BICOM

Israeli politicians have reacted to Hamas’s announcement on Monday that it will amend its charter.

The new document was unveiled in Doha by Khaled Meshaal, head of the Hamas Political Bureau. The amended charter sets out Hamas’s stance on a Palestinian state, its relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood and the State of Israel.

On the future borders of a Palestinian state the charter “considers the establishment of a fully sovereign and independent Palestinian state, with Jerusalem as its capital along the lines of 4 June 1967, with the return of the refugees and the displaced to their homes from which they were expelled, to be a formula of national consensus”

There is no proposal to recognise the State of Israel. Meshaal said on Monday that Hamas is committed to a Palestinian state  “from the [Jordanian] river to the [Mediterranean] Sea”. The new document rejects the Oslo accords, and asserts that resistance for the liberation of Palestine remains “a legitimate right, a duty and an honour”.

The new charter removes the antisemitic references of its 1988 charter stating that “Hamas is not locked in a struggle against the Jews because they are Jewish, but wages a struggle against the Zionist occupiers as aggressors.” The clause from the 1988 charter that identified Hamas as an arm of the Muslim Brotherhood has also been removed.

The new charter has not been viewed in Israel as a significant change in Hamas policy. Prime Minister Netanyahu’s spokesperson said: “Hamas leaders call for genocide of all Jews and the destruction of Israel…They dig terror tunnels and have launched thousands upon thousands of missiles at Israeli civilians. This is the real Hamas.”

Israel’s interior security Minister Gilad Erdan called the new programme a “false display and PR stunt”, and distinguished between the language of the new document and its practice of promoting terror against Israel.