An (Alleged) Interview with Ismail Haniyeh, the Leader of Hamas

Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of Hamas, has been the disputed prime minister in Gaza for six years. The US officially classifies his political party as a terrorist group. Perhaps this helps to explain why Haniyeh has been such an elusive figure.

Until this year, he had made zero sojourns outside his besieged Strip, which is about the size of Detroit, since 2007. But over the last few months he’s been jet-setting between the most critical countries in the region, smiling for handshake shots with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Iran, and posing at the helm of a raided flotilla boat docked in Turkey. Last week, Haniyeh traveled to Egypt to meet the first democratically elected president in the nation’s history, Mohamed Morsi.

The two leaders share a border on the Sinai Peninsula, so there was much to talk about – for starters, the hundreds of Palestinian-dug tunnels used to smuggle goods from Egypt and the possibility for renewed violence between Hamas and Israel similar to what happened during the Gaza War three years ago.

Over the weekend, a correspondent in Egypt named Sherif Elhelwa forwarded VICE a transcript alleged to be a one-on-one interview between Elhelwa and Haniyeh following his meeting with Morsi on Friday. But we’re really dealing with a document of unknown provenance here. Is it Hamas-generated propaganda or the real deal? We’ll let you decide.

VICE: You met with President of Egypt Mohamed Morsi yesterday. What was the result of the meeting?
Ismail Haniyeh: We discussed, in depth, all the issues related to the Palestinian cause. We also discussed the situation in the Arab region and in the Islamic countries. We focused on what the Palestinian people are witnessing all over Palestine and especially in Jerusalem. We also discussed the Israeli-organised practices against Jerusalem. These practices are aiming to change the future of Jerusalem. We also discussed the situation in the West Bank and the suffering of the people there… like the issue of the wall and the settlements.

What is the issue regarding the Rafah Crossing? Did the Egyptians make any decisions regarding it yesterday?
I can say that the president of Egypt made some decisions. He said that they will open the Rafah Crossing for 12 hours every day, from 9 AM to 9 PM – allowing 1,500 Gazans to cross from Rafah to Egypt and also welcoming all the arrivals to Gaza.

Some people in Egypt worry Palestinians will be allowed to enter the country without regulation, and the situation will spiral out of control. I believe you two discussed the regulation of this process and made it clear that it will be firm and applied to everyone.
For sure. We respect Egyptian sovereignty and security. We are going to respect the laws and the process of entering and leaving Egypt. We will not allow any chaos at that level, or regarding that issue. From our side, we follow a similar process regarding travel, to control that issue.

How about the tunnels? We know the reason behind this is that the former regime was an agent for Israel and the US. Did you discuss this issue?
We were forced to make these tunnels. This is because we were under brutal siege from land, air and from the sea. These tunnels were temporary. The Palestinian people made them because of the siege, and the closing of the crossings. We were using these tunnels to bring food, clothes, medicine and anything related to daily life.

Can you expound on the current political situation in Gaza, specifically the other Palestinian factions operating there besides Hamas?
The national relationship in Gaza is stable. We have common political Palestinian programs with common goals. Everybody is seeking to establish the Palestinian state. Everybody is seeking to lift the siege. All of us are resisting the Israeli occupation. All military wings of the Palestinian factions agree on continuing to resist the Israeli occupation until Palestinian soil is liberated.

For sure there are disputes in the political programs. There are differences and, yes, there is division. I don't want to talk about the introduction and the reasons behind the division, but we are doing our best to control this difference to put it in the framework of dialogue.

Do you have political detainees affiliated with Fatah being held in Gaza?
There are no political detainees in Gaza. There is no one in Gaza who is detained because he belongs to a political faction. There are detainees but not for political reasons. They are detained for security reasons, related to spying for the occupation. Some of those detainees belong to political factions. Some factions have been penetrated by the occupation.

Is there any hope for political reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah?
The Israelis and the Americans don't want the reconciliation to happen. They want the Palestinian people to remain divided, so they can easily blackmail the Palestinian Authority. And it’s obvious when the Palestinian Authority witnesses a financial problem, they tell them not to achieve the reconciliation and continue security coordination with Israel.

Is there a clear vision for the Palestinian cause post-Arab Spring?
As for the strategy, I can say yes, we have one. The current situation is totally different than the 1940s [when the British Mandate established the state of Israel in Palestine]. The ammunition used in the aggression on Gaza is a hundred times more potent than the ammunition used then. In the 1940s, [nearly a million] Palestinians left. During the war on Gaza, no one left at all, and people were coming from abroad to Gaza. In 22 days, around 1,500 people were martyred. This means that Palestinian awareness increased. Israel is no longer moving upward; they are terrified. Israel is studying now everything happening around it, and this is a nightmare for them. Now the strategic experts in Israel are not talking about the strength of Israel. Those experts are talking about the existence of Israel. The issue of its existence is doubted now… whether they will continue or not.