‘It’s a lie that we’re criminals and terrorists, we’re merely freedom fighters to liberate our land,’ Hamas co-founder tells RT

Unique: Mahmoud al-Zahar talks about potential prisoner exchanges, Could’s Gaza-Israel warfare, the present shaky ceasefire and the chance of additional battle, and affirms the motion needs Fatah chief Marwan Barghouti freed.

In Could, the Israeli army and Gaza’s armed teams engaged in 11 days of brutal warfare, ensuing within the deaths of 270 Palestinians and 13 Israelis. Since then a mutual ceasefire has largely held, however many speculate that this may occasionally quickly change. With the intention to get a greater grasp of the continued tensions between the 2 sides, I spoke to Mahmoud al-Zahar, the co-founder of the Hamas motion, to get the attitude of the organisation at the moment designated as a terrorist group in most Western capitals.

Born close to Gaza Metropolis on Could 6, 1945, making him, at 76, older than the state of Israel, Mahmoud al-Zahar is named many various issues to totally different individuals. To some he’s a co-founder of an armed liberation motion, to others he is named a global terrorist chief and conservative Islamist. He beforehand served because the Palestinian overseas minister as a part of the democratically elected Palestinian Authority (PA) authorities of 2006 following a landslide victory for Hamas at Palestine’s legislative elections. In 1988, one yr after the launch of Hamas, he was detained by the Israeli authorities and was later, in 1992, exiled to southern Lebanon. He has survived a number of assassination makes an attempt and at the moment resides inside besieged Gaza, the place he stays a high-profile chief of the Hamas organisation.

Al-Zahar at the moment has a goal on his head, that means that any time he could possibly be assassinated by Israeli airstrikes, as they view him as a significant terrorist chief. After I spoke to him over a reside hyperlink from London, he advised me that the constructing which he was talking from had been bombed 4 instances.

One of many main points I requested him about was that of the continued prisoner swap talks, that are being carried out by Egypt performing as middleman. Hamas at the moment holds 4 Israeli troopers captive: Hisham al-Sayed, Avner Mengistu, Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul. It’s unclear whether or not they’re alive or useless, however based on Hamas they’ll solely be handed again to Israel below an prisoner trade settlement, much like the 2011 deal struck between the 2 sides, below which 1,027 Palestinian prisoners had been freed for the discharge of 1 Israeli soldier.

I requested al-Zahar what had been the first concerns for Hamas and what would represent a good prisoner trade deal in its eyes?

Calling the swap as being based mostly on “humanitarian ideas,” he replied:  “We maintain to the ideas that we must always launch the outdated age prisoners, the folks that endure from persistent ailments, individuals representing each space in Palestine, not solely in Gaza Strip but in addition the West Financial institution… The intention is to let out prisoners in pressing want for freedom, with the intention to save their lives, with the intention to deal with them…and to additionally permit individuals to proceed their actions [work] with the intention to assist their households.”

When requested how his organisation would reply to the seize and detainment of the 4 Israeli troopers as being labelled as an act of terrorism and legal in nature, he said:

“They got here and occupied our land, it was a really disastrous step for Europe and America particularly to place foreigners in our land to dismiss our individuals, to permit them [Palestinians] to reside in refugee camps, with none purpose, with none crime [being committed by Palestinians]. Simply because they’re Jews, as a Holy individuals, and our individuals because the house owners of the land don’t have any probability to reside in our lands, so because of this I feel it’s a fabricated story that we’re criminals, that we’re terrorists – we’re very merely freedom fighters to liberate our land…” 

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Beforehand it had been claimed that imprisoned Fatah Social gathering chief Marwan Barghouti was the highest precedence in any prisoner swap and al-Zahar confirmed that this was true, explaining:  “We’re not differentiating between the Palestinian factions…the final launch included lots of people, not all of them from one aspect [politically]. We put down our values of who needs to be launched, as I advised you, outdated age, individuals with persistent ailments, [from] each space, each faction, each organisation and particularly the people who find themselves in pressing must be let out – one in every of them [is] Marwan Barghouti.”

I needed to know what he makes of the framing, in a lot of the Western media, that Could’s warfare was orchestrated by Hamas with the intention to obtain its personal goals, with out contemplating the targets of the broader Palestinian society. “It was not Hamas, it was each organisation, all people, each household,” he defined, blaming the battle on Israel’s assaults on Palestinian worshippers on the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, which incited individuals to revolt. “They [Israel] violated their rights to go and to wish, to have fun and to do the Islamic custom, on this essential third [holiest] shrine in Islam, after Mecca and Madina.”

Al-Zahar additionally opened up concerning the Israeli killings of his personal youngsters, saying that he noticed the stays of one in every of their our bodies after a tank shelling. “I personally misplaced two of my sons,” he revealed. “One, referred to as Khaled, after one week getting back from Europe, he acquired a masters diploma from Salford College [in Manchester, UK], they killed him on this home and so they killed my final son referred to as Hussam, they killed him by tank bomb.” The seriousness with which his tone altered, when explaining this, gave a fantastic indication of the conviction he has to the wrestle of the Hamas motion in opposition to the Israelis, it was simple to inform that regardless of such private sacrifices, his mentality has not faltered; the truth is, it appeared as if his losses solely solidified his views.

After having travelled to the occupied territories, chatting with and interviewing numerous ex-prisoners who had suffered from torture and households who had misplaced family members, I seen a really related tone is commonly taken, one in every of unwavering perception of their trigger. Typically these kind of tragic occasions, in the event that they don’t handle to fully devastate and demoralise individuals, work solely to additional tighten their perception within the Palestinian nationwide wrestle.

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When pressed on the rationale behind his group utilizing violence to attain its targets, he replied strongly: “The precept in any nation, the precept in even the animal…is that it’s self-defence…[Benjamin] Netanyahu, nonetheless his father remains to be residing in America, [Avigdor] Lieberman, his father remains to be residing in Russia, what justifies for these individuals to return from each space to occupy our land and to think about it Israel? We’re the true house owners of this land for hundreds of years and centuries.”

“Simply give me one instance in historical past, in any nation, in any space, in any period, that individuals that suffered from occupation allowed the occupier to proceed their existence of their land?”

All people is searching for freedom, each nation that suffered from the occupation…they’d the proper to defend themselves in opposition to occupation.”

Requested to touch upon latest tensions inside Israeli army prisons, with claims of human rights abuses in opposition to detainees, he requested, “What does worldwide legislation need to say about this?” and blamed Europeans for his or her silence on the problem.

Does Hamas view it as Israel’s accountability to assist with post-war reconstruction efforts in Gaza? Al-Zahar shrugged, stating that Israel wouldn’t assist and that Hamas needed worldwide donors to offer them the cash to reconstruct. He additionally made it clear that he considered Israel’s blocking of reconstruction efforts as legal.

Al-Zahar advised me that to ensure that there to be a long-term truce with Israel, Tel Aviv should permit Palestinians within the West Financial institution and Gaza freedom of motion and fundamental rights and finish its siege of Gaza, which has been in place since 2007. At no level did he point out that his organisation would step apart and comply with a long-term ceasefire, or finish their armed wrestle in opposition to the Israelis, until these calls for had been met, commenting firmly on the resolve of the group: “We need to defend our land, to defend our individuals, to permit our generations to reside as human beings sooner or later.”

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