GAZA: Leader Ismail Haniyeh says Hamas will never recognize Israel during celebrations marking the 23rd anniversary of the Islamist movement

Record ID: 212182

  • Title: GAZA: Leader Ismail Haniyeh says Hamas will never recognize Israel during celebrations marking the 23rd anniversary of the Islamist movement
  • Date: 15th December 2010
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) HAMAS LEADER ISMAIL HANIYEH SAYING: "We said it five years ago and here we are repeating it after five years, after the siege, after the war, after the conspiracy, internal and external, and against all international oppression we say it today, we will never recognize, we will never recognize, we will never recognise Israel."
  • Embargoed: 30th December 2010 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Gaza, Gaza
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Topics: International Relations,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVABCSW9XGGW2K5FKFKRV5ZAKTY5
  • Story Text: Thousands of Palestinians cheered a Hamas leader's pledge on Tuesday (December 14) never to recognise Israel. They were celebrating the Islamist movement's 23rd anniversary in Gaza, at a rally punctuated by the sonic booms of Israeli jets flying overhead.
    It was a sea of green - tens of thousands of Hamas supporters, men women and children, many in green bandanas waving green banners crowded together at the football field.
    Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, whose group runs the Gaza Strip, said the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) headed by Western-backed President Mahmoud Abbas had made a historic mistake by recognising Israel.
    "We said it five years ago and here we are repeating it after five years, after the siege, after the war, after the conspiracy internal and external and against all international oppression we say it today, we will never recognize, we will never recognize, we will never recognise Israel," Haniyeh told the gathering, which some organisers said was attended by around 250,000 people.
    Haniyeh had raised speculation last month about a future change in Hamas's charter, which calls for Israel's destruction, by suggesting the group could accept a referendum on any peace treaty giving the Palestinians a state on land Israel captured in a 1967 war.
    But he said such a truce would entail no recognition of Israel and no concessions over any part of the land of Palestine. "There is no future for the occupation on the Palestinian land, Palestine from the sea to the river and from Ras AlNakoura (Israel's border with Lebanon) to Rafah, the occupation will never remain on it (the land) never," Haniyeh told supporters in Gaza City.
    In his speech, Haniyeh challenged critics and local surveys which said Hamas's popularity was in decline over poor governance in Gaza.
    He voiced confidence that Hamas, which defeated Abbas's long-dominant Fatah movement in a 2006 election and seized the Gaza Strip in 2007 from forces loyal to the Palestinian leader, would win any future ballot.
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