Issue no 112

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Issue No : 112 8 th December , 2014

Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia

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Malaysia to use UNSC to defend Palestine against zionist atrocities: Ahmad Zahid

Gaza engineer develops new technology to replace cement

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FEATURED STORY

Read in This Issue

Hamas leader says ‹Stripping Palestinians of Hope› will lead to chaos

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Report: IOF arrested 600 Palestinians last month

Settler’s false alarm takes the life of Amal Taqatqa

Israeli PM calls early election, fires top ministers

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Lapid: Netanyahu lives in an aquarium, will fail at next elections

P15Malaysia & Palestine

Interviews

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CONTENTS

News of Palestine :

Settler’s false alarm takes the life of Amal Taqatqa 4

Gaza fisherman shot, critically injured by Israeli Navy 5

Occupation bulldozers demolish old building and 10 shops in Jerusalem 6

Israel deports three Palestinians from Jerusalem 6

Settlers cut down ‘50 olive trees’ in Nablus village 7

Israeli Settler shoots two Palestinians in Ramallah 8

Report: IOF arrested 600 Palestinians last month 9

Gaza engineer develops new technology to replace cement 10

Hamas: Dissolution of Israeli coalition proves resistance›s victory 12Isr

Israel Insider

Israeli PM calls early election, fires top ministers 13

Lapid: Netanyahu lives in an aquarium, will fail at next elections 14

Malaysia & Palestine

Malaysia to use UNSC to defend Palestine against zionist atrocities: Ahmad Zahid 15

Interviews

Hamas leader says ‹Stripping Palestinians of Hope› will lead to chaos 16

Palestinian Cultural

Organization Malaysia

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News of Palestine

Amal Taqtaqa, 22, was shot and killed Monday in cold blood while on her way from Beit Fujar town to al-Khalil city center to prepare for her wedding planned to be held a few weeks later.

Israeli forces suddenly opened their machine-gun fire at the young woman after receiving a false alarm saying that she plans to carry out a stabbing attack.

Israeli settlers and soldiers have received orders to open fire at the entrance to Beit Fujar town in case of any suspicious attack. Unfortunately, Amal was walking alone at the meantime.

Eyewitnesses confirmed that a group of settlers and Israeli sol-diers chased a young woman at the main road leading to the town before opening fire at her.

The young woman was hit with twenty bullets by Israeli soldiers and settlers and transferred in an Israeli ambulance vehicle to Haddasah hospital after prevent-ing the Palestinian Red Crescent from reaching her after the shoot-ing.

Shortly after the cold-blooded murder, Israeli and Arab media outlets published false informa-tion about the victim, claiming that she is an ex-detainee who had previously carried out a simi-lar stabbing attack in the same place.

Settler’s false alarm takes the life of Amal Taqatqa

Amal’s family denied the media allegations, confirming that their girl was never been arrested.

Amal was on her way to the city’s shopping center to prepare for her wedding a month later, the family clarified.

Large numbers of IOF soldiers raided Amal’s home a few hours after the gun-fire attack and arrested her father.

Israeli media outlets later published photos from the scene showed a wood-handled steak knife allegedly used as the attack weapon, and conducted interviews with the settler who claimed being injured during the attack.

However, eyewitnesses confirmed that the settler narrated a fabricat-ed story.

The incident was carried out at the major crossroad near the Gush Etzion bloc that is located between al-Khalil and Bethlehem. The men-tioned area is considered a hot spot where Palestinian citizens are usually arrested for allegedly being involved in stone-throwing attacks.

During the past two years, a big number of minors were nabbed in Beit Fujar town, while several military campaigns were carried out in the town.

2/12/2014 Source: PIC

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A Palestinian fisherman was injured by fire from an Israeli naval boat, Wednesday, while sailing offshore of Gaza City, according to witnesses.

They said that an Israeli naval boat opened fire at 23-year-old fisherman Fakher Abu Rayyala, while he sailing within the six-nautical-miles allowed fishing zone, seriously injuring him.

Abu Rayyala was transferred, with serious wounds, to a hospital for medical treatment, where he was set to undergo emergency surgery.

WAFA notes that the Israeli navy continues to target Pal-estinian fishermen sailing off the coasts of Gaza despite a ceasefire deal, made on August 26th, and which recently put an end to the latest Israeli military aggression on the region.

4/12/2014 Source: IMEMC

Gaza fisherman shot, critically injured by Israeli Navy

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Occupation bulldozers demolish old building and 10 shops in Jerusalem

Israel deports three Palestinians from Jerusalem

Israeli occupation forces on Wednes-day morning evicted old building and 10 shops in Shu’fat camp for demoli-tion. The buildings belong to Palestin-ians living in the camp, Jerusalem.

