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| By: Associated Press |
| Published: May 14, 2006 |
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Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahar, a hardline leader of the militant Hamas group, on Saturday praised terrorists in Israeli jails who hammered out a proposal that would implicitly recognize Israel, but said the prisoners did not have all the pertinent information.
The agreement was reached recently by militants, including the most senior Hamas prisoner, and calls for the establishment of a Palestinian state on the lands Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast War: Judea, Samaria, Gaza and east Jerusalem.
That implicit recognition of Israel would be a major shift for Hamas, which calls for replacing Israel with an Islamic state.
Hamas leaders responded ambivalently to the document. Some have privately urged abandoning Hamas' rejection of Israel in an effort to end the crippling international boycott of the new Hamas-led Palestinian Cabinet. Hard-liners, including Zahar, reportedly reject that plan.
"Our people inside the Israeli jails, they are brilliant people. We are very proud about their role. But they are concentrating about issues according to their information, restricted information," Zahar said Saturday in English. "This is a respectable idea, but it is not the final agreement of any of the Palestinian factions, including Hamas."
AP contributed to this report. |
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