Birmingham MP Lynne Jones calls for talks with Hamas

Mar 17 2009 by Jonathan Walker, Birmingham Post

Britain and the European Union should open negotiations with Hamas, according to a Birmingham MP who met the leader of the Palestinian organisation over the weekend.

Lynne Jones (Lab, Selly Oak) said she believed Hamas genuinely wanted peace, following a meeting with the group’s leader, Khaled Meshaal, in Damascus, Syria.

The organisation which controls the Gaza Strip, which Israeli tanks and troops invaded in December, and is considered a terrorist organisation by the United Kingdom as well as the European Union, the United States and other countries.

Ladywood MP Clare Short (Ind Lab) also took part in the visit, as part of a delegation which included Lib Dem peer Jenny Tonge.

As well as Mr Meshaal, the parliamentarians met Syrian President Bashar al-Ashad and representatives of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which has also been designated a terrorist body by the UK, US and EU.

Hamas denies Israel’s right to exist and has been involved in suicide bombings targeting Israelis.

It took control of Gaza in 2007 in an armed conflict with rival Palestinian organisation Fatah, which continues to govern the West Bank. Hamas won the Palestinian Parliamentary elections in 2006 while Fatah held the Presidency, which was decided in separate elections a year earlier.

Dr Jones said she believed it was right to hold talks with the parties involved in the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, and said the UK had previously spoken to organisations considered to be terrorists, such as Sinn Fein.

The UK had recently announced it would talk to elected members of the Lebanese Parliament who were members of Hezbollah, which had a military wing considered by Britain to be a terrorist organisation, she added.

She had challenged Mr Meshaal over Hamas’ policies and approach, but believed he did genuinely want an end to the conflict, she said.

“They said that they reserve the right to resist the occupation. They see themselves as being occupied,” she said.

“They are saying they are prepared to have a ceasefire. They want peace. I think they are genuine. They also constantly emphasised that they don’t have any problem with Jews or Judaism.”

Hamas had said that they were willing to accept a Palestinian state based on the borders before 1967, when Israel took control of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, she said.

This implied that they would also accept Israel’s right to exist within the pre-1967 borders, Dr Jones added.

“They have explicitly said they would accept a Palestinian state on the pre-1967 borders,” she siad. “I felt, talking to these people, that they were good people. They genuinely want peace.”

Europe should act to persuade Israel to talk to Hamas, she said. The Syrian President had warned the parliamentarians that they should not depend on the United States to resolve the conflict.

“Bashir was basically saying that Europe shouldn’t wait for President Obama,” said Dr Jones.

Dr Jones said former Palestinian President Yasser Arafat had signed agreements with Israel which had later been broken by the Israelis, not the Palestinians.