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RAMALLAH, October 18, 2011 (WAFA) – Nimer Hammad, political advisor of President Mahmoud Abbas, stressed that the Palestinian leadership sees Palestine as the land of all monotheistic religions – Islam, Christianity and Judaism – but strictly refuses to cast religious or historical dimensions to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Hammad, in response to an instigating article against the Palestinian Authority and the bid to the United Nations by the president of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), Morton Klein, published in the Jerusalem Post on October 17, 2011, told WAFA that there are two peoples living on one land, and each must be given the right to statehood.

Hammad considered Klein stressing the Oslo Accords (1995), especially Article 31, Paragraph 7, as contradicting the established fact that Israel is the one violating these accords with its ongoing settlements construction in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

“The Palestinian request to recognize a Palestinian state based on 1967 borders does not mean eliminating negotiations; the recognition would rather ease the negotiation process,” said Hammad.

He questioned the Israeli claims that a Palestinian state recognition would lead to prosecuting Israel before international organizations, mainly the International Court of Justice, saying these allegations reflect an inverted logic.

“If Israel has committed war crimes, it must be pursued. If not, why would Israel fear our membership in the United Nations?” he added.

Hammad denied Klein’s allegations that the Fatah charter includes an article calling for the destruction of the state of Israel, describing the claims as a baseless lie.

Hammad also denied the allegation that the reconciliation agreement signed by President Abbas will lead to a unity government with Hamas, because the government will be formed from independent and technocrat personalities to unite the Palestinian territory, build what Israel destroyed in the Gaza Strip, and prepare for presidential and parliamentary elections.

About the Jewish state, Hammad said: “Yes, we refuse to recognize Israel as a Jewish state. We already signed the mutual recognition between the PLO and the state of Israel in 1993, and so recognized the state of Israel according to its name and status in the UN. Recognizing Israel as a Jewish state will result in giving religious dimensions to the conflict, and will threaten the rights of the Palestinian refugees to return, as well threaten the rights of the non-Jewish Arabs living in Israel, especially their right to citizenship and equality,” said Hammad.

He went on to say that Israel’s security concerns can be dealt with in one way or another, but not by taking over Palestinian land; there was already during the Bush administration and Olmert government an agreement about security the day after establishing a Palestinian state, which stated that a third party, mainly NATO under American leadership, should be present on the ground of the Palestinian state and its borders, but Netanyahu and his government refused to.

This agreement was under the supervision of Gen. James L. Jones, the former United States National Security Advisor, and was approved by Israel, US, Egypt and Jordan.

Hammad stressed the Palestinians’ right to refuse the presence of Israeli occupation on their land, saying no people in the world would accept the presence of occupation.

“After ending the occupation, this will lead to a peaceful coexistence between the two people,” he concluded.

R.Q./F.J.