Local sources told PNN that mass forces of Israeli occupation, accompa-nied with bulldozers, broke into Shu’fat camp in Jerusalem, stood on the roof-tops of the houses and prepared to demolish an old building known as the “former Coca Cola building,” in addi-tion to 10 industrial shops which they evicted for demolition.

Israeli authorities have deported three Palestinians from their homes in Jeru-salem as of November 20 and until 30 April 2015. The Palestinians – Daud Ghoul (age 31), Majed Darwish (age 24) and Saleh Derbas (age 23) – will be criminally prosecuted and possibly sent to jail should they be found within the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem during this time.

Ghoul, Darwish and Derbas are com-munity activists and their expulsion vio-lates Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits forcible transfer of the protected population un-der occupation.

The Palestinian prisoner rights group Addameer notes that this decision is part of Israel’s collective, political, eth-

Sources predicted the demolition act to be in purpose of expanding checkpoint near the camp.

3/12/2014 Source: PNN

nic and spatial cleansing of Palestinian residents of Jerusalem. It is further complemented by Israeli racist laws, including the policy of home demolitions and resumption of administrative detention against Jerusalemites.


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Settlers cut down over 50 olive trees in the Nablus village of Aqraba on Friday, Palestinian official Ghassan Daghlas said.

Settlers from Elon Moreh, located east of Nablus, attacked Aqraba and cut down 50 olive trees from the Juhr al-Dik area of the village.

The trees belonged to Said Bani Jame.

Several other trees were damaged during the attack, Daghlas add-ed.

The villagers have filed an official complaint to Israeli authorities through the Palestinian liaison office.

Over 7,500 olive trees were damaged or destroyed by settlers be-tween January and mid-October in 2012, according to OCHA.

Settler violence against Palestinians and their property in the occu-pied West Bank is systematic and ignored by Israeli authorities, who rarely intervene in the violent attacks or prosecute the perpetrators.

5/12/2014 Source: Ma’an Agency

Settlers cut down ‘50 olive trees’ in Nablus village

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Israeli settler opened fire at Palestinian citizens on Wednesday evening near the village of “Beitillu” northwest of Ramallah; two Palestinians were injured.

Local sources said that the injured were taken to Palestine Medical Complex for treat-ment, their names are Ahmed Zeyada and Thabet Bazar.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, there were at least 399 incidents of settler violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank in 2013.

More than 500,000 Israeli settlers live in settlements across the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem, in contravention of international law.

The roots of the Israel-Palestine conflict date back to 1917, when the British government, in the now-famous Balfour Declaration, called for “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.”

Israel occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank during the 1967 Middle East War. It later annexed the holy city in 1980, claiming it as the capital of the self-proclaimed Zionist state – a move never recognized by the international community.

4/12/2014 Source: ALRAY

Israeli Settler shoots two Palestinians in Ramallah

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The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) nabbed last November 600 Palestinians, including 62 children and 20 women, the Palestinian prisoner center for studies said.

In a brief report released on Thursday, the center stated that the 280 of these detainees were from oc-cupied Jerusalem and 140 others from al-Khalil city.

In Gaza, 19 Palestinians, mostly minors, were nabbed during their presence in border areas, including a 52-year-old Mohamed Hamdan who was arrested at Beit Hanoun (Erez) crossing as he was on his way to Jordan for medical treatment.

According to the center, 94 administrative detention orders were issued against Palestinians during No-vember.

The center said that the number of Palestinian patients in Israeli jails increased last month as a result of the medical neglect policy pursued against them by the administrations of prisons.

Maltreatment of prisoners and night raids on cells by prison soldiers also continued, especially in Ramon jail.

Reports say over 7,000 Palestinians are being held in Israeli jails, many of them without indictment or trial. The Israeli prison authority has come under criticism from human rights groups for inhumane prac-tices in its jails.


