Hamas Follows the Path of Fatah, Inch by Inch, Hand-Span by Hand-Span!

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

When Fatah was established in the mid-sixties of the last century it announced that its objective was resistance in order to liberate Palestine ‘from the river to the sea’, and it ended up losing the river and the sea, and everything in between! Fatah recognised the Jewish entity established on the vast majority of Palestine, and began negotiating, under American patronage, upon a state in the remainder of Palestine. Whenever a matter became serious the president of Fatah would head to Washington. Yet till this day, with all its long years of negotiations, Fatah has not achieved anything. It is still under occupation, unable to even move around without permission of the occupier, to the extent that even its President cannot travel except with the permission of the Jewish entity!

Hamas was established about two decades after the establishment of Fatah. It began treading the same path as Fatah, announcing that its objective was resistance in order to liberate Palestine from the river to the sea, and began to criticise Fatah for recognising the Jewish state, and for seeking a Palestinian state only on the borders of 1967, for working with America and negotiating with the Jewish entity… and then finally the matter ended with Hamas itself seeking a state on the borders of 1967 next to the Jewish State established in the vast majority of Palestine. Hamas extended its hand out to America to negotiate about achieving this.

Despite the fact that since the time Hamas entered the election under occupation, and took government under occupation, and since the Makkah agreement, the reality of its actual objective bespeaks of a Palestinian state on the borders of 1967 next to the Jewish state, however Hamas has been playing with words with respect to the international and Arab resolutions which approve the two-state solution. It has been saying that it ‘respects’ international resolutions rather than saying that it recognises them, yet everyone knows that one who respects a resolution will recognise it sooner or later.

And now in a speech given by the Chief of Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, in Damascus yesterday Hamas has openly declared on its tongue that it wants a state on the borders of 1967, and that it will reach out to negotiate with America for this purpose!

Fatah announced its agreement with having a state in the West Bank and Gaza after about twenty years of its establishment, in its conference held in Algiers in October 1988, thus making its original claim about the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea a legacy of the past. Likewise Hamas has announced its agreement with having a state within the 1967 borders, and extended its hand to negotiate with America after about twenty years of its inception in 1987! Therefore the difference is only nominal and it is as if Hamas is following the path of Fatah inch by inch and hand-span by hand-span!

O Muslims,
We do not want to go into the reality of the formation and establishment of a number of the organisations in order to shows that the Western powers, America and Britain in particular, were not out of the picture with respect to the formation of these organisations. We do not want to go into this, because the reality of the current situation suffices without this discussion. However we will say, and it is the truth we say, by the leave of Allah, that as much as Fatah’s acceptance of two states in Palestine – one for the Jewish entity in the vast majority of Palestine, and the other for Palestine in a small area of Palestine along with conditions and restrictions – pained us, however it pains us much more that Hamas has came down to this situation. This is because Fatah agreed on there being two states in Palestine on a nationalist and pragmatic basis, and not in the name of Islam. Fatah has never claimed to be an Islamic movement.

As for Hamas, it is an Islamic movement in the eyes of the people. The serious danger therefore in this matter is that the people may think that Islam allows accepting and approving of the Jewish entity to exist in the land it usurped of Palestine in 1948 if it withdraws from what it occupied in 1967. This is why we have always wanted to keep Hamas away from falling into this quagmire. Thus we sincerely advised them to not enter the elections under occupation, and to not to enter the authority under occupation…but they have not shown any concern for this advice, nay they interpreted it in an incorrect and twisted way!

O Muslims,
Although our pain is great on the recognition of two states in Palestine by an ‘Islamic’ movement, however we see in this (pain) some good, for the reality to become clear and apparent is better than for it is remain vague and deceptive. That you see a thing when the sun is out in the day is better than if you see it in the darkness of night, such that your foot slips due to unclear vision after having been firm. And with all this, Palestine still has its men who will turn the pain into hope by the will of Allah. The recognition by Hamas and Fatah of two states in Palestine does not make the Jewish entity legitimate in Islam, for Hamas and Fatah are not Islam and the Muslims, nay they are but a fraction of the convoy who have veered off the road.

As for Palestine it is blessed Islamic land; it belongs to the Islamic Ummah and rests firmly in the mind and heart of the Ummah, since Allah linked its farther region with the Sacred House at the time of the momentous event of al-Isra’ wa ‘l-Mi’raj.

{سُبْحَانَ الَّذِي أَسْرَى بِعَبْدِهِ لَيْلًا مِنَ الْمَسْجِدِ الْحَرَامِ إِلَى الْمَسْجِدِ الْأَقْصَى الَّذِي بَارَكْنَا حَوْلَهُ لِنُرِيَهُ مِنْ آَيَاتِنَا إِنَّهُ هُوَ السَّمِيعُ الْبَصِيرُ}

“Glorified be He who took His slave by night from the Sacred Mosque to the Farthest Mosque, whose surroundings We have blessed, so that We may show him of our signs. Indeed He is the all-Hearing, the all-Seeing.” [al-Isra’: 1]

The issue of Palestine will not be solved by extending the hand toward America to negotiate over the two-state solution, nor by negotiating with the Jewish entity, even if it actually withdraws from all the land it occupied in 1967. Any inch of Palestine occupied in 1948, and any inch of Palestine occupied in 1967, both are the same in the eyes of Islam. The blessed land has been watered by the blood of the martyrs of the Islamic Army, across the ages of the Islamic Khilafah, to the extent that no inch of Palestine remains on which the blood of a martyr or the dust of a mujahid’s horse has not fallen.

Since the event of al-Isra’ wa ‘l-Mi’raj Palestine is a trust on the necks of the Muslims. The Muslims opened it in the time of Umar (ra), whereafter the Umari treaty affirmed Islamic authority on Palestine and declared that no Jews would reside in Jerusalem specifically. This trust has remained throughout history. Each time an enemy dared to take Palestine or was able to occupy and desecrate it, the great leaders of the Muslims stood up under the shade of the Khilafah to liberate it from the enemy. Thus did Salahuddin al-Ayyubi purify Palestine from the Crusaders and thus did Saifuddin Qutuz and Beebers al-Bandakari purify Palestine from the Tartars. Then in the last days of the Khilafah Khalifah Abd al-Hamid protected Palestine by preventing the gangs of Herzl from making settlements there. This is what must be done today had the Khilafah been established. It would remove the Jewish entity which has usurped Palestine, and return it, all of it, to the lands of Islam.

Palestine remains a trust on the necks of the Muslims, and it is not for any Muslim to betray this trust, as Allah, the Mighty and Powerful, says,

{يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آَمَنُوا لَا تَخُونُوا اللَّهَ وَالرَّسُولَ وَتَخُونُوا أَمَانَاتِكُمْ وَأَنْتُمْ تَعْلَمُونَ}

“O you who believe, do not betray Allah and His Messenger, nor betray your trusts whilst you know.” [al-Anfal: 27]

4th Rajab 1430 AH, 26th June 2009 CE

Hizb ut-Tahrir