What Hamas Wants

June 20, 2007

Oped Contributor

By AHMED YOUSEF
Gaza City

THE events in Gaza over the last few days have been described in the West as
a coup. In essence, they have been the opposite. Eighteen months ago, our
Hamas Party won the Palestinian parliamentary elections and entered office
under Prime Minister Ismail Haniya but never received the handover of real
power from Fatah, the losing party. The Palestinian president, Mahmoud
Abbas, has now tried to replace the winning Hamas government with one of his
own, returning Fatah to power while many of our elected members of
Parliament languish in Israeli jails. That is the real coup.

From the day Hamas won the general elections in 2006 it offered Fatah the
chance of joining forces and forming a unity government. It tried to engage
the international community to explain its platform for peace. It has
consistently offered a 10-year cease-fire with the Israelis to try to create
an atmosphere of calm in which we resolve our differences. Hamas even
adhered to a unilateral cease-fire for 18 months in an effort to normalize
the situation on the ground. None of these points appear to have been
recognized in the press coverage of the last few days.

Nor has it been evident to many people in the West that the civil unrest in
Gaza and the West Bank has been precipitated by the American and Israeli
policy of arming elements of the Fatah opposition who want to attack Hamas
and force us from office. For 18 months we have tried to find ways to
coexist with Fatah, entering into a unity government, even conceding key
positions in the cabinet to their and international demands, negotiating up
until the last moment to try to provide security for all of our people on
the streets of Gaza.

Sadly, it became apparent that not all officials from Fatah were negotiating
in good faith. There were attempts on Mr. Haniya's life last week, and
eventually we were forced into trying to take control of a very dangerous
situation in order to provide political stability and establish law and
order.

The streets of Gaza are now calm for the first time in a very long time. We
have begun disarming some of the drug dealers and the armed gangs and we
hope to restore a sense of security and safety to the citizens of Gaza. We
want to get children back to school, get basic services functioning again,
and provide long-term economic gains for our people.

Our stated aim when we won the election was to effect reform, end corruption
and bring economic prosperity to our people. Our sole focus is Palestinian
rights and good governance. We now hope to create a climate of peace and
tranquillity within our community that will pave the way for an end to
internal strife and bring about the release of the British journalist Alan
Johnston, whose kidnapping in March by non-Hamas members is a stain on the
reputation of the Palestinian people.

We reject attempts to divide Palestine into two parts and to pass Hamas off
as an extreme and dangerous force. We continue to believe that there is
still a chance to establish a long-term truce. But this will not happen
unless the international community fully engages with Hamas.

Any further attempts to marginalize us, starve our people into submission or
attack us militarily will prove that the United States and Israeli
governments are not genuinely interested in seeing an end to the violence.
Dispassionate observers over the next few weeks will be able to make up
their own minds as to each side's true intentions.

Ahmed Yousef is the political adviser to Ismail Haniya, who became the
Palestinian prime minister last year.