22 September 1999

An Open Message from 
Khaled Mishaal to the Jordanian Monarch
( broadcasted by the Jazira Channel)

Your Majesty, the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, did not change in a matter of few months and cannot change in years. The Hamas Movement that your father the late King Hussein, may Allah have mercy on his soul, knew quite well; is the same Hamas that is present today in Jordan. The late King knew Hamas and embraced a number of its leaders, hosted Dr. Abu Marzouq from his prison in America and received the Mujahid Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. He also adopted a manly stand, full of gallantry, firmness and wisdom, in resisting the Mossad agents on the land of dear Jordan and insisted on providing the antidote. This Hamas Movement did not change, so why is there a change in the stance towards it? What has changed? Mohammed Abu Seif, who repelled the Mossad agents’ attack against Jordan’s sovereignty and security and who was honoured a year ago by the Interior Minister, what has changed so that he would be in prison today?

Hamas did not change but regrettably stands towards it have changed. We hope that your Majesty would return things to normalcy. We also say to the Jordanian government and to all security and judicial apparatuses that those pressures on Hamas and those charges are not true and unjustifiable. It is not appropriate that Hamas would be prosecuted for the sake of non-Jordanian interests. This does not fall in line with dear Jordan’s interest nor that of the Ummah. We say to the dear Jordanian people, who stood in support of us with its northern, central and southern areas, with its tribes and (refugee) camps, with all political trends, with all its parties, syndicates and nationalist and Islamic figures, we tell them that Hamas will remain loyal to its pledge and that Jordan’s security and sovereignty will remain our concern and will remain untouchable.

Hamas will never target anyone from the Ummah and will never change its policy especially in dear Jordan. The Movement’s pendulum will remain directed against the Zionist enemy. I say to those who think that pressures on Hamas along with harassment measures would lead to its deviation from its path and political belief, I tell them that they are wrong. No-one, insha’allah, will ever succeed in eliminating Hamas in this sensitive stage when the Palestine cause is passing through the most dangerous attempt for its liquidation under the pretext of final status talks. Hamas is not a thing that can be eliminated in a certain stage. We are going back to Jordan, and we say to all Hamas lovers and those afraid on its behalf, do not be afraid for there are loyal Hamas leaders and cadres within the occupied homeland and outside it. So, if some of Hamas leaders were absent or absented for one reason or another, the march of Hamas will persist by the will of Allah.

Your brother
Khaled Mishaal
Political Bureau Chairman of the Hamas Movement

         22 Sep 1999