The Hamas Detainees Are National Political Prisoners

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

Mr. Mahmoud Abbas and his prime minister, Dr. Salam Fayyad, repeat before those who question them about Hamas’s detainees that these detainees are not political prisoners, but rather detainees who threaten the security of the homeland and the citizen, that they belong to an illegal organization, and that they are trying to obtain weapons with the aim of undermining Palestinian legitimacy.

This is untrue, because the Hamas organization is not a terrorist organization that stays up nights plotting to attack citizens and conspiring with the enemy to squander the homeland. The Hamas organization is a Palestinian resistance organization that emerged from the Muslim Brotherhood movement, and it has offered many sacrifices, continues to offer them to this day, and will continue to offer them in the future. Hamas’s detainees are national political prisoners, not treacherous politicians. Not everyone who works in politics is a patriot — there are politicians who broker the homeland and citizens, prepared to trade the homeland for a handful of dollars or the charms of a beautiful woman; there are politicians who coordinate with the enemy against the nation, the homeland, and its sons; there are those who obtain weapons from the enemy or with its permission; and there are politicians who work as spies and agents for the enemy. Not every politician is a patriot, but every patriot is political.

Hamas has not attacked the Palestinian Authority or its pillars since its founding in 1994. Hamas criticized, demonstrated, and issued statements against Oslo, and in its attempts to militarily foil the agreement, Hamas deliberately targeted Israel, not the Authority. It was the Authority that attacked and arrested hundreds of Hamas members at the end of the last century. The Authority detained Hamas leaders for long periods, and the Authority physically assaulted Hamas members and members of other factions in a number of areas, while Hamas did not respond in kind. It endured the Authority’s practices patiently for a long time, until the cup finally overflowed.

I do not say Hamas has never erred. Hamas does err, and I have criticized it several times for various reasons, foremost among them its failure to combat corruption after forming the government, its occasional following in some of the PLO’s footsteps, and favoritism in public appointments — but Hamas has always been willing to listen, with the possibility of correction. The Palestinian Authority, however, insists on its error, which turns many of its acts into sins, foremost among them security coordination with Israel. There is a vast difference between an error and a sin, and no Arab or Palestinian who has consented to sit with the Zionists and take orders from the Americans has any right to speak of the security of the homeland and its citizens.

The Authority’s claim that it defends the homeland and its citizens collapses before the fact that it is the very one that created the thugs who roam the streets of the West Bank and Gaza, assaulting citizens and their property and honor. The Authority created them to carry out disgraceful acts it did not want to carry out itself, for fear of the media. And when Hamas took control of Gaza, the Authority asked its thugs to lie low temporarily, and they remain largely hidden to this day. Which of them is now in prison? These men have citizens’ blood on their hands, money they have plundered, and great corruption they have caused, and so on. If the matter truly concerns the security of the homeland and the citizen, why do these men remain free, unquestioned by anyone, many of them still receiving salaries from the Authority, and from Dr. Salam’s own ministry, the very ministry that speaks of transparency and professionalism?

Hamas’s weapons are weapons pursued by Israel — it toils and struggles just to obtain a single piece of weaponry — while the Authority’s weapons are licensed by Israel, or obtained from Israel directly or indirectly. So which of the two deserves to remain? The Authority’s weapons are not national weapons, and are not legitimate, and Mr. Abbas and Dr. Salam have no right to speak with heartfelt passion about the homeland and its citizens.

You want the PLO? I want the PLO too. I want the revolutionary code of the Palestinian Liberation Organization applied — the very code under which you tried Fatah officers on charges of fleeing the battlefield in confronting Hamas in Gaza. I want this law applied to you, Mr. Mahmoud Abbas, and to you, Dr. Salam. Do you accept? Or is its application selective, according to interests?

This homeland is sacred land, belonging to living people who refuse to be lifeless. This is a homeland Dayton will never inherit, and in which the Zionists will never find eternity. It would be better for the two of you to leave what you are in now, for the homeland’s embrace is wide enough for everyone — while Dayton’s embrace fits only what the two of you are and are in right now.

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “المعتقلون من حماس سياسيون وطنيون” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.