Hamas: Partitioning of Palestine null and void

[P F Tinmore]

GAZA, (PIC)-- Hamas said in a statement on the occasion of the 63rd anniversary of the UN resolution partitioning Palestine that the decision was null and void and that the entire land of historical Palestine was and will remain the sole homeland of the Palestinian people.

The movement's refugees' affairs department issued the statement on Sunday saying that the resolution was based on results of World War II and was used as a tool to justify colonialist policies in the region.

The Palestinian people in its entirety refuse the resolution, considering it "unacceptable and illegitimate" and whatever resulted from it as null and void, Hamas elaborated.

The UN resolution 181 aimed at giving legitimacy to the infamous "Balfour Declaration" and to complement the Sykes-Picot agreement, which disintegrated the Arab world and chose Palestine to "plant this Zionist military project", it said.

Hamas charged that the big colonialist powers in the world led by the USA were trying to sanction the legality of "this military base called Israel", which over the years could only enhance its presence as "a racist, alien, inhuman entity in this region with its repeated crimes against the Palestinian and Arab peoples."

Hamas: Partitioning of Palestine null and void

 

[Marc39]

Khaled Abu Toameh: Hamas's Siege Of Gaza

As Israeli naval commandos raided the flotilla ship convoy that was on its way to the Gaza Strip, Hamas security officers stormed the offices of five non-governmental organizations, confiscated equipment and documents, and ordered them closed indefinitely. Ever since it seized control over the Gaza Strip in the summer of 2007, Hamas has imposed a reign of terror on the local population in general and its critics in particular. Hamas has brought nothing to the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip other than death and disaster.

The raid on the NGOs in the Gaza Strip, which received little coverage in the media, is seen by many Palestinians as part of Hamas's ongoing crackdown on political opponents and human rights organizations. Further, Hamas's recent decision to ban municipal elections in the Gaza Strip is yet another violation of one of the basic rights of its constituents. Hundreds of Palestinians have been arrested by Hamas's security forces for daring to speak out against the state of tyranny and intimidation in the Gaza Strip. Over the past three years, dozens of Fatah officials and members have either been thrown into prison or killed. Under Hamas, the Gaza Strip is being transformed into a fundamentalist Islamic entity resembling the regimes of the Ayatollahs in Iran and the Taliban in Afghanistan.

While there is no ignoring the fact that Hamas originally came to power in a free and democratic election in January 2006, this does not give the movement the right to impose a social, intellectual, political and economic blockade on the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Instead of searching for ways to improve the living conditions of the 1.5 million Palestinians of the Gaza Strip, Hamas is busy enforcing strict Islamic rules on the population, such as Hamas policemen, for example, often stopping men and women who are seen together in public to inquire about the nature of their relationship. Since the kidnapping of IDF soldier Gilad Schalit in 2006, more than 3,500 Palestinians have been killed, many of them during Operation Cast Lead which followed the firing of rockets at Israel. The kidnapping of Schalit and the rocket attacks have made the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip pay a very heavy price. If Hamas were really serious about ending the blockade on the Gaza Strip and helping the poor people living there, it would have accepted at least shown some pragmatism in dealing with the outside world.

Hamas could have, for instance, accepted the international community's demand to renounce terrorism and honor all previous agreements signed between the Palestinians and Israel. Moreover, it could have allowed representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit Schalit. Hamas, however, is more interested in clinging to power than in serving its people; and in light of increased calls for lifting the blockade following the flotilla incident at sea, the movement's leaders in Syria and the Gaza Strip are now convinced that they are marching in the right direction.

The flotilla incident came at a time when Hamas appeared to be losing its popularity among Palestinians, largely due to the deteriorating economic situation in the Gaza Strip. It also came at a time when even some of Hamas's supporters were beginning to criticize the movement, especially over its decision to demolish scores of "illegal" houses in the southern Gaza Strip and the execution of criminals and "collaborators" with Israel. It is one thing to help the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, but it is another thing to help Hamas. Those who wish to deliver aid to the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip can always find better and safer ways to do so - either through Israel or Egypt. But those who only seek confrontation with Israel in the sea are only emboldening Hamas and helping it tighten its grip on the people of Gaza Strip.