Report: IOF arrested 600 Palestinians last month

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Gaza engineer develops new technology to replace cement

Salameh Bihar, 56, who was displaced after Israel destroyed his house in Gaza’s Shajaiya neighborhood in the recent war, is still waiting to rebuild his three-story house. But he is not optimistic about suc-ceeding.He explained to Al-Monitor that materials are expensive and difficult to obtain. “The way construction materials are entering Gaza is unfair. For instance, a cement unit is worth 27 shekels [$6.70] for affect-ed citizens, but how are they supposed to afford its price when their homes are de-stroyed? Moreover, the unit cost exceeds 150 shekels [$37.50] for average citizens [not affected by the war], which raises the price of construction operations,” he ex-plained.Gazans who had their homes destroyed in the war have been complaining about the slow reconstruction process and the lack of entry of building materials.The pressing needs of Gazans has in-spired innovators to develop solutions through available tools. Three successive

Israeli wars in the last six years have devastated the Gaza Strip, most recently the war in July that destroyed or damaged more than 84,000 houses.Engineer Imad al-Khalidi may have found a temporary solution to help alleviate the lack of construction materials, prevented by Israel from entering the Gaza Strip. In 2008, he started to con-duct experiments on natural materials to be used in construction instead of cement, and succeeded in creating a new technique.Khalidi, a soil expert in organic architecture, said that the search for alternatives was based on materials found in Gaza. “We want-ed to use local materials as an alternative, to save ourselves and provide the displaced with shelters, as nearly 5,000 housing units were destroyed in the 2008-2009 war. We examined various types of soil in Gaza, and found a suitable type rich in natural welding materials, such as potassium carbonate, magnesium, metal ox-ides, limestone and sand,” he explained.He pointed out that the natural materials he found act like cement in its different stages, but they are more solid and can last hun-dreds of years.Khalidi explained the process: “We compose a homogeneous mixture by conducting a soil treatment through pressure, to which we add welding natural materials such as potassium carbonate, ground limestone powder and a small quantity of gypsum, to form

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an initial coherent product in the brick production. Yet, the strong cohesion begins after it is used and continues to solidify for hundreds of years, and to harden dozens of times more than its initial form. This means that the brick increasingly hardens with time, and has its own characteristics.”Khalidi established in 2009 his own private factory to produce local bricks in different sizes. At first, he designed machinery operated manually, then he created hydraulic machinery. “We have evolved, and we are now only relying on automated pressure systems. As some donor institutions demanded services to accommodate those affected by the wars, the work has increased in our factory with a pro-duction capacity reaching up to 50,000 bricks per day,” he said.Khalidi said that after he developed his new product, he started working in small workshops, as there was a lack of oil and electricity. But today, he owns another factory. “We have developed a technique to be able to produce bricks without the need for any kind of power, by using the same materials and introducing some improvements so that we can overcome the power crisis,” he added.Although the material from which the brick is produced is solid, Khalidi believes that it does not consist of a substitute for traditional materials. The long blockade has prevented the reconstruction of de-stroyed homes, not to mention the natural population increase in the Gaza Strip, which, according to Khalidi, requires 80,000 housing units to be built over the next five years.“The significant devastation in Gaza is accompanied by a new and great challenge, namely the provi-sion of shelters. There would be at least 3,000 trucks loaded with construction materials in the Gaza Strip per day, in case there is a serious will to rebuild. For this reason, we are currently using this new technique only to help provide shelters,” Khalidi said.Khalidi has kept the price the same as cement for locals looking to build homes, while upping the price for commercial projects. “The price per square meter ranges between $350 and $400 for ready-to-move-in private construction projects, and between $150 and $160 per square meter for shelter projects. As for the ordinary citizens who did not suffer any damages [to their homes] and would like to build their own home, it will cost them $220 [per square meter], which is the same price as cement.”Safwat Mushtaha, chairman of Mushtaha and Hassouna Co., a construction company in Gaza, said that modern technology can help in light of the shortage of traditional construction materials because of the Israeli blockade.Mushtaha told Al-Monitor that by using the new product, “the owners of destroyed homes will save 25% of the original cost of the building process with traditional materials.”While Khalidi’s product is yet another example of Gazans exploring innovative solutions to help cope with the crippling Israeli-Egyptian blockade, it is no replacement for the need to end the siege.

4/12/2014 Source: al-Monitor

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The “dissolution” of the Israeli coalition govern-ment is proof of the “resistance’s victory and the defeat of the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Ne-tanyahu”, Hamas announced yesterday.

In a press release distributed to the media, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu-Zuhri said Netan-yahu’s decision to sack the finance and justice ministers and dissolve the government are indi-cators that the resistance in Gaza has achieved a victory over the occupation.

In a press conference yesterday evening, Ne-tanyahu called for early elections and sacked the financial and justice ministers saying: “I will not tolerate an opposition within the government anymore.”

3/12/2014 Source: MEMO

Hamas: Dissolution of Israeli coalition proves resistance›s victory

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday called early election, shortly after sack-ing Finance and Justice Ministers Yair Lapid and Tzipi Livni.

“Urgent elections are not a good thing but a government that can’t govern and has ministers acting against it from within is worse many times over,” Netanyahu told a press conference.

