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"All over the world there are groups and parties with various political programs; still, the final word is always given to people." — Al-Khaldi. (Reuters Photo) |
IOL: Is the Hamas use of military force in Gaza legally and morally justified?
Al-Khaldi: After the elections, there is an elected authority and government; the national apparatus is supposedly functional and does not support one side against the other; it has to be working for preserving order and security. What we saw for over a year was chaos, disorder, and assaults on rights and properties; thus, there had to be some authority to practice the mentioned duties of the national apparatus.
Hamas, as the elected government had to pick that role up, and this would explain what happened recently by Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Above all, there is an official authority to which everything has to be referred in order to achieve unity and rapport and to avoid having international debate calling for steps that are in conflict with the national interests of Palestinians.
| "Democracy was supposed to be respected, and Hamas should have had the chance for its four-year term to try." — Al-Khaldi. |
IOL: Is Abbas's declaration of the state of emergency legal after Hamas's control over the Gaza Strip?
Al-Khaldi: I believe that the head of the government, Haniyah, and the head of the state, Abbas, could have reached an agreement. What happened should have happened, not the way it actually did, but through an accord among all Palestinian parties. Because preserving the rights and the freedom of citizens is the duty of the official authorities, including the government, there had to be an agreement among the two parties which would have prevented transgressions, violent application of the law, and self-appointed judges.
IOL: The head of the Palestinian legislative body, Dr. Ahmed Bahr, announced that Abbas's declaration of the state of emergency and appointment of an emergency government, while tossing Haneyya's one is illegal and unconstitutional. Will the international support and legitimacy that was given to Abbas give him internal legitimacy on the legal level?
Al-Khaldi: Legitimacy has to be given by people. People chose their rulers, yet the international "legitimacy" came in order to deal with this body or that, which is moved by interests and benefits. [I believe that] Israel is the project of the international community; thus the latter will stand beside whoever wants to have peace with Israel. Hence, legitimacy must to be driven from the will of Palestinian people and not from international approval; the international blessings do not shape legitimacy.
IOL: When regarding what Abbas and the international community can do, what is the utmost that they can carry out in order to extinguishHamas's influence in the Gaza Strip?
Al-Khaldi: A big portion of the Palestinian people now support Hamas. That would even include people who do not have organizational links to the movement. They only want stability and peace. Supporters of Hamas want to express their points of view: Nearly two decades have passed, we are still in negotiations, and no progress has been achieved for the Palestinian cause; the 13 years passed [since the Oslo Accords] without Israel returning any of the national rights of Palestinians. The notion that Israel will not return any of the Palestinian rights makes people sympathize with Hamas, but not with breaking the law. In other words, the chance has to be given to all who are accused of committing a crime to stand before the law and defend themselves.
| "If they resorted to power to put down any resisting faction, everyone would then be convinced that nothing can be taken back without the use of force." — Al-Khaldi. |
IOL: From a legal perspective, what tools can Abbas and the international community use against Hamas?
Al-Khaldi: Legally, Hamas came through elections, and thus the people's choice will have to be preserved. Democracy was supposed to be respected, and Hamas should have had the chance for its four-year term to try, and afterward the choice would be in the hands of the people again. The Palestinians' choice has to be valued and either accepted or rejected. Yet, the international community wants to provide more Palestinian labor for the Israeli occupation and to make the Palestinians serve Israeli interests; this is the "new Middle East" that they want.
They want the Palestinian people and the Arab countries always to be serving the Zionist project. This cannot happen. Peoples and nations can never be put into templates, whatever the pressure or the international will is. The international will can never defeat people. It can conquer a leader or a party, but it can never conquer the will of people who live for their rightful cause and who will never abandon their basic rights that can never be traded in.
IOL: Can there be two different and separate governments, one in the Gaza Strip and the other in the West Bank? Can each government be legitimate and sovereign?
Al-Khaldi: The government in the Gaza Strip is a temporary one and does not have the legal characteristics to endure. Yet the one in the West Bank is not a legitimate government because it violates the Palestinian Constitution. There has to be unity in the Palestinian Authority; common denominators have to be found among the Palestinian factions. All over the world there are groups and parties with various political programs; still, the final word is always given to people.
The two major factions now in Palestine, Hamas and Fatah, do not represent all the Palestinian people. So the Palestinians have to be resorted to in order to take decisions.The two factions cannot manage the affairs of their people according to their own perspectives; rather, the interests of the Palestinian people have to be supreme and rise over any interests of the factions.
| "Fatah is a national movement that has been leading the national struggle for more than 40 years." — Al-Khaldi. |
IOL: Is this a good opportunity for Israel to get rid of Hamas while it is in the Gaza Strip?
Al-Khaldi: As always, Israel is expected to take such opportunity to try to depose Hamas, yet it cannot eradicate more than 40 percent of the Palestinian people. What we see is a matrix of the interests of several powers: secularism against religion, occupation against resistance, and the international interests in the region against those who want to unite the Arab countries and solidify them.
However, mistaken are those who think that the eradication of the Palestinian powers that aim at satisfying national interest would result in peace and stability. I believe that the attempt to put down any resisting Palestinian faction would push many toward the use of force instead of those who spent almost 13 years trying to persuade the Palestinian people that the peaceful approach would yield some gains. Then, if they resorted to power to put down any resisting faction, that would be a major setback, and everyone would then be convinced that nothing can be taken back without the use of force.
| "Legitimacy must to be driven from the will of Palestinian people and not from international approval." — Al-Khaldi. |
IOL: Can Fatah collaborate with Israel to eradicate Hamas in order to regain its power in front of its people and the world?
Al-Khaldi: I do not think so; Fatah is a national movement that has been leading the national struggle for more than 40 years. Maybe there are some people in Fatah who may be driven by this Israeli vision. However, I believe that many of the Fatah leaders will not be on the Israeli side in its confrontation with any resisting Palestinian faction, whatever the points of disagreement are.
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