Internation Musing: Istanbul, Amsterdam, Delhi, Portland, Utrecht, The Hague and Thessaloniki.: What About Hamas's Siege of Gaza? (by Khaled Abu Toameh)

 

[P F Tinmore]

Israel has been killing Palestinians and occupying their land for more than 60 years. That was long before there was a Hamas. What was their excuse then?

 

[High_Gravity]

Hamas is the one hurting the Palestinians, they refuse to accept any agreement that includes the recognition of Israel, how can you reason with a people like that?

 

[Marc39]

Israel has been killing Palestinians and occupying their land for more than 60 years. That was long before there was a Hamas. What was their excuse then?

Israeli Arab Muslim Journalist Khaled Abu Toameh: The Pro Palestinian's Real Agenda

The so-called pro-Palestinian “junta” on the campuses has nothing to offer other than hatred and de-legitimization of Israel. If these folks really cared about the Palestinians, they would be campaigning for good government and for the promotion of values of democracy and freedom in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Their hatred for Israel and what it stands for has blinded them to a point where they no longer care about the real interests of the Palestinians, namely the need to end the anarchy and lawlessness, and to dismantle all the armed gangs that are responsible for the death of hundreds of innocent Palestinians over the past few years.

The majority of these activists openly admit that they have never visited Israel or the Palestinian territories. They don’t know -and don’t want to know - that Jews and Arabs here are still doing business together and studying together and meeting with each other on a daily basis because they are destined to live together in this part of the world. They don’t want to hear that despite all the problems life continues and that ordinary Arab and Jewish parents who wake up in the morning just want to send their children to school and go to work before returning home safely and happily.

What is happening on the U.S. campuses is not about supporting the Palestinians as much as it is about promoting hatred for the Jewish state. It is not really about ending the “occupation” as much as it is about ending the existence of Israel. Many of the Palestinian Authority and Hamas officials I talk to in the context of my work as a journalist sound much more pragmatic than most of the anti-Israel, “pro-Palestinian” folks on the campuses.

On Campus: The Pro-Palestinian's Real Agenda

Khaled Abu Toameh: Arabs And Muslims Run To Israel

Many Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip have a dream: to work or live in Israel. Some even say they are prepared to pay large sums of money to obtain Israeli citizenship. Others pay a lot of money to Palestinian and Jewish traffickers who help them bypass checkpoints to enter Israel in search of work and good life.

These are not self-hating Palestinians. Nor are they "pro-Israel traitors" who support the Zionist movement. Many Palestinians feel that neither Fatah nor Hamas has done enough to alleviate their suffering. Many Fatah leaders who stole billions of dollars of international donations earmarked for the Palestinians have invested their fortunes in hotels, tourist resorts and real estate firms in the West. Hamas, on the other hand, prefers to spend millions of dollars on purchasing [and smuggling] large amounts of weapons, including rockets and ammunition.

It is a disgrace for Arab and Muslim dictators, particularly those who make billions of dollars from selling oil, that their constituents have to seek work and refuge in Israel and the West. It is also a disgrace for Fatah and Hamas that thousands of Palestinians cannot find jobs or a good life in the two Palestinian states in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Arab and Islamic regimes are spending billions of dollars on building new mosques and madrasas while nearly half of their people are illiterate and live under the poverty line. University graduates in these countries are forced to search for work in the West because of poor working conditions and lack of opportunities.

The absence of good government, transparency, accountability and democracy in these countries is driving Arabs and Muslims to seek work and a better life not only in North America and Europe, but even in places like Israel. In many ways, these Palestinians are not different from the African immigrants who try to infiltrate Israel every day through Egypt. The immigrants come from Sudan, Ethiopia, Eretria, Nigeria and other African countries.