“We need to hold quick elections and form a new government, unit-ed and strong,” he added.

The Israeli premier said that he refused to continue to govern with open dissent from within his coalition government.

Netanyahu’s coalition govern-ment has faced cracks in recent weeks over a host of issues, in-cluding the Jewish State law, which is backed by Netanyahu

Israeli PM calls early election, fires top ministers

Israel Insider

and opposed by Lapid and Livni.

Other points of disagreement include items with the state budget as well as Lapid’s refusal to impose taxes on apart-ments for young couples.

Israeli law allows the Prime Minister to dismiss members of his cabinet if they cause the government to grind to a halt.

Netanyahu said Lapid and Livni had quietly tried to form an alternative coalition. “In one word, that is called a putsch. And that makes it impossible to run a government,” he said in a televised news conference.

Livni denied his accusations and said the prime minister had been working behind the scenes to replace them.

With next year’s budget not agreed and growth slowing in the wake of the July-August Gaza war, Lapid accused Ne-tanyahu of putting his political interests before those of Is-rael.

“The firing of ministers is an act of cowardice and loss of con-trol. We are sad to see that the prime minister has chosen to act without consideration for the national interest and to drag Israel to unnecessary elections,” his Yesh Atid party said.

3/12/2014 Source: ALRAY

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Lapid: Netanyahu lives in an aquarium, will fail at next elections

Ya’ir Lapid, of the Yesh Atid party, announced Wednesday that he was run-ning for Prime Minister, and will win over Netanyahu.

Lapid addressed Netanyahu, saying that he lived in his own aquarium and had no idea what troubled the people of Israel, the Palestinian News Net-work reports.

At a Tel Aviv press conference, Mr. Lapid said, regarding Netanyahu’s deci-sion to dissolve the coalition, that “He made a mistake and the price of this mistake is that he won’t be the prime minister.”

According to Lapid, by calling for early elections and thus blocking passage of the 2015 budget and all its attendant policies, Netanyahu prevented in-creased defense, education and health spending; blocked an agreement on the public sector minimum wage; and stopped housing plans from mov-ing forward.

Lapid denied any attempts to overthrow Netanyahu from his position:

“I tried to overthrow you? Do you hear yourself? Who sold you that absur-dity? And what caused you listen to it?”

Lapid promised voters that he will stick to his policy agenda following the elections, which are scheduled on Wednesday for March 17.

4/12/2014 Source: IMEMC

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Malaysia to use UNSC to defend Palestine against zionist atrocities: Ahmad Zahid

Malaysia is to use its position as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) for two years from next year to intensify efforts to defend Palestine against the atrocities of the Zionist regime, said Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Za-hid Hamidi.

He said the government had de-cided that Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Anifah Aman would raise issues on Palestine at related meetings of the UNSC.

“Malaysia will surely play its role to champion Palestine and its

Malaysia & Palestinian Cause

people and, most importantly, save the Al-Aqsa Mosque from the Zionists,” he told a press con-ference after launching the ‘Save Al-Quds Global Campaign’ here today.

The ‘Save Al-Quds Global Cam-paign’, of which Ahmad Zahid is the patron, is an initiative to en-lighten the people on the critical state of affairs of Al-Quds and the Al-Aqsa Mosque as well as pres-sure Israel to stop the Judaisation of Al-Quds.

Ahmad Zahid said the existence of Palestine, now recognised by

Zahid launches Save AlQuds Global Campaign

134 countries, raised awareness among the international commu-nity on the need for its proper de-fence.

“Although some countries which are our friends are friendly to-wards Israel, we hope the growing support for Palestine will indirect-ly pressure the major powers that have supported Israel all along to bow to the demand of the interna-tional community which wants an end to violence,” he said.

5/12/2014 Source: BERNAMA

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Interviews

Hamas leader says ‹Stripping Palestinians of Hope› will lead to chaos

Hamas leader says ‘Stripping Palestinians of Hope’ will lead to chaos

By: Tom Rayner

In recent months there has been rising anger and violence in Jerusalem, centred largely around tensions over the Al Aqsa mosque - is this violence some-thing that you welcome, or that worries you?

For every action there’s a reac-tion. The action of the occupa-tion targeting the Islamic and the Christian Holy sites, in Jerusa-lem and Palestine, and specifi-cally the Al Aqsa Mosque, brings about the angry Palestinian reac-tion. Netanyahu is playing with fire when he allows members of his government, the Knesset, and the extremists to repeatedly storm the Al Aqsa mosque - that’s dangerous. Our fight, is a national fight, but Netanyahu is turning it into a religious fight. He bears re-sponsibility for the consequences of what is happening.

