Document Hamas accepted
legalizes murder of Jews
New York – An Associated Press (AP) report carried in many newspapers has falsely claimed that the Hamas/Palestinian Authority (PA) government has implicitly recognized Israel by accepting the ‘Prisoner’s Document,’ the plan put forward for referendum by Palestinian Authority (PA) president Mahmoud Abbas. The AP report, titled ‘Hamas-Fatah to implicitly recognize Israel’ also repeats earlier false media claims that the document now accepted by Hamas is “a plan implicitly recognizing Israel … which calls for a Palestinian state alongside Israel” (USA Today, June 27).
ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said, “As the ZOA has previously revealed, the Abbas document is not a ‘peace plan,’ nor does it recognize Israel or renounce terrorism. No where does it mention Israel’s right to exist. The document that Hamas accepted actually endorses terrorism, calling for ‘resistance’ [i.e. violence] 15 times. By calling ‘resistance’ in all places, it actually legitimizes the murder of Jews. The document also demands eight times the so-called ‘right of return’, which would see Israel flooded with Palestinian “refugees” of the 1948-49 war and their descendants and is thus incompatible with Israel’s continued existence as a Jewish state. It also calls four times for the release of jailed Palestinian terrorists with blood on their hands.
“This plan is simply a new installment in the PLO’s 1974 ‘phased strategy’ of negotiating with Israel to extract concessions for use in subsequent warfare against a Jewish state that it does not accept. Specifically, the Abbas plan maintains that terrorism is a legitimate option, undermines the necessary conditions for peace, and violates the requirements and tenets of the Oslo Accords, the Road Map, and the Quartet’s conditions for support for the Palestinian Authority. The document neither explicitly recognizes Israel nor lists conditions for concluding a permanent peace settlement.
“To describe Hamas’ acceptance of this plan as tantamount to it recognizing Israel is plainly a falsehood. Misrepresentations like this assist Hamas in evading its obligations under the Oslo agreements and the 2003 Roadmap peace plan to explicitly recognize Israel, renounce terrorism, end all terrorism and the incitement to hatred and murder that feeds it in the PA-controlled media, mosques, schools and youth camps. AP should immediately retract its report and apologize for misleading the public that Hamas has recognized Israel when it clearly has not.”