Like the Palestinians, the Africans are prepared to pay a lot of money to get into Israel. Egyptian traffickers charge up to $1,000 for each immigrant. But for the African immigrants, the journey is also a very dangerous one. In the past three years, Egyptian border guards have shot and killed dozens of African men and women who tried to cross the border into Israel.

While the Egyptians are killing the African immigrants, Israel is providing the lucky ones who manage to cross the border with jobs, as well as medical and social services. True, Israel is not 100% perfect. But an African Muslim or Christian still prefers Israel to countries like Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Iran. As a "refugee" from Darfour, Sudan, who now lives in Tel Aviv, explained: "I feel more secure in the Jewish state than in Sudan or any Arab or Islamic country."

For many Palestinians, it is easier to find a job in Israel and Canada than in any Arab or Islamic country, most of which impose strict travel and work restrictions on them. Palestinians cannot enter most Arab and Islamic countries without a visa. One can understand why a Palestinian needs a visa to enter the US or any European country Many Palestinians from the West Bank who visit Arab countries often find themselves thrown into detention centers for weeks, months and years without trial. Hundreds, if not thousands, of Palestinians are believed to be languishing in prisons throughout the Arab world, especially in Syria and Egypt.

The Iconoclast - New English Review

Khaled Abu Toameh...

Most Arabs in Jerusalem prefer to live under Israeli rule for a number of reasons. First, because as holders of Israeli ID cards they are entitled to many rights and privileges that Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip don't enjoy. They include freedom of movement and social, economic, health and education services that Israeli citizens are entitled to.

Redividing Jerusalem means bringing either the Palestinian Authority of Hamas into the city. The Arab residents of Jerusalem have seen what happened in the West Bank and Gaza Strip over the past 16 years and are not keen to live under a corrupt authority or a radical Islamist entity.

Over the past few years, many Arab residents of the city who used to live in the West Bank have abandoned their homes and returned to Jerusalem. They did so mainly out of fear of losing their rights and privileges as holders of Israeli ID cards. But many of them also ran away from the West Bank because they did not want to live in territories controlled by militiamen, armed gangs and corrupt leaders and institutions.

Yahoo! Groups

Khaled Abu Toameh...

Arabs living in Israel have always enjoyed free and unlimited access to medical services. Israeli hospitals have always been full of Arab patients, who often heap praise on doctors and nurses for offering them the best treatment.

Even Arabs from neighboring countries have been seeking medical treatment in Israeli hospitals. Many Arabs in Jerusalem are extremely grateful to the Israeli medical teams for their services. Hundreds, if not thousands, of Arabs can testify how these paramedics and doctors saved their lives.

Just two weeks ago, a 65-year-old Arab woman in Jerusalem who suffered a heart attack talked about how the Magen David medical team that rushed to her home had literally saved her life. Magen David paramedics should be commended for the great work they are doing to offer the best medical treatment to patients -- regardless of their nationality and religion. They should be commended for endangering their lives to enter Arab villages and neighborhoods to save lives.

Why do PalArabs attack ambulances? (Khaled Abu Toameh) : South Capitol Street

 

[P F Tinmore]

Hamas is the one hurting the Palestinians, they refuse to accept any agreement that includes the recognition of Israel, how can you reason with a people like that?

The Palestinians never surrendered to Israel before Hamas. Why should Hamas be the ones to do it?

 

[High_Gravity]

Hamas is the one hurting the Palestinians, they refuse to accept any agreement that includes the recognition of Israel, how can you reason with a people like that?

The Palestinians never surrendered to Israel before Hamas. Why should Hamas be the ones to do it?

How is recognizing Israel as a country surrendering? why can Hamas not except Israels right to exist?

 

[Marc39]

Hamas is the one hurting the Palestinians, they refuse to accept any agreement that includes the recognition of Israel, how can you reason with a people like that?

The Palestinians never surrendered to Israel before Hamas. Why should Hamas be the ones to do it?

