Hamas keen to shed Brotherhood links
doha — The Palestinian militant group Hamas will remove a call for Israel’s destruction and drop its association with the Muslim Brotherhood in a new policy document to be issued on Monday, Gulf Arab sources said.
Hamas’s move appears aimed at improving relations with Gulf Arab states and Egypt, which label the Brotherhood as a terrorist organisation, as well as with Western countries, many of which classify Hamas as a terrorist group over its hostility to Israel.
The sources said Hamas, which has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007, will say in the document that it agrees to a transitional Palestinian state along the borders from 1967, when Israel occupied Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem in a war with Arab states. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005.
A future state encompassing Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem along 1967 borders is the goal of Hamas’ main political rival, the Fatah movement led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. His Palestinian Authority has engaged in peace talks with Israel on that basis, although the last, USmediated round collapsed three years ago.
The revised Hamas political document, was to be announced later in the day, would still reject Israel’s right to exist and back “armed struggle” against it, the Gulf Arab sources told.
Hamas has fought three wars with Israel since 2007 and has carried out hundreds of armed attacks in Israel and in Israeli-occupied territories since it was founded three decades ago.
It remains unclear whether the document replaces or changes in any way Hamas’s 1988 charter, which calls for Israel’s destruction and is the group’s covenant.
A Hamas spokesman in Qatar declined to comment. There was no immediate comment from Egypt and Gulf Arab states.
Analysts say the revised docu- ment could allow Hamas to mend relations with Western countries and pave the way for a reconciliation agreement with the Palestine Liberation Organisation, now also headed by Abbas. The Brotherhood denies links with militants and advocates militant political parties winning power through elections.—