You talk about a religious conflict, did the attack in the synagogue, which left four Israelis and a po-lice officer dead, not suggest that is being acted upon as well by Palestinians - and do you con-demn that attack, like President Abbas did?

We can’t take events out of con-text. I told you, for every action there is a reaction. Netanyahu is playing with fire and he will bear

the consequences of that. This is one of the rare occasions when a synagogue was targeted - why? Because there is anger, extreme an-ger. The Aqsa mosque is for the Muslims. The Muslims were blocked from praying there. The soldiers and the police and the right-wing extremists were allowed to storm in with their shoes, into the sanctu-ary of the Mosque - this is playing with fire. Netanyahu is responsible for the killing of the Israelis first, and the Palestinian deaths that fol-lowed, because of what is being committed against our people and for them not having hope on the horizon for a just settlement of the Palestinian cause.

The attacks that have taken place recently in Jerusalem appear to be taking place without any real leadership, unlike previous intifadas, do you think that these actions - which you say are the result of anger and feelings of resentment in East Jerusalem in particular - make the situation in East Jerusalem better or worse for people there?

The Palestinian people no longer have anything to lose. In light of the continuation of the occupation and settlements, stealing the land, the attacks on women and children, and the Holy sites. This is spontane-ous. The reaction is spontaneous - from the young Palestinian men and young Palestinian women. And it gives two messages: the first message is that the Israeli stubbornness, combined with the interna-tional impotence in solving the Palestinian issue with a just solution, enabling the Palestinian people their self-determination, and getting rid of occupation and building an independent state - this will lead to chaos in the region, not just in the Palestinian arena, but an open conflict - a blood bath. We warn against keeping the Palestinian is-

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sue with no solution and stripping the Palestinian people of hope. The second message is this: those who were betting on the security option for stopping the resistance, and hunting its leadership, and block-ing weapons coming to its fighters, and the secu-rity cooperation of the Palestinian Authority and the Israelis, with regional and international cooperation - all of this has proven to be useless, because when the public anger reaches its limit, it explodes on its own, and expresses itself in ways that surprises ev-eryone.

So you are criticising the security cooperation that exists with the Palestinian Authority and the Israelis, you are suggesting that the attacks that have taken place shouldn’t be condemned - it sounds like you have lost confidence entirely in President Abbas to lead the Palestinian cause...

Our observations and our estimations, when it comes to the Palestinian leadership’s decisions are discussed in dialogue on the Palestinian-to-Palestin-ian level, and I don’t want to get into it in the press. I think any Palestinian leader who concentrates on this now is not serving any interest. Let us discuss our internal issues our way, in our own Palestinian sphere. We stand up together in our battle against the occupation, that’s from one point of view. But from another point of view, yes, the Palestinian-Israeli security cooperation is unacceptable, to the public and on the national level, especially in light of what the Israeli occupation is doing through its con-tinued acts of aggression. In light of the dead-end on the political horizon, there has to be a change in the instruments used by the Palestinians - the path of negotiation has been proven to be a failure. For a quarter of a century, negotiations - Palestinian-Is-raeli and Arab-Israeli negotiations - have proven to be useless. There has to be a change of strategy, and adoption of a programme of national Palestinian struggle with various facets on the ground level, po-litical level, diplomatic level, legal level, media level, public level - and the resistance, with all its aspects, including armed resistance, because the Israeli oc-cupation as it is, like all occupations in history, won’t withdraw from occupied lands, except under pres-sure, they do not withdraw voluntarily. The Israeli be-haviour is giving us this clear message.

But the commitment of Hamas to armed resistance doesn’t seem to fit with the reconciliation deal that was done with Fatah - the establishment of a na-tional unity government under President Abbas, who has signed up to the Quartet Principles which stipu-late non-violence. Does this reconciliation deal still

stand? It feels like it has fallen apart because you are coming from such a different position to the President...

Reconciliation is a national necessity, and we must hold onto it. We in Hamas are committed to it. There are hurdles in front of the reconciliation and there are stumbles along the way. We have to solve it and remove these hurdles. When it concerns resis-tance, this is not alien to the Palestinian psyche, or the Palestinian history, and all the elements of the resistance are there because of the continuation of the occupation and settlements and aggression and arrests, and breaking the sanctuary of the holy sites, as I said before. What we agreed on in the reconciliation, years ago, whether in Cairo or Doha, and also in the national reconciliation document in 2006 - it talks about the right of the people to re-sistance, therefore officially Fatah has committed itself to resistance. Hamas is committed to resis-tance. All the factions are the same, nobody rejects resistance. Maybe some statements by people in charge and leaders talk about something else, but they take responsibility for this. We never agreed, at any stage in the process of reconciliation, to abandon resistance, because this is rejected on a national level. But we do ask for finding a common strategy on how resistance should be run, when to use this form of resistance, and when to use anoth-er form of resistance. Yes, this is accepted, in fact required and Hamas is ready for coordination and in drawing up a strategy for the struggle together in coordination with our brothers in Fatah and with the Palestinian Authority leadership.

