South African President Thabo Mbeki has congratulated the radical Hamas movement for winning this week’s legislative elections in Palestine and also praised the moderate outgoing rulers, Fatah, for accepting the ”freely expressed voice” of the people.
In his regular internet column, ANC Today, Mbeki paid special tribute to Fatah and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) — led until his death in November 2004 by Yasser Arafat — ”with whom we have shared the same trench of struggle for many years”.
He praised Fatah for its principled respect for the voice of the people of Palestine and accepting the ”democratic victory of Hamas”.
”We congratulate Hamas on its decisive victory and fully appreciate its historic responsibility, working with [Fatah leader] President Mahmoud Abbas,” said Mbeki.
Indicating that he backs a joint approach to governing Palestine, Mbeki said the Palestinian people had freely chosen Hamas as their legislative representative ”in the same way that they chose Mahmoud Abbas [also known as Abu Mazen] as their president”. Abbas was elected by a strong majority early in 2005.
Mbeki noted the words of the Secretary General of the Arab League Amr Moussa who — what Mbeki described as ”correctly” — said: ”We cannot promote democracy, then lament the results of democracy or object to the results.
Mbeki said his government awaited the holding of the Israeli Knesset (Parliament) elections on March 28 and was committed to respect ”the democratic voice of the people of Israel in this regard regardless of the results”.
”We understand that together with the Palestinian parliamentary elections, the March elections in Israel will help to decide the question whether the important Israeli Gaza withdrawal will contribute to the implementation of the road map [for peace].”
Mbeki added that his government had sustained for many decades ”a deep concern … to see the immensely talented peoples of Palestine and Israel living side by side in conditions of peace.
”Over these long years we have entertained the hope that the Palestinians would realise their aspiration for the birth of their own independent state within acceptable boundaries, giving them the freedom to determine their destiny.”
Fatah, which means victory through Jihad, is the leading political and military faction of the PLO. It was founded in 1959 in Kuwait by Arafat and Abbas and has dominated Palestinian politics for decades as well as the Palestinian Authority since that body was established in 1994 .
Hamas — the acronym for Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamia, which means Islamic
Resistance Movement — was formed in 1967 and is considered a terrorist organisation by Israel, the United States and the European Union. Its newly formed Change and Reform Party — formed last year — won 76 seats to Fatah’s 43 seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council. Hamas is headquartered in Damascus, Syria. – I-Net Bridge