Khaled Abu Toameh: What About Hamas's Siege Of Gaza?

As Israeli naval commandos raided the flotilla ship convoy that was on its way to the Gaza Strip, Hamas security officers stormed the offices of five non-governmental organizations, confiscated equipment and documents, and ordered them closed indefinitely. Ever since it seized control over the Gaza Strip in the summer of 2007, Hamas has imposed a reign of terror on the local population in general and its critics in particular. Hamas has brought nothing to the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip other than death and disaster.
The raid on the NGOs in the Gaza Strip, which received little coverage in the media, is seen by many Palestinians as part of Hamas's ongoing crackdown on political opponents and human rights organizations. Further, Hamas's recent decision to ban municipal elections in the Gaza Strip is yet another violation of one of the basic rights of its constituents. Hundreds of Palestinians have been arrested by Hamas's security forces for daring to speak out against the state of tyranny and intimidation in the Gaza Strip. Over the past three years, dozens of Fatah officials and members have either been thrown into prison or killed. Under Hamas, the Gaza Strip is being transformed into a fundamentalist Islamic entity resembling the regimes of the Ayatollahs in Iran and the Taliban in Afghanistan.

While there is no ignoring the fact that Hamas originally came to power in a free and democratic election in January 2006, this does not give the movement the right to impose a social, intellectual, political and economic blockade on the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Instead of searching for ways to improve the living conditions of the 1.5 million Palestinians of the Gaza Strip, Hamas is busy enforcing strict Islamic rules on the population, such as Hamas policemen, for example, often stopping men and women who are seen together in public to inquire about the nature of their relationship. Since the kidnapping of IDF soldier Gilad Schalit in 2006, more than 3,500 Palestinians have been killed, many of them during Operation Cast Lead which followed the firing of rockets at Israel. The kidnapping of Schalit and the rocket attacks have made the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip pay a very heavy price. If Hamas were really serious about ending the blockade on the Gaza Strip and helping the poor people living there, it would have accepted at least shown some pragmatism in dealing with the outside world.

Hamas could have, for instance, accepted the international community's demand to renounce terrorism and honor all previous agreements signed between the Palestinians and Israel. Moreover, it could have allowed representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit Schalit. Hamas, however, is more interested in clinging to power than in serving its people; and in light of increased calls for lifting the blockade following the flotilla incident at sea, the movement's leaders in Syria and the Gaza Strip are now convinced that they are marching in the right direction.

The flotilla incident came at a time when Hamas appeared to be losing its popularity among Palestinians, largely due to the deteriorating economic situation in the Gaza Strip. It also came at a time when even some of Hamas's supporters were beginning to criticize the movement, especially over its decision to demolish scores of "illegal" houses in the southern Gaza Strip and the execution of criminals and "collaborators" with Israel. It is one thing to help the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, but it is another thing to help Hamas. Those who wish to deliver aid to the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip can always find better and safer ways to do so - either through Israel or Egypt. But those who only seek confrontation with Israel in the sea are only emboldening Hamas and helping it tighten its grip on the people of Gaza Strip.

Internation Musing: Istanbul, Amsterdam, Delhi, Portland, Utrecht, The Hague and Thessaloniki.: What About Hamas's Siege of Gaza? (by Khaled Abu Toameh)

 

[P F Tinmore]

Hamas is the one hurting the Palestinians, they refuse to accept any agreement that includes the recognition of Israel, how can you reason with a people like that?

The Palestinians never surrendered to Israel before Hamas. Why should Hamas be the ones to do it?

How is recognizing Israel as a country surrendering? why can Hamas not except Israels right to exist?

Right to exist where? Why should Hamas recognize Israel's "right" to occupy Palestine?

 

[martybegan]

Good luck trying to argue with PF tinmore. For him the only two solutions are driving every Jew into the sea, or having them submit to Palestinian (Hamas) rule and protection and hoping for the best. In both cases all he wants is lots and lots of dead jews.

