Washington Report, July 2006, pages 26, 35

Special Report

Dr. Salah Al Bardawil: Hamas’ Voice to Europe

By Mohammed Omer

ONE OF THE first things 47-year-old Dr. Salah Al Bardawil, professor of Arabic language and literature and newly elected Hamas member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, is eager to show a new acquaintance are documents from the British Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He spreads the papers wide, his glasses reflecting the text. The documents prove his father’s ownership of 124 dunums of fertile farmland, including olive and orange groves, palm trees and the family’s two-story house, close to the shores of Ashdod beach in what is now Israel.

After the massive ethnic cleansing of 1948, Dr. Al Bardawil’s parents never saw their land or home again. Al Bardawil was born 11 years later, in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis refugee camp. Like most refugee children, he went to UNRWA schools. He was able to travel to Cairo for university, however, eventually earning a Ph.D. in Arabic literature, with a specialty in Palestinian literature. He has been a teacher for 21 years, 16 of them as a professor at Islamic University in Gaza City. He and his wife have seven children, and still live in Khan Younis refugee camp.

Now Dr. Al Bardawil, who joined the PLO in 1999, has been named Hamas spokesman of the newly elected Palestinian parliament. If we are to believe Western and Israeli media, this soft-spoken scholar is a terrorist, quick to send young fanatics on bombing missions. EU governments were quick to adopt the “terrorist” label—some knowing that to do otherwise would bring heavy pressure from the U.S. and Israel, others simply preferring to accept the U.S./Israeli labels slapped on Hamas. However, a number of less narrow-minded European NGOs—from such countries as Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Italy, Spain, Germany and France—have invited Dr. Al Bardawil to visit them, explain Hamas’ vision and policies, and allow listeners to make their own judgments.

The first country to invite Dr. Al Bardawil was the land of pristine snow, cheese and buttermilk, and deep forests [Norway]. The parliamentarian also will visit Paris and several other EU countries. He will travel with Dr. Mohammed Al Rantisi, a Hamas supporter and multilingual physician who will act as translator. Dr. Mohammed is the brother of Abdel Aziz Al Rantisi, the Hamas political leader assassinated by the Israelis in 2004, but has never been active in politics himself.

Dr. Al Bardawil has always combined deep intellectual and cultural interests with political activism, making use of his impressive writing skills by founding the weekly Hamas newspaper Al Resalah (The Letter). His regular columns commenting on political events and documenting life in the refugee camps drew wide attention in Palestine and Israel alike. He was jailed by the Israelis for 70 days on allegations of being a Hamas leader, but was released when he refused to admit to the false charges. He also was jailed numerous times by the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority for his political writing, and on one occasion tortured by being hung from a ceiling beam for 17 days.

Not surprisingly, this only increased his respect among the people. Neighbors, colleagues, even members of opposition political parties approached him to solve personal and social disputes. This most likely did not surprise Al Bardawil, who has always maintained that a true understanding of another’s culture, art, poetry and literature can and will transcend any political differences. Anyone who would make peace with a perceived enemy, he insists, must examine—as one human being to another—the other’s art and culture. When true mutual understanding is achieved, equal to equal, other differences become easier to settle. he maintains.

Dr. Al Bardawil is eager for dialogue, discussion and open meetings with European citizens. Discussing his impending visit, he explained: “The Palestinian image in the European mind is seriously incomplete. It is as if, walking along the street, someone found a book with half the pages missing. They look at the bits and pieces, then start to read from the final chapter. Missing is all background, context, and nuance.

“My hope,” he continued, “is to free the European mind from the unfair prejudgment of Hamas so that perhaps they will stop describing Hamas’ vision and hopes as ‘terrorism.’ That term, after all, came mainly from Israeli propaganda. I don’t think people should judge Hamas by a description offered by our ideological opponents.”

Dr. Al Bardawil sees the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as far less a clash of religions than as a political struggle. In point of fact, he despises war, bloodshed, and seeing a mother—Israeli or Palestinian—mourning the death of a child lost in war. Nevertheless, the former literature professor said, he considers the constant demand for Hamas to renounce “violence” as an inappropriate use of the word. Violence applies to person-to-person or family and social disputes. “During the two World Wars, when Germany was the aggressor and occupier of so many European countries, were the underground militant groups called terrorists?” he asked. “Or did the world call them resistance movements? And in making reparations to the Jews and other groups who survived the Holocaust—and no decent person would deny something must be done for them—why did Europe do it at the expense of Palestinians, who had nothing whatsoever to do with Hitler’s vicious acts? Can the Europeans deny that Israel has been built on Palestinian land that was stolen by force, killing and expelling them from land they occupied for centuries?”

As for the constant demand that Hamas recognize Israel, Dr. Al Bardawil noted: “Recognizing Israel is not black and white. It’s not a case of, if Hamas recognizes Israel they are good, but if not then they are bad.

“Of course,” he added, “it’s not clear to us which Israel we are asked to recognize. Does anyone have a clear definition of what Israel is? Is it the Nov. 29, 1947 division which took 44 percent of our land? Or do they mean the land currently occupied, Gaza and the West Bank, which takes 78 percent of our land? Or is it the road map Israel? Or Olmert’s Israel, which will unilaterally declare borders and swallows 88 percent of Palestine’s land? Do they really expect us to sign a blank paper? We recognize them and then they decide their borders? Is that logical?” he asked calmly.

“And why are we required to recognize Israel, but nobody has ever asked Israel to recognize the Palestinian state on the borders of 1967? They should specify what borders they want us to recognize,” he maintained. “If the Europeans could persuade Israel to establish a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders, release prisoners, return the refugees to their homes, and stop their aggression against us, we will welcome that and never protest.”

As for the demand that Hamas accept the Oslo accords, Al Bardawil said: “Has Norway ever seen this agreement implemented? Sharon was elected with his one-sided solution and would never recognize a Palestinian state. Right now, Israel is blocking $60 million every month in taxes they collect for the Palestinian Authority. This money belongs to the Palestinian people as laid out in the Paris Economic Agreement of 1994. It’s clear that we are the most harmed when agreements are tossed aside. Why is the EU putting pressure on the victim and not the executioner?

Finally, Dr. Al Bardawil wanted to know, “Why has Israel never been asked to stop killing children and women with their helicopters in Gaza and West Bank? Why does no one in the West effectively pressure it to end the human rights violations, the collective punishments, the war crimes?

“The one who destroys your freedom is actually killing you,” he concluded. “Injustice destroys as surely as a bomb.”

Despite all his unanswered questions, Dr. Al Bardawil maintains a cautious optimism. “If there is a real willingness on both sides for peace, it can only be through justice,” he stated. “Peace and stability in this holy land are critical for the security of the region, even the world’s security. The light of truth and logic must be shed equally on the Olmert government as much as on Hamas.”

Mohammed Omer reports from the Gaza Strip in occupied Palestine, where he maintains the Web site <http://www.rafahtoday.org>. He can be reached at < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >.

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