You talk about armed resistance not being a new tactic, and you also talk about the political process-es and procedures not having worked over the last few decades, but there’s very little evidence to sug-gest that the resistance approach has worked ei-ther. Is there not an argument to say that if you, as leader of Hamas, in a reconciliation government, refuse to condemn attacks on civilians, and con-tinue to argue that Israel should be attacked in an armed, violent way, as well as a political way, that you play into the hands of the Israeli government - while you exist in the form that you do now, Ben-jamin Netanyahu never has to do a deal, you are his ticket to the rest of the world to say ‘I can’t do a deal’.

I think Netanyahu’s position is now revealed to ev-eryone in international public opinion. Even in the West. Put Hamas aside, what about Mr. Mahmoud Abbas? He has positions which satisfies western and american standards. And with all this, what

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has Netanyahu done in return for it? Nothing. He thwarted all peace initiatives even the american ef-forts that were hosted by Mr. John Kerry for almost a year. Therefore the problem is not in the Palestinian position, whether it was from Fatah or Hamas, or the Palestinian leadership - the fault is in Netanyahu’s position. This is from one point, from another point - we really don’t target civilians, but the open Israeli violence creates angry reactions, as I explained be-fore. Therefore it is Netanyahu who takes responsi-bility. Let me give you an example, during the last aggressive war on Gaza, look at the casualties of the Palestinian people - 12,000 or more wounded and more that 2,000 martyrs, mostly from civilians. On the other hand the casualties from the Israeli side were mostly military people. That is proof that Hamas, when it was defending Gaza, its people and itself against the Israeli aggression it was very focused on targeting the military fighters. Whereas Netanyahu was committed, when he failed in confronting with the brave Palestinian fighters, he targeted the wom-en and the children. Half of the victims of the last w ar were children and women. And the destruction of houses. He committed a unprecedented crime in the Gaza strip. Netanyahu is guilty in all circumstances. What he uses to get away with this? excuses that are known to everyone. Therefore we saw changes in the Western positions, whether in some parliaments such as what took place in Britain, and in France, and in Sweden, and in Spain, and also through some western intellectuals, who started to understand the justice of the Palestinian cause.

We will come to the recognition votes shortly, but I want to talk about Gaza first... One of the things that was noticeable about this last war, was that Hamas’ rockets struck further and deeper into Israel than ever before. But is it not the case that the comparatively low number of civilian deaths was not as a result of you simply targeting military areas, but actually down to Israel’s use of public shelters and the iron dome missile defence system, which made your rockets less effective - they were targeting towns and cities within Israel. And if your rockets weren’t having an impact comparatively to the number of people that were killed, was that Palestinian blood worth the fight? You said this would be a conflict that would not end with the return to the status quo - but the block-ade is still in place, even though so much Palestinian blood was spilled, was it worth it?

When you put the equation of gains and losses, that is right when it is your decision to go to war. But when you are defending yourself, you are forced to defend

yourself, regardless of gains and losses. We did not start the war. The Israeli army was the one that at-tacked us. Therefore we defended ourselves. They bear the political and moral responsibility. Second, our missiles, this is our ability. But we are commit-ted to target military posts. And to prove it the Israeli dead, mostly were from the soldiers. The heroes of the Qassam brigades and the Palestinian resistance when they smuggled into Israel during the war, they were able to target villages which had civilian Israeli populations, but we targeted only military posts, that is proof of our credibility and seriousness. But Netanya-hu owns sophisticated military machine, with modern complex weapons, provided by the West and America - he targeted civilians, he targeted hospitals, UNWRA schools, the infrastructure, the electricity, mosques and places of worship. This is proof that he is commit-ted to punishing the Palestinian people that embraced the Palestinian resistance. Yes we are suffering, but we live under occupation. We are not living in an inde-pendent state. We did not start the aggression. We did not attack anyone. We were attacked by the Israelis and Gaza today is suffering, and the siege must be lifted. This prison should end. It’s the biggest prison in history. Gaza must have a port and an airport, that’s the responsibility of the international world. To rebuild in a hurry. The building must be fast. Construction and rebuilding is required quickly. There are parties who seek to punish our people in Gaza, therefore this is a message through you to the western governments in europe and the united states, and in the east and west - they must accelerate the rebuilding, and not al-low this tragedy, this palestinian tragedy to continue in Gaza, as much as it is in Palestine also.