 

[High_Gravity]

The Palestinians never surrendered to Israel before Hamas. Why should Hamas be the ones to do it?

How is recognizing Israel as a country surrendering? why can Hamas not except Israels right to exist?

Right to exist where? Why should Hamas recognize Israel's "right" to occupy Palestine?

So in your mind Israel has no right to exist? all the Jews should leave and give the land back to Palestine?

 

[Marc39]

The Palestinians never surrendered to Israel before Hamas. Why should Hamas be the ones to do it?

How is recognizing Israel as a country surrendering? why can Hamas not except Israels right to exist?

Right to exist where? Why should Hamas recognize Israel's "right" to occupy Palestine?

Arab Journalist Diana Mukkaled: Gaza Injustice By Hamas

Hamas police proceeded to close a water park in Gaza due to the presence of "degrading and unethical gender mixing" according to the justification reported in the news. Subsequent information about this incident revealed that the citizens who were removed from the water park, following the Hamas decisions, had just sat down to break their fast [during the holy month of Ramadan], and those evicted from this water park included a charity organization that looked after orphans. The media in our region only briefly reported this news, mainly because we do not understand how breaking one's fast during Ramadan could be considered "degrading and unethical." What exactly is the criteria for this?

Yet the Gaza Water Park closure is not an isolated incident, in fact similar events occur routinely [in the Gaza Strip]. Only a few weeks ago, gunmen burned down a summer camp for children organized by UNRWA because young boys and girls would be mixing together, and there was a possibility of them swimming together. Indeed, the siege imposed upon Gaza, and the continuing strain that this has had on its people, has not prevented Hamas from overseeing ‘public morals’. For example, Hamas ensures that women's clothing stores respect the principle of modesty with regards to the mannequins on display at the shop's entrances, with the shop's who fail to do so being subject to punishments. The hardships suffered by the people of Gaza has not prevented Hamas from ensuring that women do not smoke shisha in public places, or that men do not work in female clothing shops.

And who could forget how the Ministry of Education in Gaza banned the book ‘Speak, Bird, Speak Again’ which was a collection of Palestinian folk tales, saying that this contained "shameless sexual expressions?" What is happening in Gaza is certainly far from an accident, or a miscalculation on the part of Hamas, and in fact this represents the essence of the Hamas movement and its true religious viewpoint. Hamas took over the Gaza Strip through force of arms, and it is impervious to being held to account for its actions. One cannot question its daily practices, or its oppression of the people of Gaza as Hamas practices tyranny in the name of resistance, and hides behind slogans.

Hamas does not tire from changing the features of the Palestinian cause, and obscuring its humanitarian aspects by continuing to obscure and eradicate Palestine's secular history and reality. Those who are united in support for Gaza and its people do not extend their solidarity towards the subsequent injustices inflicted upon the people of Gaza by Hamas, who have seized control of their lives. The means of resisting the Israeli blockade [of Gaza] are well known, and are sometimes productive, however as for the darkness that is being imposed upon the lives of the people of Gaza by Hamas, this cannot be dealt with whilst people are saying that they are in solidarity with the people of Palestine. What was inspiring with regards the Freedom Flotilla that came to challenge the Israeli blockade was that this also challenged the blockade that is being imposed by Hamas upon the lives of the people of Gaza.

When we read the daily reports about what is happening in Gaza under the shadow of Hamas, we cannot help but recall the final verse of the last poem written about Gaza by [Palestinian poet] Mahmoud Darwish before his death: “If we can’t find someone to defeat us again, we defeat ourselves with our own hands”

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[P F Tinmore]

How is recognizing Israel as a country surrendering? why can Hamas not except Israels right to exist?

Right to exist where? Why should Hamas recognize Israel's "right" to occupy Palestine?

So in your mind Israel has no right to exist? all the Jews should leave and give the land back to Palestine?

Israel is in Palestine. That is what all the fuss is about.

