Hamas mischaracterized by West, says former British diplomat

Gazan Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh (R) meets with Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland and a member of 'The Elders' in Gaza City in October. AP photo

FULYA ÖZERKAN

ANKARA – Hürriyet Daily News

Hamas, the political resistance movement voted into power in January 2006 by the Palestinian electorate, is misrepresented by Israel, the United States and the media, a senior former British diplomat said Friday.
The diplomat, who was speaking on condition of anonymity during a roundtable meeting in Ankara, said Hamas was a political organization not allied with Iran, which claims to be the champion of the Islamic world against Israel.

“Hamas subscribes to a two-state solution through negotiations,” said the diplomat. He argued that the number of young Palestinians moving into the arms of al-Qaeda was increasing because Hamas was unable to show a road forward.

The diplomat said he worked with an NGO that has a dialogue with Hamas and that he was transparent about this with Israel and the al-Fatah-led Palestinian authority.
While accepting the violence used by Hamas as a “big mistake,” the diplomat insisted that Hamas was being mischaracterized.

“We are toxic for talking to Hamas in Washington. What’s toxic in Washington is partly toxic in Britain,” he said. “Hamas should be talked to, Iran needs to be engaged.”

'EU-funded forces torture in West Bank'

The diplomat, who knew the United Nations very well and attended U.N. Security Council meetings on behalf of Britain many times, claimed that the injustice and the human rights abuse both in the West Bank and Gaza are “beyond international acceptability.”

“The EU is funding security forces in the West Bank that practice torture on people they arrest. And I have told [EU foreign policy chief] Catherine Ashton she needs to look out for the values involved behind the European funding of what’s going on in the West Bank,” he said.

The diplomat said he thought Turkey was a country where these things could be discussed more publicly. “It is shameful of the EU not to take these issues at a higher level of priority and even more shameful of the U.S. that they stand aside and watch while these things are happening.”

The diplomat said not only Gaza, controlled by Hamas, but also the West Bank were behind the walls, emphasizing that these circumstances were “unsustainable.” He said finding a basis for Israeli-Palestinian talks, finding a solution to the injustice and assuring the security of Israel was a key for a settlement. “A one-state solution is a disaster for Israel,” he said.

'You have to tell a friend that you've gone too far'

In comments on the crisis in the Turkish-Israeli relationship due to the Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound Turkish flotilla that left nine people dead last May, the diplomat likened the Turkish way of treating Tel-Aviv to British Prime Minister David Cameron, who in recent remarks accused Pakistan of promoting the “export of terror.”
“You have to tell a friend that you’ve gone too far,” said the former diplomat. He acknowledged, however, that Turkey could not play a role in the Middle East without communication with Israel.