Hamas Slams Qatar, Arab League On Peace Plan
Hamas, the PFLP and Islamic Jihad have angrily rejected Qatar's land-swap offer to Israel, Mohammed Suliman reports.
On April 29, top Arab League officials, following their meeting with US Secretary of State John Kerry in Washington, announced their support of the principle of mutually agreed land swaps with Israel, rather than full Israeli withdrawal to the pre-1967 borders, or Green Line. As per the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, the delegation, led by Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, reiterated its call for full normalization of ties with Israel in return for a withdrawal from lands it occupied during the 1967 War.
The league's action has caused a furor among Palestinian officials across the political spectrum, as Dalia Hatuqa reported in Al-Monitor on May 1, from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) to Islamic Jihad and Hamas. At the same time, Israel praised the move as an “important concession” on the part of Arab the states.
On May 2, the Ma’an News Agency reported Hamas politburo chief Khaled Meshaal's rejection of the Arab League endorsement of land swaps and his asessment that “any such concession would harm the Palestinian cause.” According to the agency, Meshaal in addition saw the situation as “a bid to find economic peace between Arab states and Israel by integrating it into the region.”
Speaking to Al-Monitor, Ghazi Hamad, Hamas deputy foreign minister, also denounced the Arab League decision and the entire approach of dealing with the Palestinian question within the “framework of negotiations.” Hamad argued that the Qatari-led initiative was an attempt by the United States to bring the Palestinian Authority (PA) back to the negotiating table by pressuring it through the Arab League.
