Haaretz
Iyyar 25, 5766
Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh
told Haaretz Monday that the Hamas government is prepared to agree to an
extended cease-fire if Israel withdraws to the 1967 lines.
"If
Israel withdraws to the 1967 borders, peace will prevail and we will
implement a cease-fire [hudna] for many years," Haniyeh said during an
interview in his south Gaza office. "Our government is prepared to
maintain a long-term cease-fire with Israel."
Palestinian
Transportation Minister Ziad Zaza described the hudna during the interview
as "the cease-fire that will be renewed automatically each time."
Haniyeh expressed surprise that the Israeli government has not
been accepting of the Palestinian government's decision allowing its
ministers to conduct negotiations with representatives of the Israeli
government regarding day-to-day issues. The decision was one of the first
that the Hamas government made, and Haniyeh sees it as fitting in with his
approach - that his government is ready for talks with Israel on practical
matters, though not on ideological or political issues.
When asked
about his government's failure to indicate the slightest interest in
changing its positions or to accept the Arab peace initiative presented at
the 2002 Beirut summit, Haniyeh responded: "That is an issue between us
and the Arabs."
The prime minister wouldn't discuss the Hamas
charter rejecting the existence of Israel, saying, "Leave Hamas aside now
- I am speaking to you as the leader of the Palestinian government, the
government of all the Palestinians, and not as the leader of a movement."
Haniyeh and his associates are upset that their government has
been depicted as a Hamas government, insisting that it be referred to as
"the Palestinian government."
Haniyeh also said that Israel must
give the Palestinian Authority the tax monies it has collected and decided
to withhold. He said the transfer of NIS 50 million in medicines and
medical supplies to Palestinian medical centers, which the cabinet
approved Sunday, represented only a small portion of the money Israel must
pay the Palestinians.
Despite the violent incidents that continued
in the Gaza Strip yesterday, the crowded streets conveyed an impression of
relative quiet. Members of the new Palestinian security force, which is
under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian interior minister, are posted at
Gaza junctions. They are all armed, wear dark uniforms and appear orderly,
in contrast to the members of other security forces, who stand beside them
and occasionally look unkempt. Many argue that the deployment of the new
security force, whose members are mostly from Hamas, brought Gaza to the
threshold of civil war.
But Palestinian government spokesman Ghazi
Hamed said that despite the tension, there will not be a civil war,
because nobody wants one. He said Gaza has its full of other problems: an
economic and political siege, unemployment, a paralyzed economy and
workers who aren't receiving their salaries.
"None of us are
receiving our salaries, not even Prime Minister Haniyeh or the government
ministers," said Hamed.
He said the government had no choice but
to organize a new security force to protect the residents from the armed
gangs and militias that have sprung up over the years, which Hamed said
the existing security forces were not able to control. "The residents are
satisfied and support these forces," he said.
Fatah members said
the public did not support the competing security force. At a meeting of
Fatah activists who described themselves as leaders of its military wing,
the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, one activist complained that the Fatah
movement had not responded quickly and decisively enough to stop the
deployment of the Hamas forces, which he views as illegal. "Don't get the
mistaken impression that the public likes them," he said. "They're scared
of them."
Nonetheless, the members of the various security forces
appear to be getting along with each other. At one square on Al-Jala
Boulevard, which leads from the Jabalya refugee camp to central Gaza,
police officers from the security force that answers to PA Chairman
Mahmoud Abbas were chatting with the Hamas-affiliated "operational
forces."
"These aren't foreign youths who came from the moon,"
said a passerby. "They're all our people, members of the same families and
the same neighborhoods, and they won't attack each other."
Hamed
said support for Hamas is increasing daily, and that Hamas raised $250,000
for needy Gazans over the weekend. He also said Hamas would ultimately
adapt its ideology to the current situation.
"With time we will
suit our positions to reality and change," he said. "But under no
circumstances will we do so under the pressure of a siege and only to get
money. As we have already said, we will eat bread and hyssop [za'atar] and
not give in."