 

[High_Gravity]

Hamas closed a water park because of boys and girls inter mingling? what the fuck? what the hell is wrong with enjoying a good looking woman in a bikini? Hamas already got the whole strip locked down, they taking this away too?

 

[High_Gravity]

Right to exist where? Why should Hamas recognize Israel's "right" to occupy Palestine?

So in your mind Israel has no right to exist? all the Jews should leave and give the land back to Palestine?

Israel is in Palestine. That is what all the fuss is about.

I thought the West Bank and Gaza Strip were given to the Palestinians for their own country? you just expect Israel to up and leave?

 

[Marc39]

Right to exist where? Why should Hamas recognize Israel's "right" to occupy Palestine?

So in your mind Israel has no right to exist? all the Jews should leave and give the land back to Palestine?

Israel is in Palestine. That is what all the fuss is about.

Khaled Abu Toameh: Gaza Women: Who is Defending Their Rights?

It is not easy to be a woman living under a fundamentalist Islamic regime like the one in the Gaza Strip. Over the past three years, women in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip have been facing a campaign of intimidation and terror that has forced many of them to sit at home and do nothing. The fact that women are oppressed under radical Islamic regimes is of course very disturbing. But what is even more disturbing is the silence over abuse of women's rights in the Gaza Strip.
Has anyone heard prominent Palestinian spokeswoman Hanan Ashrawi come out in public against Hamas's repressive measures against Palestinian women? Where are local and international human rights organizations, especially those that claim to defend rights of women in the Arab and Islamic world? Has any major media outlet in the West thought of making a documentary about the suffering of women under Hamas?

Or are they so obsessed with everything that Israel does [or does not do] that they prefer to turn a blind eye to what is happening in the Gaza Strip? Has anyone dared to ask Hamas why sending women to carry out suicide bombings is all right, while it is not ok for them to walk alone on the beach or be seen in public with a man? Have "pro-Palestinian" groups in North America and Europe ever thought of endorsing the case of these women by raising awareness to their plight?

Since Hamas seized full control over the Gaza Strip in 2007, Palestinian women have been deprived of many of basic rights, such as strolling along the beach alone or smoking in public. Under Hamas, female lawyers are not allowed to appear in court unless they are wearing the hijab. They are also barred from going to male hairdressers. A woman who is seen in public with a man is often stopped by Hamas policemen and questioned about the nature of the relationship between them.

Women in the Gaza Strip who have dared to participate in public political and social events have been repeatedly harassed by the Hamas government. As a result, many of them have been forced to stay at home out of fear for their lives. Even Palestinian women's groups in the West Bank do not seem to care much about the conditions of women under Hamas. Have any of them thought of organizing demonstrations or campaigns in protest against abuse of women's rights under Hamas?

The West, Islam and Sharia: Gaza's Women: Who Is Defending Their Rights?

 

[High_Gravity]

I thought Hamas said they would not enforce Islamic law on the people there? I take it that was a fat fucking lie as usual.

 

[Marc39]

I thought Hamas said they would not enforce Islamic law on the people there? I take it that was a fat fucking lie as usual.

Hamas Bans Women From Dancing
Hamas Bans Women Dancers, Scooter Riders in Gaza Push (Update1) - Bloomberg

 

[High_Gravity]

I thought Hamas said they would not enforce Islamic law on the people there? I take it that was a fat fucking lie as usual.

Hamas Bans Women From Dancing
Hamas Bans Women Dancers, Scooter Riders in Gaza Push (Update1) - Bloomberg

Whats next? Hamas stops women from breathing air?

 

[P F Tinmore]

So in your mind Israel has no right to exist? all the Jews should leave and give the land back to Palestine?

Israel is in Palestine. That is what all the fuss is about.

I thought the West Bank and Gaza Strip were given to the Palestinians for their own country? you just expect Israel to up and leave?

Egypt, Jordan, and Israel occupied Palestinian land in 1948. In 1967, Israel took over the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. It never was not Palestinian land.