You talk about the need for the world to step in and assist in rebuilding Gaza back into a live-able condi-tion, but given your situation as an organisation now - where you are under pressure from the regime in Egypt, with President Sisi creating a buffer zone along the Gazan border; your backers in Iran are busy with other things, including the nuclear negotiations and the fight against Islamic State, you are becoming increas-ingly isolated it seems. Would it not make sense, if what you really want to do is assist the people of Gaza to rebuild there lives, to take steps that makes it easier for the world to work with you - while there is armed resistance, most governments can’t work with you.

We are not isolated. Yes there are hurdles, and there are changes in the region. There are crises and open files in various Arab and Islamic countries. But we are not isolated. We are carrying a just cause. Hamas, since it was established, almost 30 years ago, has been used to working in difficult situations, and it over-

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came all of these difficult situations, God-willing, be-cause it is embraced by its Palestinian people and its nation, therefore there is no fear from that aspect. But the question is what Palestinian position required from Hamas or from Fatah or from the other Palestin-ian factions that will satisfy the international world to help us achieve our goals? We showed every flexibil-ity required to reach a solution when the Palestinian powers all agreed to a resolution based on the 1967 borders, what more do they want? We fixed our Pal-estinian house according to democratic means since 2006. The West rejected it and the Israelis rejected it and there are parties that conspired against it. What does the international community want? The inter-national community knows that the stubbornness is from the Israeli leadership. And you know that Israel is being over-run by the right-wingers, as we saw in the developments of the Israeli governments recently - the Israeli right-wing is the master of these times, it is the one provoking our people in the Holy sites, it is the one insisting on stealing the lands, and with settlements, which conflicts with the international opinion. And with all this, they don’t do anything. We as Palestinians gave everything required to make the just peace a success, but the international commu-nity is in-between impotence and pandering or being hypocritical towards Israel, and is biased towards it, at the expense of logic, and actually at the expense of the western interests, not just the Palestinian rights.

You describe Hamas as an Islamic Nationalist Liber-ation Movement, there’s another Islamic movement getting a lot of headlines at the moment - The Islamic State. Do you sympathise with any of their goals and aspirations, or actually does it cause you problems that this group, that claims to be representing Sunni Islam is now so dominant?

We have to look at the essence of things, and not their outside appearance. The US wants to explain things just from how it sees things. Islamic State and other movements similar to it were created in an en-vironment made by circumstances, the main one be-ing what Israel does to the Palestinian people, the american occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, and the western bias, led by the US, towards Israel, the negative western positions towards the Arab Spring, and the political and democratic developments in the region, the support western governments have given to Arab dictators in the region, with the behaviour of some regimes in the region that adopt the iron-fist security brutality, with the sectarian discrimina-tion, all of this created an environment that allowed Islamic State and others groups to appear, with the

existence of course, of those who follow extreme ideas, which exist in all religions and peoples in the world. And we are against extremism. Whether it is ideological or political, and against killing according to your identity or your sect, or your ethnicity or religion. But these phe-nomena flourished in these circumstances. So how if you add to it, like when the West announces a war on IS through an international alliance, it is implementing a security-intelligence game to deal with this phenomena for certain calculations. The story therefore is very com-plicated. We in Hamas have a national cause. We are focusing our struggle and our resistance inside Pales-tine against the Israeli occupation, that is our vision and we do not interfere in other countries’ affairs, but we are pained by what is going on in Islamic world, especially in view of the complications and the blood-bath and in light of the western and regional policies that deals with Arab and Muslim blood in an exploitative way.

So the Hamas goal is still entirely focused on the cre-ation of the Palestine that you want - can you paint a picture for me of what the ultimate success, for Hamas, would look like?

