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Will Hamas’ new policy document allow it to enter international scene?

Hamas hopes to revive old alliances and fix relations with regional and international actors with its new more pragmatic policy document.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh (R) and Hamas Gaza Chief Yehya Al-Sinwar attend a ceremony announcing a new policy document, in Gaza City May 1, 2017. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem - RTS14OXC
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On May 1, then-head of Hamas’ political bureau Khaled Meshaal announced the movement’s new General Principles and Policies Document during a press conference held at the Sheraton Hotel in Doha, in the presence of Hamas leaders as well as Palestinian and Arab media and political figures.

The document included 42 items, most notably, a definition of the movement and an official statement that it accepts a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders, without relinquishing the rest of the territories occupied in 1948. In addition, Hamas presented itself as a movement of liberation and Palestinian national resistance, without mentioning the Muslim Brotherhood as its organizational and ideological authority.

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