Hamas Rejects Halting Attacks, Might Participate in Elections

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, May 19, 2002

Hamas Rejects Halting Attacks, Might Participate in Elections

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Leaders of the Palestinian Islamic resistance movement (Hamas) Saturday rejected halting attacks, including suicide bombing, against Israel, but said it might participate in the coming municipal and parliamentary elections in the Palestinian territories.

Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin told reporters at his house in Gaza City on Saturday that as long as Israel keeps occupying the Palestinian territories and carries out military offensive, "Hamas would never halt attacks, including suicide bombing attacks."

Meanwhile, other leaders of the Islamic movement has kept the door open for participating in any planned municipal and legislative elections in the Palestinian lands.

The radical Palestinian group Hamas refused to participate in the 1995 legislative elections in the West Bank and Gaza strip, claiming they were "an outcome of Oslo agreement" that the Palestinians signed with Israel, which Hamas rejected.

"We do not recognize any elections that came as a result of Oslo agreements," said senior Hamas leader Ismaeel Abu Shanab. "If the coming elections will be the same as the past, we will consider it an obstacle for Hamas' participation."

He said that Hamas also would consider fielding candidates in municipal elections, which would be held at the same time as the general legislative or parliamentary elections.

"We have to wait until elections will be officially declared and then we will make a decision," he said when asked about the municipal elections.

Meanwhile, a 53-year-old Palestinian professor of political science from the West Bank town of Nablus became the first to announce on Saturday his intention to run against Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

Abdul Sattar Qassem told reporters that he has a good chance of becoming president "if elections are held."

Qassem, who has two master degrees and one doctorate from the University of Missouri in the United States, said he decided to run for president with the hope that he can change the policy of the present administration.

"There has been a certain trend in running government that has mistreated the Palestinian people both inside and outside the occupied territories," said Qassem. Qassem spent two years in Israeli prisons because of his political activities before the Palestinian National Authority was established. After the PNA came into power, he was put into Palestinian prisons three times for a total of eight months for criticizing Arafat.

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