Right of peoples to self-determination – CHR report – NGO statement

THE RIGHT OF PEOPLES TO SELF-DETERMINATION AND ITS APPLICATION TO PEOPLES UNDER COLONIAL OR ALIEN DOMINATION OR FOREIGN OCCUPATION

Joint written statement* submitted by the Association for World Education, Association of World Citizens, World Union for Progressive Judaism (WUPJ), non-governmental organizations on the Roster, and the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU), Simon Wiesenthal Center, Inc., and International Council of Jewish Women (ICJW), non-governmental organizations in special consultative status

The Secretary-General has received the following written statement which is circulated in accordance with Economic and Social Council resolution 1996/31.

[17 March 2006]

_______________

*  This written statement is issued, unedited, in the language(s) received from the submitting non-governmental organization(s).

---

The 1988 Covenant of the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement – Hamas

 

1. While self-determination is a right, we must nevertheless guard against racism, religious intolerance, and nationalistic stereotypes used in political debate and polemical writings. Such restraints are all the more necessary when the text is a Charter or a founding document of a politico-religious movement, such as the Covenant of the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement – Hamas.

 2. Passages from this 1988 Covenant were first read out at the Commission in 1989, and repeatedly since then,¹ especially Article 8 – the Hamas slogan, copied from the 1928 Charter of the Muslim Brotherhood and widely used by clerics – that has since become a blueprint for global terrorism and Jihadist ‘martyrdom-bombers’:

“Allah is its target, the Prophet is its model, the Koran its Constitution; Jihad is its path, and death for the sake of Allah is the loftiest of its wishes.”² 

3. The recent victory of Hamas in Palestinian elections gives increased urgency to the need to consider carefully the implications of their Charter that is available on the net in English.³

4. First, the introduction to the Charter quotes the founder of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, Hassan al-Banna, as saying: “Israel will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.”

5. Article 13 is very explicit regarding any peace negotiations:

“Initiatives, and so-called peaceful solutions and international conferences, are in contradiction to the principles of the Islamic Resistance Movement (…) Now and then the call goes out for the convening of an international conference to look for ways of solving the (Palestinian) question (…) There is no solution to the Palestinian question except by Jihad. All initiatives, proposals, and International Conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors.”

6. Article 32 uses an infamous, century-old forgery:

“Their plan is embodied in ‘The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,’ and their present conduct is the best proof of what we are saying.”⁴

7. Article 22 is a crude update, alleging that “the Jews” control major world events:

“With their money, they took control of the world media, news agencies, the press, publishing houses, broad- casting stations, and others. With their money they stirred revolutions in various parts of the world (…) They were behind the French Revolution [1789], the Communist revolution [1917], and most of the revolutions we heard and hear about, here and there. With their money they formed secret societies, such as Freemasons, Rotary Clubs, the Lions and others in different parts of the world for the purpose of sabotaging societies and achieving Zionist interests. (…) They were behind World War I, when they were able to destroy the Islamic Caliphate. (…) They obtained the Balfour Declaration, formed the League of Nations through which they could rule the world. They were behind World War II, through which they made huge financial gains  (…)  It was they who instigated the replacement of the League of Nations with the United Nations and the Security Council to enable them to rule the world through them. There is no war going on anywhere without having their finger in it.”

8. Religious hatred of the Jews is spelled out in the conclusion of Article 7:

“The Day of Judgment will not come about until Muslims fight the Jews (killing the Jews); when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say:        O Muslims (…) there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.”

9. This hadith is now cited ad nauseam by extremist Muslim clerics.  These sentiments are often repeated by Jihadist ‘martyrdom-bombers’ from Hamas, and in February 2006 some gruesome video-clips were even posted on the Hamas website.⁵

10.  There is a similar statement in Article 28, which gives us the “writing on the wall”:

“Israel, Judaism and Jews challenge Islam and the Muslim people: ‘May the cowards never sleep.’”

11.  No members of the Commission or the future Council should either ‘sleep’ or behave as ‘cowards’ when considering self-determination for the Palestinian Authority. The Hamas Covenant is based on the ideology of Jihad. Should Hamas now take office as the Government of the Palestinian Authority with their Covenant unchanged, it could lead to a totalitarian regime that would stifle freedom of expression, freedom of religion and belief, and women’s rights. This poison could spread throughout the Middle East. A Hamas-Palestine would also besmirch and menace all Muslims who revere the sanctity of human life and desire coexistence and a peaceful future in the region.

12. Furthermore, with the Hamas Charter as official Palestinian policy, a future Palestinian government would be guilty of calling for the destruction of a Member State of the United Nations, in contravention of Article 2 (4) of the UN Charter, and of Article 3 (c) of the Genocide Convention, in which “direct and public incitement to commit genocide” is punishable under its Article 4.

13.  The Association for World Education, the International Humanist and Ethical Union, the Association of World Citizens, the World Union for Progressive Judaism , the Simon Wiesenthal Center, and the International Council of Jewish Women call upon the Commission – and the future Council – to condemn this genocidal Hamas Charter/Covenant  Should this matter be shelved, we would recall the words of Lady Macbeth:

“Here’s the smell of the blood still: all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.”  

– Shakespeare, Macbeth: V i:56

­­­­­­————————————————————————————————————–

1. 31 January 1989 (45th session, CHR), cited by David Littman for the World Union for Progressive Judaism (again in 1990 and 1991); since then, on behalf of the Association for World Education, and the WUPJ recently.

2. Co-authored (dated 18 August 1988) by Sheikh Ahmad Yassin and Dr. Abd al-Aziz al-Rantisi; the slogan article 8 comes from the 1928 Charter of the Muslim Brotherhood, of which Hamas is a branch (article 2).

3. www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/mideast/hamas.htm: E/CN.4/Sub.2/2003/NGO/41: The 1988 Charter of Hamas and its evil legacy of ‘jihadist-martyrdom bombings; E/CN.4/Sub.2/2004/NGO/25*: Hamas: Sheikh Yassin / al-Rantisi – The UN and a grave worldwide cultural clash.

4. Philip Graves, The Truth about The Protocols: A Literary Forgery (London, 1921) [articles from The Times, 1921] H. Rauschning, Hitler speaks (London, 1939), pp. 235-236; Norman Cohn, Warrant for Genocide: The Myth of the Jewish World Conspiracy and The Protocols of the Elders of Zion (London, 1967); Pierre-André Taguieff, Les Protocoles des Sages de Sion. Introduction à l’étude des Protocoles: un faux et ses usages dans le siécle (Paris, 1992)  

5. http://www.pmw.org.il/Latest%20bulletins%20new.htm#b070306:  Palestinian Media Watch: ‘A Self-Portrait of Palestinian Society’ by Itamar Marcus & Barbara Cook (2 March 2006).  

– – – – –