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Moderate turn for Hamas

Palestinians pass over hard-liners for leadership posts, but government still faces lack of acceptance

BY MOHAMAD BAZZI | MIDDLE EAST CORRESPONDENT

February 20, 2006

DAMASCUS, Syria - In its first days in power, Hamas has chosen two relative moderates to fill top posts in the Palestinian government.

By selecting Ismail Haniyeh as prime minister and Abdel Aziz Duaik as speaker of parliament, Hamas leaders passed over more hard-line candidates. The group was likely signaling that it will try to deal with the outside world more pragmatically now that it has assumed power.

Haniyeh and Duaik are the type of highly educated professionals that Hamas had pledged would run the Palestinian government after years of corruption by the Fatah movement. Hamas won 74 of the 132 seats in the Palestinian legislature last month, displacing Fatah as the dominant Palestinian political force.

But Hamas still has a long way to go before it can win international acceptance. The group is designated a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union. Israel and the West have demanded that it renounce violence, recognize the Jewish state and promise to abide by existing peace agreements before joining the government. Hamas leaders have refused to do so.

Israeli officials have ruled out any dialogue with a Palestinian government led by Hamas, which has killed hundreds of Israelis in suicide bombings since the mid-1990s.

"The Palestinian Authority is, in practice, becoming a terrorist authority," acting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said yesterday at a cabinet meeting. "Israel will not have contacts with a government in which Hamas takes part."

Halt in funds from Israel

The Israeli government voted to stop the transfer of about $50 million in monthly customs and tax revenue that it collects for the Palestinian Authority. That money is used to pay the salaries of about 138,000 Palestinian government employees, including 58,000 members of the security forces.

If the government is unable to pay its workers, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas warned that the financial crisis would create violence and chaos in the Palestinian territories. He also criticized Israel and the West for their reaction to Hamas' election victory. "This was the Palestinian people's choice," he told reporters in Gaza. "We can't say that we will or will not accept the results."

Western leaders, meanwhile, continued to threaten to cut aid to a Hamas-led government unless the group lays down its arms and recognizes Israel's right to exist. More than half of the Palestinian Authority's $2-billion annual budget comes from foreign donors, with the largest portions from Europe and the United States. About half of the population in the Palestinian territories lives in poverty, and unemployment is 22 percent. In Gaza, many Palestinians live on an average of $2 a day.

Hamas leaders have said they would appeal to Arab and Muslim governments to make up for lost funds due to Israel freezing tax transfers and cuts in foreign aid. The top Hamas political leader, Khaled Mashaal, who lives in exile here in Damascus, headed to Tehran yesterday for a meeting with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Mashaal is expected to ask Iran to contribute funds to the Hamas-led government.

Another Hamas official in the Syrian capital said the group is willing to renew a cease-fire with Israel that was negotiated last year under Egyptian auspices. But the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, ruled out the possibility that Hamas would disarm or recognize Israel.

Little time to develop

Haniyeh, 46, who was designated yesterday as Hamas' choice for prime minister, has five weeks to form a cabinet and submit it to Abbas and parliament for approval. Haniyeh has hinted that he will create a government made up of Hamas' less radical members and technocrats from outside the group.

"We will open the door wide for Palestinian technocrats and professionals, in order to offer a government that is respected by the Palestinian people," he said Saturday.

Haniyeh, who was born in Gaza's Shati refugee camp, emerged in the 1980s as a leader of the Hamas student movement at the Islamic University in Gaza City. After graduating with a degree in Arabic literature, he became a close aide to Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin. In 1992, Haniyeh was among several hundred Islamic activists who were deported by Israel to southern Lebanon. He returned to Gaza a year later and became dean of the Islamic University. In 1998, he took charge of Yassin's office. Haniyeh rose to prominence after Israel assassinated Yassin in 2004.

In an attempt to spread its influence across the two Palestinian territories, Hamas chose Duaik, one of its West Bank leaders, as speaker of parliament. Duaik, 57, earned a doctorate in geography from the University of Pennsylvania. He returned to the West Bank city of Nablus to teach at An Najah University, where he established a geography department.