AY’S MESOP OPINION : Hamas is the problem – demilitarization is the solution

By Kaiwan Bahroz is a political analyst, human rights activist, currently working with the Norwegian Labour Party. He has worked as a humanitarian affairs officer for the United Nations.

5-8-2014 – For Hamas, it does not matter if women and children die as long as even Israelis injured. For example, 160 child laborers died during the construction of the tunnels that are now used to terrorize Israeli civilians.

Since the summer of 2007, Hamas control of the Gaza Strip with an iron fist. The fundamentalist Islamist organization has introduced a ruthless regime where the area for the past seven years has turned into a terrorist base.

Terrorists from Hamas hiding behind Palestinian civilians and using them as human shields. In order to mislead the international community, Hamas is trying to hide their true agenda behind the Palestinian cause, namely the stated goal of Israel’s destruction and the establishment of an Islamic state in its place.

Hamas is not a legitimate political actor and its rule over the Gaza Strip is not legal. The organization is a terrorist stamped by the EU, USA, Egypt, Australia, Canada and many other countries. The terrorist organization’s military force – about 20,000 heavily armed terrorists, thousands of rockets against Israeli towns and villages, as well as dozens of tunnels that cross the border – largely financed by Iran.

Hamas’s greatest asset is its complete control over the Gaza Strip. The methods used can be likened to organized crime. Hamas has usurped the economic power through blackmail, intimidation and violence.

 The ruthless rule over the Gaza Strip is based on the proven assumption that Israel and the international community will take care of people’s basic livelihood.

This would give Hamas a free hand to concentrate on the acquisition of weapons and the development of a terrorist infrastructure that consists of launching ramps, tunnels, bunkers protecting the organization’s leaders, and more. Everything is done at the expense of Gazans the right to sustainable development and prosperity.

The use of thousands of tons of cement, designed for schools and hospitals, to build tunnels into Israel to carry out terrorist attacks and kidnappings are one of the most egregious examples of the corrupt nature of Hamas and militant intentions.Israel left Gaza in 2005 and has no claim to the territory. Israel – and the international community – the desire was that the area would be developed into a peaceful neighbour and that the Palestinians would be able to show the world that they had the ability to develop the territory to a successful economy on the Mediterranean’s eastern shore.

Two years later, in the summer of 2007, Hamas took power by force and overthrew the legitimate Palestinian Authority in Gaza by killing and expelling its representatives. Since then, Hamas has established an extremist and very oppressive regime in Gaza.

Hamas has silenced the free word, limited the rights of women and drive out Christians. The organization continues to profess the objectives formulated in its charter: to kill Jews and obliterate the State of Israel.

Hamas does not care about Gaza’s civilians. They do not hesitate sacrificing Palestinian lives. For Hamas, it does not matter if women and children die as long as even Israelis injured. For example, 160 child laborers died during the construction of the tunnels that are now used to terrorize Israeli civilians.

Hamas bears full and direct responsibility for the misery and suffering that the civilians exposed to the Gaza Strip.The only way to protect the lives of both Gaza and Israelis is to demilitarize the Gaza Strip according to the principles set out in the Interim Agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, even as recently declared by all thet EU foreign ministers. This means that the tunnels must be destroyed, and that Hamas and all other terrorist groups operating in the area is disarmed..

Kaiwan Bahroz is a political analyst, human rights activist, currently working with the Norwegian Labour Party. He has worked as a humanitarian affairs officer for the United Nations, and attended the University of Nordland, where he studied political scienceshttp://no.linkedin.com/in/kaiwanbahroz