According to reports in some media outlets, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has called on the Iran-backed Hamas terror group to "surrender its weapons to the Palestinian Authority."
Abbas was quoted as saying: "Hamas will not rule the Gaza Strip." His comment came long after the current war, which began on October 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas terrorists and "ordinary" Palestinians invaded Israel, and murdered 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals and wounded thousands. Another 251 Israelis and foreign nationals were kidnapped to the Gaza Strip, where 50 – alive and dead – are still held captive.
Abbas made the statements on July 13 during a meeting in Jordan with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. The Palestinian news agency Wafa reported:
"President Abbas stressed the need to reach an immediate ceasefire [between Israel and Hamas], release all the [50 Israeli] hostages and prisoners, and ensure the unhindered entry of urgent humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip."
Abbas's statements, at first glance, appear to be positive. He wants Hamas to disarm and believes that the terror group should cede control of the Gaza Strip after the war. Many media outlets, however, ignored an important part of Abbas's statement, namely that Hamas should "engage in political actions by adhering to the PLO's political program, international legitimacy, and the principles of one system, one law, and one legitimate weapon."
The "political program" refers to the PLO's purported recognition of Israel's right to exit and acceptance of the so-called two-state solution. Since its establishment more than 35 years ago, Hamas has consistently and staunchly refused to accept the PLO's "political program" of two-states because the terror group wants to destroy Israel, not make peace with it.
Hamas's 1988 covenant quotes Imam Hassan al-Banna, founder of the Muslim Brotherhood organization, as saying: "Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before." The covenant describes Hamas as "one of the rings of Muslim Brotherhood in Palestine," and, emphasizing the refusal to recognize Israel's right to exit -- states:
"The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) believes that the land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf consecrated for future Muslim generations until Judgement Day. It, or any part of it, should not be squandered; it, or any part of it, should not be given up. Neither a single Arab country nor all Arab countries, neither any king or president, nor all kings and presidents, neither any organization nor all of them, be they Palestinian or Arab, possess the right to do that." (Article 11)
Hamas, in short, believes that Jews (and non-Muslims) have no right to exist in the land stretching from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.
The "international legitimacy" refers to United Nations resolutions concerning the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem, as well as the need for a peaceful settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, something Hamas has repeatedly stressed it will never accept.
What does Abbas mean when he says that he wants Hamas "to engage in political action"? Is he suggesting that Hamas transform itself from a terror group to a political party? The last time Hamas formed a political party was in 2006, when the terror group ran in, and won, the Palestinian parliamentary election. A year later, Hamas staged a brutal coup against the Palestinian Authority. Hamas killed dozens of Abbas loyalists before seizing control of the entire Gaza Strip.
Abbas is now calling on Hamas to repeat the same thing: to form a political party so that it could become a legitimate player in the Palestinian arena and run in future elections for the Palestinian Authority presidency and parliament. Abbas cannot have forgotten the atrocities Hamas committed against his men during the 2007 coup. Some of his loyalists were dragged to the streets and lynched, while others were thrown from the top floors of high buildings.
In addition to the 2007 coup, Hamas, a few years later, was caught planning a second coup to try to take over the West Bank as well as the Gaza Strip.
Abbas is not the only Palestinian leader who believes that Hamas, which has brought death and destruction on the two million residents of the Gaza Strip, can still play a role in the Palestinian political arena.
Jibril Rajoub, secretary-general of the Abbas's ruling Fatah Central Committee, also does not rule out the possibility that Hamas could join the PLO. Rajoub too said that Hamas must first "meet the national conditions of the PLO." This is the same Rajoub who last year described Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of the October 7 massacre, as a "pragmatic, patriotic, and realistic man."
If, after 21 months of the war in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian Authority leaders still believe that Hamas can transform itself into a political party, they are deceiving themselves and trying to deceive the international community.
The calls for Hamas to "join political action" actually aim to legitimize the terror group and present its leaders as a bunch of politicians seeking seats in parliament and jobs in government, when the reality is anything but that.
The international community, including the Trump administration, must not fall for this scam. Hamas was not established to serve as a "political party." Rather, the terror group was established with the main objective of murdering Jews through Jihad (holy war) and replacing Israel with an Islamist terror state. Sinwar was the "political" leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip. That did not stop him from planning and executing the worst crime against Jews since the Holocaust.
Instead of inviting Hamas to engage in political action, Abbas and other Palestinian leaders should be demanding that the terror group not only disarm and relinquish control of the Gaza Strip, but completely vanish from the scene. They should have outlawed Hamas a long time ago. That would send a message to all Palestinians that there is no room for genocidal Jihadist groups in Palestinian society. Apparently, Abbas and Rajoub's desire to destroy Israel is even stronger than their decades-long hatred of Hamas.
Destroying Hamas's military capabilities is not enough. The group must also cease to exist as a "political" entity. The only politics Hamas is interested in is Jihad, destruction and death.
If Palestinian leaders continue to search for ways to placate and legitimize terror groups, they too should be seen by the international community as part of the problem, not the solution.
Khaled Abu Toameh is an award-winning journalist based in Jerusalem.
