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Palestinian Hamas Official Al-Zahhar Reacts to Al-Zawahiri Comments

Posted on: Sunday, 5 March 2006, 13:00 CST

Al-Jazeera Television at 0513 gmt on 5 March carries a telephone interview with Mahmud al-Zahhar, head of the Hamas movement bloc in the Palestinian Legislative Council, on the movement's reaction to Al-Zawahiri's call on the movement to annul the signed agreement with the Israelis.

Asked about the Hamas movement's reaction to Al-Zawahiri's call on the movement to annul what he termed as the surrender agreements, Al-Zahhar says: "It is obvious that there is a lot of confusion with regard to what we heard, although we know that brother Al-Zawahiri has good intentions. First of all, we have not abandoned our weapons or stopped our resistance programme. By entering the government institutions, we want to make the programmes that did not serve the resistance part of the resistance programme. We want to turn the programmes that confronted the resistance - namely, the educational, health, agricultural and industrial programmes - into means to strengthen the Palestinian position, rebuild what was destroyed by the occupation and fight corruption. We are a moderate movement that adopts the Prophet's approach. Thus, have We made of you an Ummat [nation] justly balanced, that ye might be witnesses over the nations, and the Messenger a witness over yourselves [Koranic verse].

"This means that we should not abandon people, but rather, get involved in their problems and solve them through an Islamic approach. We lost our leaders, money and houses to protect every inch of the Palestinian land, which we did not, and will not, abandon. Saying that we walked into a US trap when we participated in the elections is not correct. Everybody knows that America opposed our participation in the elections. Also, the Israeli enemy did not want us to participate in the elections because it realized that entering these institutions will strengthen the resistance programme. Entering these institutions does not mean that we will be a carbon copy of other factions, something that Mr Al-Zawahiri warned about. Our position is very clear in this regard."

Asked about his reaction to Al-Zawahiri's criticism that the Hamas movement is holding talks with "secularist criminals", Al- Zahhar says: "We are not a takfiri [those who regard other Muslims as infidels] movement; we are a movement that takes into account the reality of people's lives. We call people to Islam through wisdom and sound advice." He adds: "Through its moderate approach, which is the Prophet's approach, the movement was able to persuade the majority of people to vote for its Islamic approach. The Hamas movement entered the parliament under the slogan "Islam is the solution". People voted for the movement because they believe that Islam can solve their economic, social and political problems, in addition to continuing their battles against the occupation. The Hamas movement sacrificed everything in order to oust the occupation. It did that within the framework of a resistance programme and with the participation of all resistance factions. I believe that the Hamas movement's approach is successful and that it is the most capable party to lead the Palestinian street."

Source: BBC Monitoring Middle East

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