We reconciled Palestinians with different powers and factions on a solution on June 4th 1967 border, to build a Palestinian state. We seek with all Palestinian pow-ers to achieve this purpose, so we can have a state with Jerusalem as its capital, without occupation, with-out settlements, with refugees allowed back to their homes, and to achieve our national project, our rights and our demands. Our rights, our just Palestinian rights and demands. And to build a modern developed state, which has education, technology, democracy, a peace-ful transition of power - free liberties and justice, there is the supremacy of the rule of law, and an opening to the region and the world, with dignity for the Palestin-ian citizen and equal opportunities, and as you know our Palestinian people are very intellectual, progressive and educated and able to make our futures bright. In summary, we don’t want to live under occupation, or a mandate. And it’s our right to defend ourselves, and re-sist all aggressions and occupation, to extract our rights for ourselves. We are asking the world to stand with us in this just cause. Hamas is a part of the Palestinian people, and it behaves as a main element of its people, it doesn’t have an independent vision from its people. Hamas does not want to have sole power. Hamas wants to be a partner with its people, powers and personali-ties, to create a promising Palestinian future.

There are those around the world, and particularly in the Israeli political world, who say such a description is lip-service for the West, and that Hamas and many oth-ers in Palestinian politics, can never see the end as the

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67 borders; they can never see the dream of what they hold dear without Haifa, without Jaffa. They’d say your description of an ideal state is meaning-less, because ultimately you want more than that. And if you want these places, where does Israel fit in?

History, the recent history, nobody can deny it. How can the sons of Palestine whose parents were born in Haifa or Jaffa deny the Palestinian history? It is less than 70 years ago, the Palestinian people lived throughout the land of Palestine, this is a historical fact, and therefore we are not ashamed of it and we don’t deny it and its a right for the Palestinian peo-ple. But today we are talking about a political Pales-tinian vision, that all the political powers agreed on, and Hamas is committed to this. Doesn’t the world respect the democratic gain? This is the decision of the Palestinian powers. And us, as a Palestin-ian power, do not impose anything on our people. What the majority of our Palestinian people chose in Palestine and outside, we are committed to. This is the Palestinian political programme. The world has to listen to us carefully, and not just hear what Israeli academics say - Israel is the one hiding its intentions. Israel is the one that has ambitions and greed in all the region. And it does not acknowledge certain borders, and they have known slogans, and mass military power - it is the one that kills and at-tacks. I ask the international community and all the powers in the world to enable the Palestinian peo-ple to get rid of the Israeli occupation and to have a free independent Palestinian state on the borders of 1967 with Jerusalem as its capital and our refugees allowed back home. This is a very important part of justice, and its not all the justice, but we accept that, because this is the Palestinian agreement.

You seem clear on what your goals are, where the boundaries are for your organisation, but you are the head of the political bureau of Hamas. Are you confident that the rest of the parts of the organisa-tion will follow the direction you choose - are you confident that the Qassam Brigades, that Salah Al Arouri in Turkey, will follow your lead if you were to sign up to a two-state solution in the 67 borders?

That is a part of the attempts at deception of Israeli propaganda. We in Hamas are a very closely en-twined movement, it has a leadership that is respon-sible for all the affairs of the movement, the political and military, and others, all the people in the move-ment in their various positions inside or outside and in their different specialisms, stick to decisions of

the movement and its policies. Therefore when the leadership of the movement and its political bureau makes any decision in any affair, in any policies, concerning a political issue or military or resistance, or diplomatic movement, the mem-bers of the movement follow the decision. The Qassam brigades are not an independent fac-tion, the Qassam brigades are the military wing for the movement, therefore it follows the poli-cies of the movement, and this is the history of our movement - even other factions when there is hope to achieve the national Palestinian proj-ect, all the Palestinian powers will work together an be committed to achieve this vision - that is the fact, and anything else, from what the Israeli leadership and other spread, are all excuses to evade their commitments, it is not just certain in-dividuals.

The French parliament had a symbolic vote in favour of recognising a Palestinian state, the UK parliament passed something very similar, the Swedish government became the first in the EU to officially recognise Palestine as a state. Do you think there is a momentum building? And is it something you welcome, because there are those that say such moves simply support the idea of creating a ‘puppet’ Palestinian Authority rather than a full state?

We appreciate those new steps, like the voting in the parliaments in Britain, France, Spain and also the recognition of the Swedish government of the Palestinian State. And also the very brave stands in Latin America, Southern Africa, coun-tries in Asia and the rest of the world - we are noticing this excellent development. We ask for more. We believe that the world has had enough of Israeli aggression and the continuation of this occupation, the world has started understanding the justice of the Palestinian cause, they have started knowing the Palestinian suffering, from siege, from occupation, from settlements, there are embargoes on settlement produce, the world knows that the stubbornness in the behaviour of the Israeli leadership, we ask for more of these steps, and in translating it to changing the for-eign policy of the western governments, actually in the world’s governments, and to put an end to the Israeli occupation. As the international com-munity put an end less than two decades ago to the ethnic segregation in South Africa.

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Issue no 112