IMRA interviewed Sheikh Abdulleh Nimer Darwish, leader of the Israeli Arab Islamic Movement, in Hebrew, on October 24th. The entire interview follows:

IMRA: You made headlines with the story that Sheik Yassin was ready for compromise. Now we hear him say “we won’t compromise on a centimeter of land” and Masha’al is quoted in the Jordanian weekly Star saying “nothing will change the path of Hamas”. How do you see this?

Darwish: Nu.

IMRA: How do you see this.

Darwish: Write this down: One should recall that the PLO before agreeing to UN Resolution 242 and at the same time of the Rabat Conference during the 70’s and at the same time that the conference was taking place, the late Abu Iyad went out to the press and said, and I quote, ‘the armed struggle against the Israeli occupation will continue and the rifle is the only means for liberating Palestine from the river to the sea.’ Half an hour after this Iyad declaration, Abu Sharif, the spokesman of the PLO, came out and declared, and I quote, ‘the PLO under the leadership of Chairman Yasser Arafat, agrees to accept UN Resolutions 242 and 338 and commits to mutual recognition between an independent Palestinian state and the state of Israel.’

What I want to say now, is that the hudna, the agreement propose by Sheikh Yassin, is a proposal. And until the response of the state of Israel is heard to this proposal, it is impossible to silence the Hamas spokesmen who call until now for the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea. The true test will be after the response of the prime minister of Israel and his serious response to Sheikh Yassin’s proposal, namely the hudna. If after this there are declarations of Hamas people for the destruction of the state of Israeli and its removal from the world political map, then you will have the right to say that they are playing with slogans.

IMRA: During the period you are talking about, the hudna, is this a period during which there is no strengthening of the Palestinian side or what? Right now you have a given situation regarding the balance of power. During this period of cease fire or hudna is there also some kind of freeze so that the balance of power doesn’t change or can each side try to strengthen and try to change balance of power?

Darwish: The balance of power between Israel and the Palestinians? Look, I am astonished by your question. Look, look, in Arabic there is a saying [in Arabic not translated]. The colonialist Zionist movement, since its creation has thought that it is the smartest in the world and with the strongest media presence, and so we say, the Palestinians have come, and they are the wisest. They also have media experience. Yes, as long as Israel strengthens the Palestinians and the Arabs have the right to strengthen. With one goal: to push off the Israeli tendency to conquer more and more land.

IMRA: Every Palestinian I have interviewed to now has explained to me that their approach today is the result of the balance of power and that if that changed in the future it would change their approach. The decision which would be made after the hudnah – after ten years – how would that be affected?

Darwish: I understand the question. I am not a military man, but everyone knows that a peace agreement – if we can it a hudnah or a peace agreement, even an agreement between great powers, does not rule out the choice of the great power to strengthen. Not because it wants to renew the war, but rather in order to deter the other side from starting war. Don’t forget that a military force is not always an attacking force. Today, in the world in the spirit of reconciliation between the powers and blocs there continues the strengthening of forces because military strength today is not a force of aggression but rather a force of deterrence.

IMRA: The agreements between Egypt and Jordan have no dates. They are, for all intents and purposes, eternal. Why here do you talk about only a limited period?

Darwish: I think you have to go back and reread the Camp David Agreement between Israel and Egypt and the treaty between Israel and Jordan and you will find there that it is the right of every generation to reexamine the agreements but there is no right to violate the agreements. This is the very meaning of the hudna. The hudna is for ten or twenty, thirty or a hundred years but it is the right of every generation to reexamine it in order to strengthen it – not to violate it.

IMRA: Is there a problem from the standpoint of Islamic religious law to forgo on the status of waqf [holy land] for all of Palestine?

Darwish: Look. When you agree to a hudna everything is open to deliberations. Right now religious law sets that Palestine is a waqf. And the law gives the possibility for a Palestinian leader to sign an agreement or hudna with the Israeli side. At the time that they are sitting in negotiations on accepting the hudna agreement there the question is raised: do the Moslems and Palestinians leave the area within which Israel has established its independent state as an Islamic waqf or is it now an independent sovereign state with an independent sovereign Palestinian state next to it and we end the entire religious law issue. This is a question which must be examined and I am certain that reasonable answers will be found for it.

Dr. Aaron Lerner,
Director IMRA (Independent Media Review & Analysis)
P.O.BOX 982 Kfar Sava
Tel: (+972-9) 760-4719
Fax: (+972-9) 741-1645
imra@netvision.net.il

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