Israel recognition not on table of Arab talks

By Aaron Klein

JERUSALEM – The recognition of Israel is not on the table at talks aimed at creating a unity government between Hamas and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah organization, according to participants taking part in the discussions.

The international community is urging the formation of a unified Palestinian government to clear the way for some $5 billion in international aid to flow into Gaza, including parts of a recent $900 million pledge from the U.S.

Two sources inside the unity talks currently under way between Fatah and Hamas in Egypt both confirmed to WND that Hamas is not being asked to recognize Israel as a condition for joining the Palestinian Authority. Instead, Abbas’ Fatah party – under international pressure – is asking for Hamas to recognize, but not agree to, past agreements with Israel, including one deal that tacitly recognizes the Jewish state’s right to exist.

In the past, the U.S. has said that before it deals with Hamas, the Islamist group must first recognize Israel’s right to exist. Clearly, Fatah does not place as much importance on that U.S. condition.

Mushir al-Massri, a Hamas spokesman and parliament member, told WND from the talks in Egypt: “The world is asking us to recognize Israel, but Fatah does not recognize Israel. It’s not demanded from Fatah, and you (Americans) give plenty of money to Fatah, so why are you asking Hamas to recognize (Israel)?”

Indeed, contrary to popular perception, Fatah has never officially recognized Israel as a party.

In 1994, the Palestine Liberation Organization, or PLO, signed what was known as the “recognition principals,” in which the PLO formally agreed to recognize Israel. Fatah is the largest faction of the PLO, and as such, is thought to be party to the recognition agreement.

Fatah as a party, however, never officially declared it recognized the Jewish state. The last time the Fatah party held its official congress – in which it amended its charter – was in 1989. At that time, Fatah declared jihad on Israel and called for the Jewish state’s destruction.

PLO Leader Yasser Arafat later made a statement to the French media in which he claimed the portion of Fatah’s charter calling for the destruction of Israel was null and void, but the terms were never officially nullified. According to Fatah bylaws, the group’s charter can only be changed by vote during an official Fatah congress session.

Al-Massri, meanwhile, said Hamas may be ready to recognize, but not accept, previous agreements between Israel and the PLO.

“Hamas can live with recognizing past agreements with Israel,” he said, “but we need to discuss small nuances.”

U.S. funds to reach Hamas?

The unity talks could bring Hamas into the PA, which is slated to be infused with large amounts of foreign donor funds. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton earlier this month announced that a $900 million U.S. aid package for the Palestinians was meant to foster regional peace and would not fall into the hands of the Hamas terrorist organization.

But the aid is slated to be received both by a U.N. agency that openly employs Hamas and by the PA, which Hamas may now join.

Clinton told a news conference at an international donors meeting in Egypt on March 2, “We have worked with the Palestinian Authority to install safeguards that will ensure our funding is only used where and for whom it is intended and does not end up in the wrong hands.”

The U.S. considers Hamas a terrorist group. Hamas’ charter calls for the murder of Jews and destruction of Israel. The group is responsible for scores of deadly suicide bombings, shooting attacks, border raids and rocket launchings aimed at Jewish civilian population centers.

The $900 million U.S. in funding includes $300 million earmarked to provide “humanitarian aid” for Gaza following Israel’s 22-day war there aimed at denting Hamas’ terrorist infrastructure.

A U.S. official reported the money will go to the PA and to nongovernmental organizations, most notably the United Nations Relief and Work Agency, or UNWRA, which administers aid to millions of Palestinian “refugees” in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.

Israeli security officials warned that since Hamas controls the Gaza Strip, any reconstruction efforts in the territory are likely to bolster Hamas, whether the Islamist group directly receives the funds or not. They also said the PA has previously used donor funds to pay salaries for Hamas officials and the terrorist group’s police force in Gaza, which includes scores of terrorists among its ranks.

Further, Hamas and the soon-to-be cash-infused PA are in talks to join a unity government. The talks are said to be favored by the Obama administration.

In recent meetings with representatives of donor countries, Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu warned that infusing the Hamas-controlled Gaza with funds or construction efforts before Hamas stopped firing rockets at Israel would send a message to the terrorist group that it can continue its onslaught with little consequence.

Netanyahu also reportedly said reconstructing Gaza with international aid could make it more difficult for Israel to launch a future anti-terror operation in the territory, since the Israeli army may hit locations rebuilt with foreign donations.

Reacting to the news of the pledged U.S. funds, Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza, recently told WND, “We are very happy with this decision.”

“In the first place, this money will go toward reconstructing efforts,” said Barhoum, speaking by cell phone from Gaza.

Hamas, UNWRA closely linked

The $900 million is also slated for UNWRA. From 1990 until today, teachers affiliated with the Islamic Bloc, which is formally associated with Hamas, have won elections as representatives of the teachers’ section of the UNRWA union. By 2003, they held all seats and fully constituted the executive committee of this section of the union. The publication of UNWRA school books in Gaza is coordinated with Hamas.

Saeed Siam, Hamas former interior minister and one of the leaders of the group’s so-called military wing, taught in UNRWA schools from 1980 to 2003 and served as a representative to the UNWRA union. He was killed during an Israeli air strike last month.

Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the man who founded Hamas and has been immortalized by it, worked as a UNRWA teacher from 1967 to 1994.

On July 6, 2001, Hamas convened a conference in the UNRWA school in the Jabalya refugee camp in Gaza, with students, teachers and school administrators in attendance. Yassin presented his ideology, and then an official named Saheil Alhinadi, who represented the teaching sector of UNRWA, praised students who had recently carried out suicide attacks against Israel, declaring “the road to Palestine passes through the blood of the fallen, and these fallen have written history with parts of their flesh and their bodies.”

A 2002 report from the Intelligence and Terrorism Center at Israel’s Center for Special Studies, a think tank associated with Israeli intelligence, documented how a number of wanted terrorists were found hiding inside schools run by UNRWA.

“A large number of youth clubs operated by UNRWA in the refugee camps were discovered to be meeting places for terrorists,” said the report.

Muhammad Ali Hassan, a Hamas terrorist arrested in February 2002, confessed he had carried out a sniper shooting from the school run by UNRWA in the al-Ayn refugee camp near Nablus, or biblical Shechem. He also reportedly told his interrogators that bombs intended for terrorist attacks were being manufactured inside the school’s facilities.

Nidal Abd al-Fattah Abdallah Nazzal, a Hamas activist from Kalkilya, was arrested in August 2002. He had been employed as an ambulance driver by UNRWA. He confessed during his interrogation that he had transported weapons and explosives in an UNRWA ambulance to terrorists.

Additional information about arrests of UNRWA employees by Israel came in 2003 from the U.S. General Accounting Office, which was charged with conducting an investigation of UNRWA operations. The office found that in three instances Israeli military courts convicted UNRWA employees of involvement with explosives.

More recently, in the time leading up to and since the Hamas takeover of Gaza in the summer of 2007, there has been concern in Jerusalem about UNRWA camps being used for the manufacture, storage and launching of rockets and mortars into Israel. Also, camp residents have been suspected of active involvement in launching missiles and infiltrating shooters and suicide bombers into Israel.

 


Aaron Klein

Aaron Klein is WND's senior staff writer and Jerusalem bureau chief. He also hosts "Aaron Klein Investigative Radio" on Salem Talk Radio. Follow Aaron on Twitter and Facebook. Read more of Aaron Klein's articles here.