Dr. Ahmad Yousef, political adviser to Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh
To members of the Quartet Committee,
Your Committee on the Middle East file
convenes once again today in New York at the margins of the UN General Assembly
63rd Term meetings; the meeting of your committee, which comes at difficult
times aims to seek means to achieve justice and peace to the Palestinian
people… almost three years have passed since the PLC elections in the occupied
territories; those elections were described as the most honest and free in the
Arab world; but the past period have witnessed several failures; the situation
deteriorated and Israeli violations against the international humanitarian law
occurred, in addition to several aggressions against our newly emerging
democratic experience.
Members of the Quartet Committee,
You realized the necessity of solving the
Palestinian-Israeli conflict and you promised to support the efforts to end the
Israeli occupation that started in 1967 and to work on establishing the
independent democratic and viable Palestinian state to love in security and
peace next to its neighbors and your committee affirmed to achieve a just
comprehensive permanent peace based on the UN resolutions 242 and 338.
With all double standards and distorted
criteria, you demand today support to the economy and you call for Palestinian
unity, but at the same time, you work on deepening the split among the
Palestinians... and we have realized this through your calls to the
international donors to select Palestinian organizations that move in the Oslo
hemisphere or those which emerged from the womb of that failing accord, and you
urged them to offer all kinds of support and assistance while you ignore the
protests and appeals of the world to end the injustice and siege imposed on our
people in Gaza Strip. Your committee insists on keeping the policy of isolation
and political and economic boycott against the government elected by the
Palestinian people!!
Your committee has expressed concern
regarding the situation emerging from the Israeli siege but you failed in
convincing the United States (member of the Quartet Committee) to stop
supporting and instigating internal conflicts through the funds that America
sends to arm, equip and incite one party with the aim of toppling the elected
government. Moreover, your committee deviated from its goal which is to bring
peace and you became an element to consolidate blatant violations of
humanitarian law in the West Bank and in the besieged Gaza.
The international community has the habit
of ignoring the calls and appeals of national liberation movements. Despite
this, we perform our task and duty to tell you that your policies are futile
and the siege that was imposed to incite the Palestinians to rebel against
Hamas leadership did not bear fruits; on the contrary, it caused a disastrous
humanitarian situation for the majority of 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza
Strip.
As the Bush Administration and the
Israeli government insist on clinging to their positions on the siege, and in
light of the suffering and the disastrous conditions, our people cannot bear
more than this, and the return to the circle of confrontations and escalation
of violence and resistance and bloodshed becomes a possibility… the real and needed
move to achieve real progress on the Palestinian arena is to see your committee
recognize the elected government.
The elected government showed much
flexibility and political realism and exerted true and sincere efforts to avoid
violence and bloodshed and the government in Gaza acted with responsibility on
the issue of the negotiations to reach the calm that Israel accepted although
it does not honor its promises in it and keeps violating the calm every day.
Members of the Quartet Committee,
We realize that contacts with the elected
government is the vital approach that has not been adopted yet. The illogical
conditions set by your committee are not useful to start with. Recognizing
Israel lacks many basic principles according to the international law; this
condition shall not serve any political progress to end the conflict. Political
considerations require the principle of reciprocity on the issue of
recognition; Israel has not yet recognized the rights of the Palestinian people
and has not recognized the right of return of the refugees; Israel has not
recognized that the West Bank and Gaza Strip are occupied territories. Israel
has not accepted the Legal Opinion of the ICJ at the Hague in 2004; the list of
Israeli rejections continues... these are the points that represent the key to
solving the conflict in line with the international law.
We demand from the Quartet Committee to
review and reconsider its position on solving the conflict and we urge you to
review your past policies which failed; we call upon you to recognize the
government of Ismail Hanieh which, according to the constitution, is the
legitimate government in the Palestinian lands.
We demand that you exert true and sincere
efforts to exert pressure on Israel to abide by the international law and to
act in a manner that returns the rights and achieves peace in the region.
Yours truly,
Dr. Ahmad Yousef
Political adviser to PM Ismail Haniyeh
First published in al-Quds newspaper on September 25,
2008, page 18)
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