Hamas Envoy Urges Muslim World to Consider Palestine as Top Priority

Representative of the Palestinian Hamas Movement in Tehran Khaled Qadoumi called on the Muslim nations to consider the Palestinian issue as their top priority.
Addressing an international conference dubbed ‘Palestine; Pivot of Muslim World Unity’ in Tehran on Monday, Qadoumi lamented that Palestine has been crossed out from the list of the priorities of the Muslim and Arab nations.

The Hamas envoy underlined that the Muslim countries of the world should consider Palestine as their most important priority.

“Unfortunately, we are witnessing that the Oslo team is very hastily going to futile talks with the new US administration and the Palestinian negotiators have started a new marathon talks with the Zionist regime,” Qadoumi added.

The Oslo Accords – the result of secret talks that had been encouraged by the Norwegian government and conducted in the country’s capital – called for a five-year transitional period during which Israeli forces would withdraw from the Gaza Strip and unspecified areas of the West Bank, and the establishment of a Palestinian Authority.

On September 13, 1993, Shimon Peres and Mahmoud Abbas met in the White House to sign the Israel-PLO Declaration of Principles, or the Oslo Accords. PLO leader Yasser Arafat and former Israeli prime minister, Yitzhak Rabin, then signed the deal. But the Israeli undertakings and goals laid out in the Oslo Accords remain unfulfilled.

US Secretary of State John Kerry has claimed to be seeking to revive direct peace talks that broke down in 2010 over the issue of Jewish settlement building in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Earlier this month, Kerry claimed that he finally “convinced Israeli and Palestinian officials to return to the negotiating table.” This is while the prospects for peace appear just as unlikely as before.

Most Palestinian groups have rejected talks with the US and Israeli regime.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) in a statement on Sunday underlined that revival of the so-called “peace talks” between Israel and Palestinian groups is doomed to failure, calling it a “dangerous decision”.

“Resumption of negotiations and indication of willingness to concede in opposition to the Palestinians’ national consensus and even contrary to the decision of the PLO institutions themselves, is deeply dangerous to the Palestinian cause,” the statement added.

“We are aware of the seriousness of this action, and believe that its severe consequences will impact the rights of the Palestinian people and damage Palestinian unity,” the statement added.

“The PFLP calls upon the masses of our people, the political forces, and community groups, to engage in activities to organize and mobilize the people to express their rejection of the negotiations and pressure the Palestinian leadership to refrain from going to Washington and cancel these absurd negotiations, because they entail the risk of concessions that violate Palestinians’ fundamental constants and national rights,” it further added.

Head of the Political Bureau of the Palestinian Hamas movement Khalid Mashaal had underlined in May that Washington’s efforts to restore peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians are doomed to fail since the US secretary of state has not presented any solution to the ongoing crisis.

“The US secretary of state has not presented any solution to settle the conflicts between the Palestinians and the Zionist regime and therefore the country’s efforts are doomed to fail similar to the past,” Mashaal said.

He complained that John Kerry has not adopted a serious approach to settle the Palestinian issue fairly because it has never pressured Israel as the occupier, and has just pressured the Arab sides and the Palestinian authority and presented some useless projects.

The US secretary of state has hailed the Arab League’s revised Middle-East peace initiative as “a very big step forward”.

But Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh rejected the plan, saying outsiders could not decide the fate of the Palestinians.

In the meetings held in early May in Washington, Arab states appeared to soften their 2002 peace plan, acknowledging that Israelis and Palestinians may have to swap land in any eventual peace deal.

Addressing hundreds of worshippers in a Gaza mosque, Haniyeh said it was a concession that other Arabs were not authorized to make.

“The so-called new Arab initiative is rejected by our people, by our nation and no one can accept it,” Haniyeh said.

“The initiative contains numerous dangers to our people in the occupied land of 1967, 1948 and to our people in exile.”

“To those who speak of land swaps we say: Palestine is not a property, it is not for sale, not for a swap and cannot be traded,” Haniyeh said.

Haniyeh said the Palestinian Authority, headed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, was to blame for inspiring the softer Arab position because it accepted the need for land swaps with Israel.

Yesterday, hundreds of Palestinians marched in Ramallah to protest the return to negotiations with Israel.

Demonstrators marched from the city center towards President Abbas’ headquarters in the Muqata, chanting slogans condemning the Palestinian Authority’s decision to return to talks.

Four PA police officers and three protesters were injured when both sides clashed during the Sunday march, which was organized by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

Addameer prisoners group said dozens of protesters were injured by police, adding that PA forces were arresting injured demonstrators at public hospitals.

Palestinian Legislative Council member Khaled Jarrar was assaulted by a policeman during the clashes, witnesses said.