Hamas leader rejects truce with Israel

2003-05-07 10:00

Christian Chaise

Gaza City - The spiritual leader of Hamas warned Israel that his radical Palestinian Islamic movement would keep up its attacks against the Jewish state until the "final battle", in an interview on Tuesday.

Sheikh Ahmed Yassin also accused Palestinian prime minister Mahmoud Abbas, who has pledged to disarm militant groups, of pursuing a "policy of surrender" toward Israel.

But he gave an assurance that Hamas would "do its best" to avoid a confrontation with the new Palestinian government.

Yassin was interviewed at his home in the El-Sabra district of central Gaza City as Israelis started to celebrate the 55th anniversary of the foundation of their state, an event known to the Palestinians as the "nakba" (catastrophe).

"They are now celebrating their victory against a persecuted nation," said Sheikh Yassin.

The sheikh, who says he was born in 1936 in Askallan, the Arabic name for Ashkelon in southern Israel, was among more than 700 000 Palestinians made refugees in the war which followed the birth of the Jewish state.

"The Palestinians will never accept the victory of Israel, because this is not definitive," said the founder of Hamas, the movement which has carried out most suicide bombings in Israel.

"The final battle has not yet taken place. It's not over. The power of Israel will not last forever," he said.

"The day will come when the Palestinians will have the power and the battle will then be over," said Sheikh Yassin, seated in a wheelchair due to a partial paralysis.

Hamas refuses to recognise the existence of Israel and, as a result, also rejects the internationally-backed peace "roadmap" which calls for the creation, alongside the Jewish state, of a Palestinian state in stages by 2005.

The plan calls for Abbas to put a halt to anti-Israeli attacks, while Israel takes steps to improve the living conditions of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, as well as freezing the construction of Jewish settlements.

Sheikh Yassin predicted the peace plan would fail and that the Abbas government only accepted it under US pressure.

The prime minister's commitment to disarm Palestinian militants was "unacceptable", the Hamas founder said. "We reject this call. Most of the Palestinians reject it."

Abbas has said he would aim for disarmament through dialogue, although a first session of negotiations between the Palestinian Authority and militant groups held in Cairo at the end of 2002 failed.

Hamas is not opposed in principles to talks with the Abbas government, but "what would be the point of this dialogue?" he asked.

On the risks of a Palestinian civil war, Sheikh Yassin said his movement was opposed to any such conflict among the Palestinian people and would "do its best not to reach that point".

Hamas could only commit itself to a halt in attacks inside Israel if the Jewish state "stops its aggression against civilians and the demolition of homes" of Palestinian militants.

A ceasefire could only follow an end to Israeli occupation, he said.

"We have the choice between two solutions: to surrender or to fight on until the end of occupation," he said, refusing to view the 31-month-old intifada as a failure. - Sapa-AFP

- SAPA