Open Letter to the Quartet by Dr. Ahmad Yousef, political adviser to Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh

Open Letter to the Quartet by Dr. Ahmad Yousef, political adviser to Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh

To members of the Quartet Committee,  

Your Committee on the Middle East file convenes once again today in New York at the margins of the UN General Assembly 63rd Term meetings; the meeting of your committee, which comes at difficult times aims to seek means to achieve justice and peace to the Palestinian people… almost three years have passed since the PLC elections in the occupied territories; those elections were described as the most honest and free in the Arab world; but the past period have witnessed several failures; the situation deteriorated and Israeli violations against the international humanitarian law occurred, in addition to several aggressions against our newly emerging democratic experience.  

Members of the Quartet Committee,  

You realized the necessity of solving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and you promised to support the efforts to end the Israeli occupation that started in 1967 and to work on establishing the independent democratic and viable Palestinian state to love in security and peace next to its neighbors and your committee affirmed to achieve a just comprehensive permanent peace based on the UN resolutions 242 and 338.  

With all double standards and distorted criteria, you demand today support to the economy and you call for Palestinian unity, but at the same time, you work on deepening the split among the Palestinians… and we have realized this through your calls to the international donors to select Palestinian organizations that move in the Oslo hemisphere or those which emerged from the womb of that failing accord, and you urged them to offer all kinds of support and assistance while you ignore the protests and appeals of the world to end the injustice and siege imposed on our people in Gaza Strip. Your committee insists on keeping the policy of isolation and political and economic boycott against the government elected by the Palestinian people!!

Your committee has expressed concern regarding the situation emerging from the Israeli siege but you failed in convincing the United States (member of the Quartet Committee) to stop supporting and instigating internal conflicts through the funds that America sends to arm, equip and incite one party with the aim of toppling the elected government. Moreover, your committee deviated from its goal which is to bring peace and you became an element to consolidate blatant violations of humanitarian law in the West Bank and in the besieged Gaza.

The international community has the habit of ignoring the calls and appeals of national liberation movements. Despite this, we perform our task and duty to tell you that your policies are futile and the siege that was imposed to incite the Palestinians to rebel against Hamas leadership did not bear fruits; on the contrary, it caused a disastrous humanitarian situation for the majority of 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza Strip.

As the Bush Administration and the Israeli government insist on clinging to their positions on the siege, and in light of the suffering and the disastrous conditions, our people cannot bear more than this, and the return to the circle of confrontations and escalation of violence and resistance and bloodshed becomes a possibility… the real and needed move to achieve real progress on the Palestinian arena is to see your committee recognize the elected government.

The elected government showed much flexibility and political realism and exerted true and sincere efforts to avoid violence and bloodshed and the government in Gaza acted with responsibility on the issue of the negotiations to reach the calm that Israel accepted although it does not honor its promises in it and keeps violating the calm every day.

Members of the Quartet Committee,

We realize that contacts with the elected government is the vital approach that has not been adopted yet. The illogical conditions set by your committee are not useful to start with. Recognizing Israel lacks many basic principles according to the international law; this condition shall not serve any political progress to end the conflict. Political considerations require the principle of reciprocity on the issue of recognition; Israel has not yet recognized the rights of the Palestinian people and has not recognized the right of return of the refugees; Israel has not recognized that the West Bank and Gaza Strip are occupied territories. Israel has not accepted the Legal Opinion of the ICJ at the Hague in 2004; the list of Israeli rejections continues… these are the points that represent the key to solving the conflict in line with the international law.

We demand from the Quartet Committee to review and reconsider its position on solving the conflict and we urge you to review your past policies which failed; we call upon you to recognize the government of Ismail Hanieh which, according to the constitution, is the legitimate government in the Palestinian lands.

We demand that you exert true and sincere efforts to exert pressure on Israel to abide by the international law and to act in a manner that returns the rights and achieves peace in the region. 

Yours truly,

Dr. Ahmad Yousef

Political adviser to PM Ismail Haniyeh