Hamas leader vows not to recognize Israel

Haniyya vows not to recognize israel

Compiled by Daily Star staff
Saturday, December 09, 2006

Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyya told Iranians on Friday that his people would never bow to pressure to recognize Israel and would keep fighting - thanks in part to support from Tehran.

Addressing worshippers at Friday prayers in Tehran, where he arrived on Thursday for a four-day official visit, Haniyya said Israeli attacks against Palestinians had increased since his Hamas government took power in March.

Iran, like Hamas, refuses to recognize the state of Israel and has sent $120 million so far this year to the Palestinian Authority toward a shortfall caused by a Western financial blockade.

"We will never recognize the occupier of the Palestinian lands and will continue the resistance until we liberate Jerusalem ... and allow the displaced Palestinians to return to their homeland," Haniyya said.

Western nations and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas have pressured Hamas to recognize Israel, renounce violence and accept existing interim peace accords. Hamas' refusal has been partly to blame for the collapse of unity government talks with Abbas.

The US Congress approved a bill Thursday barring US aid to the Palestinian Authority as long as the Islamist movement refuses to recognize Israel's right to exist and renounce violence.

The legislation also calls on Hamas, which won control of the Parliament in January elections, to recognize past peace agreements with Israel.

Prayer leader Ahmad Khatami reiterated Iran's support for the Hamas government and criticized the Western sanctions.

"Those liars, instead of supporting and approving it [the Hamas government], have taken their swords aloft from the beginning against a government that was appointed by the people's votes," he said.

Haniyya will also meet Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as part of his first official trip to Iran.

Tens of thousands of Hamas supporters demanded Friday that Haniyya head any Palestinian unity government, despite a proposed deal for him to step aside as a means of restoring Western aid. The public show of support across Gaza for the senior Hamas member put pressure on the ruling militant movement to retain him as their candidate to lead a possible new cabinet. That would further complicate unity government talks that Abbas has said are at a dead end.http://www.dailystar.com.lb

"We want you [Haniyya] to be the prime minister. We will not abandon your leadership of the cabinet," Ismail Rudwan, a Hamas spokesman, told one rally of thousands of people.

A similar call was made at other rallies that followed Friday prayers.

Hamas and Fatah had agreed last month Haniyya would not be premier in of any unity government. That job was expected to go to a Gaza academic.

Unity talks have since foundered, partly over disputes over control of key ministries. Abbas' aides say the president might decide to sack the government or call fresh elections if no solution is found.

Earlier, Israeli troops shot and wounded two Palestinians in Gaza, rescue workers said, a day after Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he could order renewed assaults to prevent militant factions posing a threat to a shaky truce.

The Israeli army said while warning shots had been fired at a number of Palestinians who had approached the border fence with northern Gaza, it was not aware of anyone being hit.
The rescue workers said the two men were unarmed.

Israeli forces have shot and wounded several Palestinians this week whom they said were acting suspiciously along the fence. Militants launched a rocket at Israel from the Gaza Strip early Friday, the army said, in the latest setbacks to a fragile two-week-old truce.

The army said it was not clear the rocket landed in Israel. No Palestinian group immediately took responsibility.

Palestinian militants have fired 18 rockets at Israel, by the army's count, since the November 26 cease-fire.

A Palestinian child was shot and wounded by Israeli soldiers near the West Bank town of Bethlehem Friday, medical and security sources said.

Miras al-Azza, 12, was shot in the stomach when Israel soldiers opened fire on a group of children playing with a plastic rifle in the Aydah refugee camp.

An army spokesman said soldiers operating in the camp had fired in the direction of a group of armed men. - Agencies

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