In recent weeks, the Arab media have been releasing reports in dribs and drabs about an impending dramatic publication of the amended Hamas Charter.Those expecting Hamas to recognize the State of Israel or waive the right of return for Palestinians will likely be disappointed: They won’t find it here. The softened language and the ideological invigoration are for internal political purposes in the Palestinian arena, for foreign policy purposes vis-à-vis the Arab world, and for gaining international political legitimization.

There are two major changes in the charter. The first is an acceptance of the establishment of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, based on the 1967 borders, and the second is severing ties with the Muslim Brotherhood movement. These two changes, however, come with a demand to cancel the Balfour Declaration, the Partition Plan and the Oslo Agreements, and statements about a holy war to fully liberate historic Palestine, from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, from north to south. The “Zionist entity” is illegitimate, Palestine is to be a Muslim Arab state (“a blessed and holy land”), while the colonialism that followed the creation of the Zionist movement due to anti-Semitism “must disappear from Palestine.”

At the beginning of the document, Hamas is defined as an “Islamic Palestinian national liberation and resistance movement, whose goal is to liberate Palestine and resist the Zionist project.” Senior Hamas member Ahmed Yousef stressed in an interview that the acceptance of a Palestinian state in the 1967 borders was a way to maintain a national consensus, and that Hamas would accept an independent Palestinian state only if it would be allowed to hold onto the weapon of resistance.

Read the full article in YNet.