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Photo: AFP
Hamas leader Khaled Mashal
Photo: AFP

Hamas chief: 'Israeli extremism' killed peace process

Khaled Mashal calls on the West to pressure Israel rather than the Palestinians in order to 'put a stop to Netanyahu's stubbornness'; describes Hamas ideology as 'moderate' and compares himself to Nelson Mandela, George Washington.

Amid claims that it committed war crimes in the last Gaza conflict, Hamas' political leader Khaled Mashal has condemned what he referred to as "Israeli extremism," telling the BBC in an interview aired Wednesday that the Palestinian attacks against Israel would continue "as long as there is occupation, aggression, war and killing."

 

 

"We're not looking for any escalation, but we will defend ourselves," Mashal told BBC Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen in an interview from his headquarters in Qatar, adding that Hamas will be "careful to respect international humanitarian law and to target only military targets."

 

He lamented Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's win in the recent Israeli elections, saying that "even in the eyes of Americans and Europeans, Netanyahu is the most extreme leader and the one who lives to shed blood the most. That's why we're expecting difficult times with him."

 

Hamas leader Khaled Mashal (Photo: AFP)
Hamas leader Khaled Mashal (Photo: AFP)

 

Netanyahu, whose Likud party won 30 seats in the Knesset, is currently working to form a government with his right-wing "natural partners."

 

Mashal asserted it was the international community's responsibility "to put a stop to (Netanyahu's) stubbornness and Israeli extremism," saying the Palestinians have already shown they are "flexible, serious and keen to achieve a just and rightful peace."

 

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The Hamas leader, who has always vehemently objected peace talks with Israel and rejected the two-state solution, accused "Israel with its extremist leadership" of killing "the peace process, the two-state solution and every opportunity for a political solution for the Palestinian cause."

 

He called on the US and other Western states to place their pressure on Israel instead of the Palestinians. "We are not the ones who are responsible" for the diplomatic stagnation, he claimed.

 

Mashal, whose organization is defined as a terror group by Israel, Egypt, the US, and other countries, rejected Netanyahu's accusations that Hamas was a jihadist group, claiming there is "no Islamic State or al-Qaeda in Palestine" and that Palestinians caught committing terror attacks against Israelis were "lone wolves" and "isolated."

 

"We don't allow such thoughts in Palestine. The Palestinian people are in a movement for national liberation. It is a just cause, and it is certainly not terrorism," Mashal said, saying the Palestinians were actually "the victims of Israeli terrorism for decades."

 

Mashal claimed Hamas, whose charter calls for the destruction of Israel, has a "moderate ideology and an open mind." He also compared himself and his movement to the likes of Nelson Mandela and George Washington and the causes they led.

 

"The ones who are laughing at our logic today, they should laugh at Mandela and what the Vietnamese people have done. And what (French president) de Gaulle did when he led the liberation war against the Nazi occupation in the Second World War," Mashal said.

 

"They should laugh at George Washington and the American Revolution. The people of the world have been liberated from occupiers and the Palestinian people are doing the same. And so is Hamas."

 


פרסום ראשון: 04.01.15, 11:25
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