CAMERA’s Israel office yesterday prompted correction at Agence France Presse after the news agency incredibly reported that the “dream” of Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’ leader in Gaza, is a Palestinian state limited to the West Bank, Gaza Strip and eastern Jerusalem.
The Nov. 29 article, “Yahya Sinwar: Hamas Gaza leader and ‘dead man walking,'” divined that: “Sinwar dreams of a single Palestinian state bringing together the Gaza Strip, the occupied West Bank — controlled by Mahmud Abbas’s Fatah party — and annexed east Jerusalem.”
Back to reality, @AFPFactCheck please note: Hamas’ 2017 policy document (which doesn’t replace charter) reiterates call for Israel’s elimination: “Hamas rejects any alternative to the total liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea” https://t.co/nVtnK2BTKz https://t.co/HMUBf908KL
— Tamar Sternthal (@TamarSternthal) November 29, 2023
A rally in Columbus, Ohio advocating for the elimination of Israel, October 2023 (Photo by Paul Becker/Flickr CC by 2.0 Deed)
The article doesn’t explain how AFP has access to Sinwar’s dreams, but there’s no question that he heads the Gaza branch of a terror organization with a guiding mission which rejects the existence of Israel within any borders. Hamas’ 2017 policy document accepts that a Palestinian state along pre-1967 ceasefire lines as transitional, a means to achieving the ultimate goal of the replacement of Israel with an Islamic state of Palestine. The document stipulates:
There can be no concession over any part of the land of Palestine, for whatever reason and under any circumstances and pressures, and no matter how long the occupation . . . Hamas rejects any alternative to the total liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea.
In case there’s any doubt, the document helpfully defines what Hamas means by Palestine:
Palestine, which extends from the River Jordan in the east to the Mediterranean in the west, and from Ras Al-Naqurah in the north to Umm Al-Rashrash in the south, is an integral territorial unit. It is the land and the home of the Palestinian people.
Thus, Hamas reaffirmed in 2017 that there is no room for a final state which gives up on any land which now constitutes Israel — from Eilat in the south to Metulla in the north, including everything in between.
Moreover, the policy document did not replace Hamas’ founding charter, which calls for the elimination of Israel.
Sinwar himself stated clearly in May 2021: “We support the eradication of Israel through armed Jihad and struggle. This is our doctrine.” (Translation by MEMRI).
In addition, the AFP article quotes without challenge a ludicrous assertion by Leila Seurat of the Arab Centre for Research and Political Studies (CAREP) in Paris that Sinwar “‘doesn’t advocate force for force’s sake, but to bring about negotiations’ with Israel.” The notion that Hamas carried out the Oct. 7 massacre because it wanted to bring Israel to the negotiation table so as to realize Sinwar’s supposed dream of a two-state solution, with Palestine in Gaza, the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem, alongside a Jewish state of Israel is nothing short of delusional.
Here’s what Hamas’ charter says about negotiations:
Initiatives, and so-called peaceful solutions and international conferences, are in contradiction to the principles of the Islamic Resistance Movement. Abusing any part of Palestine is abuse directed against part of religion. Nationalism of the Islamic Resistance Movement is part of its religion. Its members have been fed on that. For the sake of hoisting the banner of Allah over their homeland they fight. “Allah will be prominent, but most people do not know.”
Now and then the call goes out for the convening of an international conference to look for ways of solving the (Palestinian) question. Some accept, others reject the idea, for this or other reason, with one stipulation or more for consent to convening the conference and participating in it. Knowing the parties constituting the conference, their past and present attitudes towards Moslem problems, the Islamic Resistance Movement does not consider these conferences capable of realising the demands, restoring the rights or doing justice to the oppressed. These conferences are only ways of setting the infidels in the land of the Moslems as arbitraters. When did the infidels do justice to the believers?
“But the Jews will not be pleased with thee, neither the Christians, until thou follow their religion; say, The direction of Allah is the true direction. And verily if thou follow their desires, after the knowledge which hath been given thee, thou shalt find no patron or protector against Allah.” (The Cow – verse 120).
There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors. The Palestinian people know better than to consent to having their future, rights and fate toyed with. As in said in the honourable Hadith:
“The people of Syria are Allah’s lash in His land. He wreaks His vengeance through them against whomsoever He wishes among His slaves It is unthinkable that those who are double-faced among them should prosper over the faithful. They will certainly die out of grief and desperation.”
Separately, the article also only partially reported Sinwar’s 1989 convictions leading to his multiple life sentences, stating: “He was serving four life terms for the killing of two Israeli soldiers when he became the most senior of 1,027 Palestinians released in exchange for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in 2011.” He was also convicted for the murder of four Palestinians he claimed collaborated with Israel.
Following communication from CAMERA’s Israel office, AFP commendably republished the article, replacing the passage about Sinwar’s supposed dream of a Palestinian state limited to the West Bank, Gaza Strip and eastern Jerusalem with the following text:
Sinwar has come to endorse the idea of a single Palestinian administration, bringing together the Gaza Strip, the occupied West Bank — controlled by Mahmud Abbas’s Fatah party — and annexed east Jerusalem.
The same year he was elected, Hamas for the first time accepted in principle a Palestinian state in the pre-1967 borders, while not recognising Israel and retaining the ultimate goal of “liberating” all of historic Palestine.
The article was subsequently corrected on the sites of AFP clients including France 24 and Yahoo News.