Hamas, Israel and the Principle of Universality

Norman Finkelstein: You can’t make predictions about what Hamas will be able to do. What I think we should be clear on is what is the record of Hamas and what are legitimate demands that can be made on Hamas by the international community. And there I think there’s been serious distortion and a very extreme double standard being applied to Hamas. I’m not going to speak about internal mattes as I said. I’ll just look at the kinds of demands that are being made on Hamas now.

Two kinds of demands are being made by the international community. Number one, that is has to renounce violence against Israel. And number two, that is has to recognize Israel. Now, to my thinking, both of those demands would be legitimate, were the same standard applied to Israel.

Let’s look at the question of recognition. No Israeli government has ever recognized the right of the Palestinians to a state, within the borders, which are supported by the international community. There’s no dispute whatsoever any longer under international law what the borders of the Palestinian state are supposed to be. The International Court of Justice ruled, in July 2004, that the West Bank, Gaza and Jeruslaem, are occupied Palestinain territories, designated for Palestinian self-determination. No Israeli government has ever recognized the right of Palestinians to a state, within the West Bank and Gaza, with Jerusalem as its capital.

So, if we were to apply one standard to all the parties in the conflict, a legitimate demand would be, that Hamas has to recognize Israel, within the pre-June ’67 borders, and the state of Israel has to recognize the right of the Palestinians to a state in the West Bank, Gaza, with Jerusalem as its capital. No Israeli government has ever recognized that. Why is it now only Hamas, which is being called upon to recognize the Israeli state, but Israel is not being called upon to recognize the Palestinian state? That’s a double-standard. It’s a gross, hypocritical double-standard.

Let’s look at the second issue. Hamas is being called upon to renounce violence against Israel. To my thinking that’s a fair demand. But where is the recipricol demand on Israel to renounce it’s violence on the Palestinians? If you look at the figures just for the second Intifada, and we limit ourselves to September 28^th to the present, the figures are about 3,000 Palestinains have been killed, and about, slightly under 1,000 Israelis. On both sides…

Interruption: The right number is 1,600 Israelis that were killed.

NF: No, 900. The figure is 900. I looked at the numbers this morning. On both sides, it’s, the majority were civilians. The ratio is about 3 to 1, whether you look at the total figure, or, whether you look strictly at bystanders and civilians. Why isn’t the demand being made on Israel to renounce violence against the Palestinians? Their record is, at least, at a minimum, 3 times as bad as the record on the Palestinian side. And that’s just looking at the question of violence against human beings. When you start looking at other issues, torture of detainees, house demolitions, illegal collective punishments, like curfews, and so on and so forth, that’s also violence. Why isn’t Israel being called upon to renounce that violence?

And furthermore, with all the attention being focused on the demands made on Hamas, whatever happened to the International Court of Justice ruling that Israel has to cease construction of the wall? It has to compensate Palestinians for the damage done by the wall. All of those demands been forgotten, all of the violence being committed against Palestinians is forgotten. Israel’s refusal, since 1967, consistently, to recognize the right of Palestinians to self-determination, within the territories occupied during the ’67 war, that’s all forgotten, and all the attention is focused on what Hamas has to do. To my thinking, if Israel doesn’t do it, Hamas doesn’t have to do it.

Norman G. Finkelstein.

Muslim American Public Affairs Council (MAPAC) Live TV, 2/02/06.