also been wavering. Jordan last week cancelled a trip by Mahmoud Zahar, the Palestinian foreign minister, saying it had found rocket launchers and explosives smuggled from Syria in a secret arms cache, and was investigating an alleged Hamas plot to attack targets in Jordan. Earlier this month, Mr Zahar was unable to meet his Egyptian counterpart during a trip to Cairo.

Mr Abu Marzouk denied the Jordanian allegations, and said they were part of efforts to undermine the support Hamas has inside Jordan, where half the population is of Palestinian origin.

“Some countries are reluctant to help – Jordan in particular and Egypt in second place, but others, including Saudi Arabia and Kuwait are supporting us and have announced financial pledges,” he said.

Arab states have been seeking to persuade Hamas to sign up to a 2002 Saudi-led Arab initiative stipulating that the Arab world would have normal relations with Israel if it withdrew from all lands occupied in the 1967 Middle East war. Arab officials say this would implicitly accept the two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and amount to recognition of Israel.

Mr Abu Marzouk said Hamas had informed the Saudis that it did not object to – but nor did it accept – the initiative. But given that Israel had rejected it, he said the group could only be asked to consider it when it became “possible”.

Link:

Intifada.com



Palestinian Intifada Second Year (September 28,2001 )
 

I am your child

By Indira

Born of blood, of pain, and dust
A child born a man
Forged by the hands of the unjust
-I am your child

Tanks and bombs cannot shake me
Far more than a man
Your soldiers will never break me
-I am your child

Injustice makes me stronger
Stronger every day
Blood just increases my hunger
-I am your child

The song of justice will appease me
A song you wont sing
In your prison, death just frees me
-I am your child

With every mother's tears
My thirst increases
You have created your worst fears
- I am your child

A phoenix from the ashes
I will rise again
Pour the gas, I light the matches
I am your child

Never did you understand
all my suffering
Now the child has become a man
I am your child

I am-------------INTIFADA