Hamas says projectile launchers mutineers
Published yesterday (updated) 30/10/2010 23:02
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=329003

LONDON (Ma'an) -- Senior Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahhar described militants
behind the launch of homemade projectiles from Gaza towards Israel as
“mutineers against their factions” in an interview with the London-based
newspaper Al-Hayat.

Published on Saturday, Zahhar's comments focused on the point that all
factions had agreed to the ceasefire with Israel following the launch of
hostilities in December 2008. Israel's war on Gaza left more than 1,400 dead
and thousands of others injured.

"Why do they criticize us for respecting what we agreed on along with Fatah
and other factions?” Zahhar asked, referring to a post-Gaza war agreement
between factions to halt the flow of projectiles toward Israel.

Israeli air strikes on Gaza began on the eve of the expiration of an
Egyptian-brokered truce between Israel and Gaza, and ended with a unilateral
declaration of ceasefire by the Israeli military. During the following week,
factions in Gaza agreed to a second unilateral ceasefire, with some small
factions pledging to continue sending projectiles toward Israel.

Zahhar said he considered those who continued to launch projectiles toward
Israel as committing mutiny against their factions, and criticized the
militants who he said failed to claim the acts.

"Do they expect us to applaud someone who commits mutiny against his
faction. Opening the door for mutiny will result in chaos. Some [of the]
factions [currently firing projectiles] did not fire one single shot during
the war, and now they want to propagandize," he added.

Addressing questions about a split in opinion within the ranks of Hamas as
to the validity of a ceasefire, Zahhar said, "Hamas is not a perfect model,
there are disagreements but there is not conflict, and we have never heard
of such a split in the movement."

Released a day after the Kuwait-based paper Al-Jarida published claims that
Hamas officials were meeting with Israeli counterparts over a possible
prisoner-exchange and renewed ceasefire agreement, Zahhar told Al-Hayat that
Hamas was "ready to establish our state on a small part in Palestine," which
he said would occur without recognizing Israel. "We do not repeat
unsuccessful experiences," he added.

Zahhar on Gaza

The interview touched on several questions raised often in the international
arena, including issues of dissent within Gaza directed against the Hamas
government, and allegations that the body was propped up by foreign
interests.

On the issue of Palestinians in Gaza handing over information on the
resistance brigades and government officials, Zahhar said that yes, Gaza did
have issues with collaborators, but asked, "What is wrong with that? Hamas
is a big movement and those who err receive appropriate punishment.

"There is quite a difference between one, two or seven traitors who have
been discovered and punished and between a complete organization with an
agenda based on talks with Israel," he said.

In June, the Gaza government executed two men convicted of collaboration,
overriding a Palestinian Basic Law that mandated presidential approval for
the death penalty. Rights organizations decried the sentences, and none have
been carried out since, though Gaza intelligence officials said dozens of
collaborators were rounded up over the summer and awaited trial.

Zahhar defended the move, saying collaborators were killed after they were
convicted by court decision, likening the process to that of large families,
who he said punished relatives found to have committed treason.

Without confirming questions around Iran covering 80 percent of the Hamas
budget, Zahhar told the paper that, "Each offer to support the Palestinian
people without a political toll is accepted. If anyone can bring evidence
that we are following an Iranian or Afghani agenda or others, let them go
ahead and expose it."

The answer put into relief accusations from Hamas and other groups launched
toward the Palestinian Authority, accusing the body of following an
American-driven agenda. The US is the second-largest donor to the PA, behind
the European Union.

Zahhar then accused Fatah, the leading party in the PA, of deliberately
thwarting reconciliation with Hamas, citing Fatah's refusal to meet in
Damascus as scheduled.

"When they said they couldn’t attend a in Damascus as scheduled, because of
the heated argument between president Mahmoud Abbas and Syrian president
Bashar Al-Asad at the emergency Arab Summit in Sirte, that was just a
pretext to thwart reconciliation efforts because the US does not want this
reconciliation," he said.

The PA had accused Syrian officials of "humiliating" Palestinians at the
most recent Arab League summit in Libya. Comments accusing Fatah of treating
Hamas as enemy and Israel as a friend raised the ire of PA officials.