Meeting with Hamas

On the evening of March 10th a small group from our delegation met with a representative from the Hamas government. She was soft spoken, polite, very articulate and intelligent. These are the notes I took at that meeting. Broken up and mostly her words.

Hamas rose out of the 1987 resistance movement. They were a subgroup of the Islamic Brotherhood.

Their resistance grew out of their social work.

After the Oslo Agreements they put more emphasis on activism.

In 1996 Hamas boycotted the elections.

In 2005 there were elected positions for Hamas.

(Something) delayed the elections. After the first election people were shocked and seated 2 of them.

No one had any idea there would be the rejection that followed.

The national political route was loosing more land so Hamas joined the political process.

Hamas does not oppose negotiations, only the form they are taking.

Hamas sees the peace process as loosing more land. There is nothing left to make 2 states.

The internal corruption (Fatah)was so large there was nothing left for the people.

The very night the results came out the U.S. cut Hamas off. They did not give them a chance.

If you do not like someone you should get to know them.

The issue is Occupation.

Hamas was also shocked by the Europeans response. They could have mediated. Hamas has repeatedly asked to talk. They are moderate and could help with extremists.

Hamas believes dialog is essential in civilization.

Policies cause extremism.

Youth are feeling a lot of depression. A lot of them feel life and death are the same.

Hamas has agreed to join unity government and follow what has already been set up . They had already said they would accept Israel based on the 1967 borders and they have agreed to a long term truce.

But Israel is insisting that they state they accept Israel personally.