THE MODERATION OF HAMAS

It has long been argued on the pro-Israeli, neoconservative right that liberal newspapers like the Guardian (in the UK) and the New York Times (in the USA) should not make space on their comment or op-ed pages for spokesmen from Hamas. Hamas, we are told again and again, is a terrorist organisation committed to the destruction of the state of Israel and staffed by Holocaust-denying Islamic extremists.

Of course, the whole reason that Israel’s apologists in the West so vociferously oppose giving a voice to members (or even supporters) of Hamas is to prevent the public in Britain, in America, across Europe, etc, from hearing the actual views of Hamas, rather than those caricatured (or falsely ascribed to them) in the right-wing press – as the actual views of Hamas suggest there is a great deal of room for compromise, dialogue and negotiation.

In fact, despite the opposition of Bush, Blair, Olmert et al, polls show a majority of the Israeli public support the idea of negotiating with Hamas. And Hamas too – contrary to popular opinion – has accepted the reality of the state of Israel (without formally ‘recognizing’ the Jewish state), is in favour of negotiating with the Israel government and has also thrown its weight behind a de facto ‘two-state’ solution based on a long-term truce between Israelis and the Palestinians. See here, here and here (if you don’t believe me).

And this week, Hamas – again, through the much-maligned op-ed pages of the Guardian – has taken its first public step to shake off its anti-Semitic image and its long history of association with Holocaust deniers and conspiracy theorists. Think I’m exaggerating? Well, how else can we respond to Monday’s Guardian article by Bassem Naeem, the minister of health and information in the Hamas-led Palestinian administration in Gaza, entitled ‘Hamas condemns the Holocaust’. Naeem takes on this traditionally taboo subject for Islamists head on:

“….it should be made clear that neither Hamas nor the Palestinian government in Gaza denies the Nazi Holocaust. The Holocaust was not only a crime against humanity but one of the most abhorrent crimes in modern history. We condemn it as we condemn every abuse of humanity and all forms of discrimination on the basis of religion, race, gender or nationality.

“…The plight of our people is not the product of a religious conflict between us and the Jews in Palestine or anywhere else: the aims and positions of today's Hamas have been repeatedly spelled out by its leadership, for example in Hamas's 2006 programme for government. The conflict is of a purely political nature: it is between a people who have come under occupation and an oppressive occupying power.”

This, for me, is a clear sign of Hamas moderating its image, its message, its approach. It is time for Israel and its Western sponsors (the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union) to respond in kind and to recognize that there can be no negotiated, peaceful, just settlement with the Palestinian people which excludes the political party which the Palestinians overwhelmingly elected to power in 2006 – Hamas.