Palestinians must accept responsibility
The Ireland-Palestinian Solidarity Campaign's (IPSC) unquestioning adherence to the Palestinian narrative as regards the Middle East conflict has led it to lend its support to a number of unsavoury characters over the course of its four-and-a-half year existence. For example, it generally defended the irredeemably corrupt arch-terrorist Yasser Arafat while it championed as his successor Marwan Barghouti, sentenced to five life terms for his murderous role in the second intifada. In light of this record, the IPSC's embrace of Hamas in an article on these pages (Village 27 Arpil – 3 May) comes as little surprise.
What is surprising is the sheer quantity of whitewash applied in the article to the blood-spattered walls of Hamas. Not a single mention is made of its 12–year reign of terror which left 500 Israelis dead and many thousands horribly wounded while its current refusals to recognise Israel and abide by previously signed peace agreements are presented as legitimate political positions. For the IPSC, it appears that Hamas's victory has instantly transformed its members from reviled paramilitaries into respectable parliamentarians deserving of international assistance. It therefore castigates the EU's 7 April decision to withdraw its €500m annual aid package to the Islamist-led Palestinian Authority (PA) which, echoing Hamas ministers Ghazi Hamad and Ala al-Araj, it claims is an American-inspired attempt to blackmail the Palestinians into rethinking their choice of government.
But like electorates the world over, the Palestinians must accept responsibility for their democratic choices. They cannot hand the keys of their coffers to an unreconstructed terrorist organisation and expect our taxes to continue pouring in. Hamas's unamended charter and its every Arabic interview underlines the fact that it remains wedded to its pre-election objective – "the liberation of the region from the impurity of Jews" – and Europe cannot run the risk that its finances could be used to further this purpose. For Brussels has not forgotten that the PA funnelled millions in EU funding to the Fatah-affiliated militias during the Arafat era.
The IPSC's excoriation of the Irish government for its "craven acquiescence" in the EU decision and its general failure to confront Israel is laughable considering the extent to which the Ahern administration has nailed its colours to the Palestinian mast. Its pro-active stance on issues such as the post-Karine A legitimacy of Chairman Arafat, the Geneva Initiative and the security fence in particular led Jerusalem to describe Ireland's national positions as "more challenging for us than almost any other member of the EU".
The article is elsewhere littered with the errors and misrepresentations which characterise the IPSC's analysis of the conflict. For instance, its claim that Israel's presence in the West Bank is illegal is manifestly untrue; the last legal allocation of the land was under the League of Nations' Mandate which gives to the Jews clear rights of settlement there, rights safeguarded since 1946 by Article 80 of the UN Charter. Resolution 242 further legitimises Israel's presence there, calling for an Israeli withdrawal only in the context of a negotiated settlement, something that has yet to be achieved with the Palestinians.
Jerusalem has spent 13 years trying to reach such a settlement. The Oslo peace process was scuppered, however, not by Israeli 'intransigence', but by Ramallah's attempt to bolster its bargaining position with bullets and explosives' belts. Yet Israel has persevered since the collapse of Camp David and, contrary to IPSC assertions, now explicitly recognises the Palestinian right to a state and officially accepts the Road Map as the means to this end. It has, in addition, promised further unilateral evacuations if it fails.
That the Palestinians have responded by placing power in the hands of an avowed enemy of a two-state solution demonstrates where the real interest in regional peace now lies.
Seán Gannon is the Chairman of the Irish Friends of Israel