Hamas rejects Abbas unity pledge
Palestinian militant group Hamas has said it will not join a planned national unity government if recognising Israel is a condition.
It follows a speech by Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in which he said the government would recognise Israel and renounce violence.
Hamas spokesmen said there had been no change in the position on Israel.
But Prime Minister Ismail Haniya, in a mosque sermon in Gaza City on Friday, said: “I personally will not head any government that recognises Israel.”
Ahmed Youssef, a senior adviser to Mr Haniya, said there would be no explicit recognition of Israel, but Hamas was prepared to agree to a 10-year truce with the Jewish state. - how do you agree to a truce with something you don’t recognize?
It’s about time Hamas takes a pragmatic approach and accepts the political realties and facts on the ground! At the rate they’re going, they will achieve nothing but failure and more bloodshed.
Abbas “re-affirmed the historic statements of mutual recognition made by then Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1993.”
“These two letters contain a reciprocal recognition between the PLO [Palestine Liberation Organisation] and Israel, reject violence and call for negotiations to reach a permanent settlement with the creation of an independent Palestinian state next to Israel.”
“I come to you bearing the wounds of a people who seek to live a normal life… not be victims of the cruelty of history. I simply want tomorrow to be better than today, I want Palestine to be independent and sovereign… Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand ” -Mahmoud Abbas.
