Translation of al-Hayat
article
on Hamas's proposal for a "Document of Palestinian Dignity" presented to
the other Palestinian factions after Abu Mazen's election as PA head, January
2005
(Translation by Helena Cobban, Jan.19th, 2005)
Gaza, al-Hayat, 19 January 2005--
Al-Hayat has obtained the text of "A Draft for the Document of Palestinian
Dignity" recently prepared by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) which
presented it to the Palestinian nationalist and Islamist factions as a basis
for holding an internal dialogue to prepare the road for an agreement on
a complete national political program after it has been coupled [reconciled?]
with what is known as the "August Document", that the factions agreed to
in the summer of 2003.
The draft gains its importance from its status as the first time in which
the Movement presents a written program to the other factions, so that the
Palestinian dialogue can escape from going round in the same circles it's
been going round in since it started about three years ago and arrive at
joint principles that represent the "minimum acceptable" to the Palestinians.
What follows is the text of the document:
In the name of God the merciful, the compassionate.
The Document of Palestinian Dignity.
Indeed God loves those who fight for his sake, lined up as though they were
a single edifice. The deaths of the martyrs, and the wounded, and the
prisoners in the prisons of the occupation, and for all the losses of our
people for more than a century; and the existence of the withdrawal is a
nationalist achievement for the resistance. And confirming the grasping
of our legitimate right to resist aggression and occupation and [to bring
about] the dismantling of the Israeli settlement project, and to defend our
land and our our holy places against the Zionist plans and the American bias
that pushes the Israeli enemy to oppress the the resistance and the intifada.And
in order to foil the continuous attempts by outsiders to play around with
the internal affairs of the Palestinian people. And working to realize
the return of all the Palestinian refugees to the homes that they left--
The Palestinian forces have therefore agreed on the following "Document
of Dignity":
Firstly, regarding the fixed points of the nationalist cause:
1-- Palestine is a part of the Arab and Islamic land, and the Palestinian
people is a part of the Arab and Islamic community (umma).
2-- The liberation of Palestinian land requires joint work from all levels:
Palestinian, Arab, and international.
3-- Confirming the unity of the Palestinian people in all the places where
they are found, and their support in all possible ways.
4-- The Zionist entity [Israel] constitutes the principal enemy of the Palestinian
people because of its usurpation of the land, the expulsion of the people,
the mass killings, the destruction of homes, the uprooting of trees, the
destruction of the economy, the appropriation of the resources of the Palestinian
people, and its denial to [the Palestinian people] of these of these
resources for more than half a century.
5-- Preserving and defending the right of return of all the Palestinian refugees
to the homes they were forced out of, and the reclaiming of this right by
all legitimate means.
6-- Commitment to the goal of dislodging the occupation, and the establishment
of an independent, fully soveriegn Palestinian state with its capital in
Jerusalem.
7-- Supporting the Palestinian peoplein all possible ways, militarily, and
using security means, and economically, and politically.
8-- All are agreed on the need to build an independent Palestinian economic
regime, in all spheres and the direction of the resources necessary to strengthen
the structures of steadfastness, activate national production, turning toward
reliance on a blameless policy that ends the situation of general waste and
the corruption in the existing institutions; and a just dirtubution of the
burden of confronting the occupation, and support for the steadfastness of
all parts of the Palestinian people.
9-- The issue of the prisoners and detainees is one of the priorities of
Palestinian work and part of national soveriegnty and liberation; and sress
[should be laid] on the necessity of working for their release in all legitimate
ways.
10-- Cooperation, and negotiation, and security coordination with the occupation
is a big crime that should receive the greatest punishment, according to
the law made in Palestine.
Secondly: Internal relations
All lay stress on the following principles:
1-- Respect for the beliefs of the people and the umma, and respect
for the general traditions and the civilizational and cultural heritage and
human rights and the mobilization of the role of women and defense of their
rights in all aspects of life.
2-- Stress on guarateeing national unity and not exposing it to danger.
3-- Support for political freedoms and the right to form citizens' groups,
labor unions, and commercial and cultural institutions and freedom of information
and publishing, freedom of expression, organization, association, and holding
demonstrations so long as these do not contradict our beliefs and our cultural
heritage, and anyway within the framework of the law.
4-- The undertaking of a complete operation to reform the Palestinian administrative
and financial situation that guarantees the realization of justice, equality,
transparency, and accountability from everyone, and the guaranteeing of the
public finances and properties, and holding to account whoever worked to
abuse his office, and accountability in public finances.
5-- Bringing about the rule of law and the complete independence of the judiciary
and guarding this independence from attacks upon it, whatever side they come
from, and the implementation of its [the judiciary's] decisions according
to the policy of the separation of powers, and the transformation of all
the organs of the Authority into institutions ruled by law, as a preparation
for its transformation into the institutions of the state.
6-- Relying on elections to make all the Palestinian decisions; the support
of elections and non-interference with them.
7-- Guarding the institutions of civil society, developing them, and supporting
them, and taking steps to guarantee their developmentand their ability to
serve the entire society.
8-- Putting in place a special, detailed program on how to deal with the
phenomenon of collaborators that will include bringing them to court and
prevent them from repeating their offense while protecting society from them.
9-- Reliance upon the culture of constructive negotiation arriving at joint
positions and outlawing the use of force to resolve factional or family or
personal disputes.
10-- Putting in place an education program that lays stress on the agreed
concepts and principles, in order to revive teaching and culture and education
that does not clash with the beliefs of the umma and its civlizatinal
and cultural heritage.
11-- Mobilizing the role of the religious institutionsand transforming the
role of the mosques in education, information, and culture.
12-- Establishment of a provisional, complete, Palestinian national source
of authority (marji'iya), and putting in place the program of its
work.
Thirdly: External relations:
1-- The building of balanced political relations with Arab and Islamic states
that serve the causes of the umma and guard its unity and its progress.
2-- Work to build a complete economic system with the Arab and Islamic states,
and an opening to the other states of the world.
3-- The necessity of building balanced relations with all the states of the
worldon the basis of morality and political principles that guard the rights
of our people and support it [our people] and respond to attacks against
it.
4-- Laying stress on the legitimacy of the armed resistance and the political
struggle and all the means of jihad and struggle that the Palestinian people
have practised and still practise in order to realize freedom and independence,
and mobilizing all energies to denounce all forms of occupation and tyranny
in Palestine and Iraq and Afghanistan and any inch [of land] occupied by
the foreigner.