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Sheikh Yassin: Resistance More Important Than Elections
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| “When
Israeli aggression stops, we can talk about elections”
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By
Amir Nabil, IOL
Cairo
Bureau
CAIRO,
June 2 (IslamOnline) – Sheikh Ahmad Yaseen, the spiritual leader of
the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas, said Saturday, June 1, that the
reform procedures that are taking place now are a leap over
Palestinian blood which are being spilled everyday at the hands of the
Israeli occupation forces.
Sheikh
Yaseen said that it is important to hold on to resistance to force the
Israelis to back off their aggressive policies against the
Palestinian people.
In
a live interview with IslamOnline Saturday, Sheikh Yaseen said: “We
want to talk about resistance today, and at a better time - when
Israeli aggression stops - we can talk about elections.”
He
added that the elections are not a goal in itself, but a means through
which a higher goal is sought - and that is to serve the interests of
the Palestinian people, to install major changes to reestablish the
Palestinian Liberation Organization, and to elect a national
parliament inside and outside Palestine which will be responsible for
all the decisions that take place.
Sheikh
Yaseen said that if the elections yield results that do not serve the
Palestinian cause, then they have no value.
He
stressed on the fact that these elections must be based on solid
ground, which is confronting the Israeli enemy and liberating the
occupied territories, rather than surrendering and asking to end the
Palestinian cause.
He
said that Hamas will not refuse participating in these elections if it
feels that it will serve the Palestinian people.
Sheikh
Yaseen said that he has received an invitation from Palestinian
President Yasser Arafat inviting him to participate in the reform and
said that Hamas was seriously studying it. He said that these reforms
can not be partial and must be comprehensive and protective of the
resistance and the Palestinian future.
Sheikh
Yaseen said that the
United States
and
Israel
talk a lot about unifying all security operations under one leadership
and that aims to halt resistance.
“We
are sure that the
United States
and
Israel
want President Arafat to curb the resistance through arresting and
disarming,” he said.
He
added that the Palestinian people and all its factions completely
refuse the halt of resistance by anyone, whether it was President
Arafat or any other person, because this is the natural Palestinian
right to defend itself.
He
said that all secret agreements which the Israeli enemy tries to
impose on the Palestinians are rejected and will not be agreed to by
all Palestinian people.
President
Arafat had offered the Palestinian movements participation in the
authority, but Hamas is still studying the offer that was refused by
the Islamic Jihad and the PFLP.
Arafat
had earlier promised to reform the Palestinian Authority and to hold
presidential and general elections by the beginning of 2003. The last
elections were held in 1996.
This
comes at a time in which Israeli is demanding Palestinian reforms
before it enters a new stage of negotiations, paving the way for the
establishment of a Palestinian state. However, it did not think that
resistance movements might hold ministerial positions in the new
government. 
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