Ismail Haniyeh
Ismail Haniyeh
Ismail Abdel Salam Ahmed Haniyeh; born 29 January 1963) is a senior political leader of Hamas and formerly one of two disputed Prime Ministers of the Palestinian National Authority. Haniyeh became prime minister after Hamas won the Palestinian legislative elections of 2006. President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed Haniyeh from office on 14 June 2007 at the height of the Fatah–Hamas conflict, but Haniyeh did not acknowledge the decree and continued to exercise prime ministerial authority in the Gaza Strip...
NationalityPalestinian
ProfessionPolitician
Date of Birth29 January 1963
CountryPalestine, State of
The Europeans and Americans have said the martyrdom operations are why Hamas has been put on the terrorist list. But now these operations have stopped. Did they then remove Hamas from the list of terrorist organisations? We do not launch wars. We are people resisting occupation.
I hope that Americans will give careful and well-informed thought to root causes and historical realities, in which case I think they will question why a supposedly 'legitimate' state such as Israel has had to conduct decades of war against a subject refugee population without ever achieving its goals.
We regard this as a continuation of the American policy based on oppression and the shedding of Muslim and Arab blood…We condemn the assassination and the killing of an Arab holy warrior. We ask God to offer him mercy with the true believers and the martyrs.
When the Israeli leaders launched their expansionist war in June 1967 they never envisaged that 40 years later they would still be haunted by the consequences.
I spoke on the phone with President Abbas last night. We have agreed to meet tomorrow evening in Gaza to present him the final government list.
We are asking you to cooperate with our mission by keeping an open mind.
We will accelerate the process of forming the next government so that we will not have to have a political and constitutional vacuum.
We will resolve these matters through dialogue when we are in government. All I can say is no police officer will lose his job and no police salary will be cut.
Whoever thinks economic pressure could push our government to succumb or that it could weaken the determination and the steadfastness of our proud people is mistaken.
We think countries in power can decide for themselves what kinds of positions and policies they can take.
I don't know why Abbas canceled the visit, but I hope he will arrive here soon.
Postponing the election will lead to a vacuum and to a dark future. Postponing the election is not the solution.
There are people, partners, colleagues who are still thinking and debating among themselves whether they would like to join us or not.
What happened was dangerous and must not be repeated.