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TEHRAN (AFP) - A proclamation of a Palestinian state would be pointless now in light of the bloody clashes between Palestinians and Israelis, a leader of the Palestinian organization Hamas said Saturday. "To proclaim a Palestinian state right now would be without any benefit, useless," said Khaled Meshaal, the head of Hamas' political office, during a visit to Tehran. "What good would a self-proclaimed Palestinian power be, as Israel still occupies most of our territory?" said Meshaal, quoted on Iranian radio. Hamas also called on Muslims to unite after Israeli hardliner Ariel Sharon's visit Thursday to Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque compound, one of Islam's holiest sites. "All Muslims from around the world must raise up to Islamicize these sites," he said. "The situation is very critical, and all Muslims need to unite to save Al-Quds [the Arabic word for Jerusalem] and Al-Aqsa," he said earlier. Meshaal described the clashes between Palestinians and Israelis as "extremely serious." Muslims everywhere must avenge the deaths of 23 Palestinians killed in clashes with the Israeli army, an Egyptian in Gamaa Islamiya was reported as saying. "Denunciations are no longer effective against the Israeli military machine," said Rifai Ahmed Taha, a leader of the Gamaa Islamiya. "These pigs will only be dissuaded by murder. Let our people in Palestine, Egypt, Jordan and everywhere in our Islamic world avenge their brothers and holy places," he urged. He denounced the visit Thursday by the "butcher" Ariel Sharon, the hawkish leader of Israel's right-wing Likud party, to the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem, which triggered the clashes. "We cannot allow Jews to live in security in our countries, while our children in Palestine are massacred on the threshold of Al-Aqsa mosque before the eyes of the entire world," he said. Taha, whose whereabouts are not known, signed the statement as "one of the leaders of the Gamaa Islamiya in Egypt." Reports published in recent months said he was no longer leader of the organization, which has splintered. Gamaa Islamiya, which claimed responsibility for the massacre of 58 foreign tourists in the Egyptian city of Luxor in November 1997, declared a truce in March 1999. |
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