Hamas | The American Task Force on Palestine

Hamas' Zahar says Fatah to blame for talks delay
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
June 28, 2011 - 12:00am

Senior Hamas leader Mahmoud Al-Zahar has reportedly blamed Fatah for the delay in reconciliation talks, confirming reports that talks reached a dead end. "After we signed the agreement, Fatah on the ground worked against it," Al-Zahar told the Jordanian newspaper Al-Dustur on Tuesday. He added that Fatah were linking the whole reconciliation process to the position of prime minster, an approach which was damaging unity efforts.

ICRC demands Hamas provide proof Shalit is alive
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Alertnet
June 23, 2011 - 12:00am

The International Red Cross called on Hamas on Thursday to provide proof that Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit is still alive nearly five years after his capture by Palestinian militants. In an unusual public appeal, the independent aid agency said Shalit's family had a right under international humanitarian law to be in contact with their 24-year-old son, held incommunicado since his capture on June 25, 2006.

Hamas Refuses Plea to Prove Israeli Is Alive
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - June 23, 2011 - 12:00am

JERUSALEM — The International Committee of the Red Cross on Thursday publicly demanded that Hamas provide proof that an Israeli soldier captured five years ago and held in Gaza is still alive. Hamas promptly rejected the demand.

Salam Fayyad 'will refuse PM post'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
June 21, 2011 - 12:00am

Salam Fayyad will announce his intention to refuse to head the new unity government if he is offered the post, sources close to the appointed West Bank Prime Minister told Ma'an. Fayyad has publicly said he would accept whatever parties decide in Cairo. Fatah's central committee nominated Fayyad as the party's choice for the position, a party official said following a meeting of the Fatah leadership in Ramallah on June 11. Hamas swiftly rejected the proposal.

Middle East peace needs fresh thinking
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by Khalaf Al Habtoor - (Opinion) June 21, 2011 - 12:00am

Israel's first Prime Minister David Ben Gurion tried to reassure Israelis that Palestinians would never return to their homes. "We must do everything to ensure they never do return… The old will die and the young will forget," he said. He was wrong; the word ‘forget' isn't in the Palestinians' lexicon. For 63 long years, they've borne hardships, suffered humiliation and fought for freedom with nothing but stones and bare hands. But, sadly, they not only face a cruel adversary, their own leaders have let them down.

Palestinian statehood: Individual nations, not the U.N., will have the final say
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
(Editorial) June 17, 2011 - 12:00am

In their Op-Ed articles on Palestinian statehood, Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzook and John R. Bolton, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, both misunderstood the nature and function of U.N. recognition in international law. Bolton's claim that President Obama is "the most anti-Israel president since 1948" was particularly galling. Was it not the president of the administration in which Bolton served who claimed to have had a "vision" of an Israeli and a Palestinian state "living side by side in peace and security," exactly as Obama wants?

Hamas peacemaker's new softer stance treads a risky path
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Hugh Naylor - June 16, 2011 - 12:00am

Khaled Meshaal, the Damascus-based Hamas leader, has been praised for his role in the recent reconciliation process with the rival Palestinian group Fatah. Mediators involved in the agreement credit him for checking the Islamist group's hard-line impulses and pushing a policy of pragmatism. But his calibrated gamble to soften the Islamists' image could backfire, Palestinian analysts say, if his efforts fail to unify Palestinians or gain international acknowledgment.

Fatah, Hamas meet in Cairo to settle dispute on leadership
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
June 14, 2011 - 12:00am

Representatives of Fatah and Hamas, the Palestinian rivals, are to meet Tuesday in Cairo to discuss forming a unity government among increasing differences on the candidate of the prime minister. The meeting is the second one since the two movements signed an Egyptian-brokered agreement to end political division between the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and the Fatah-ruled West Bank. When the two movements met on May 14, they discussed the independent candidates who may lead the technocratic government that will administer Gaza and the West Bank according to the agreement.

Palestinian Unity Effort Shows Cracks as Factions Disagree Over Choosing Leader
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Fares Akram, Isabel Kershner - June 13, 2011 - 12:00am

Fatah and Hamas so far disagree on who should lead a unity government, a possible sign of discord before talks scheduled to start in Cairo on Tuesday, prompting Palestinian officials and analysts to question the durability of the recent reconciliation agreement. The Egyptian-brokered pact was reached unexpectedly and signed formally at a ceremony in Cairo on May 4. It was meant to end four years of schism between the mainstream Fatah, the dominant party in the West Bank, and the Islamic militant group Hamas, which controls Gaza, and the subsequent division between the two territories.

Hamas rejection bodes poorly for unity talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Statesman
by Josef Federman - June 12, 2011 - 12:00am

Ceremoniously announced last month, reconciliation between the two rival Palestinian leaderships — the secular Fatah and the Islamist Hamas — hit a serious snag Sunday, another sign that the effort is not going well. In the latest blow, Hamas on Sunday rejected Fatah's proposal that internationally respected economist Salam Fayyad remain prime minister. "Hamas will not agree to grant Salam Fayyad the confidence to run the national unity government," said Salah Bardawil, a Hamas official in the Gaza Strip.

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