11 March 2000

In the name of God, the Merciful, the Mercy-giving

"And hold fast to God's rope and do not separate"

Declaration concerning
the Arab Foreign Ministers' meeting in Beirut

The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) hails the initiative of the League of  Arab States, represented in the meeting of its Foreign Ministers Council, to hold its current session today in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, as a sign of support for the resistance movement and in solidarity with the right of fraternal Lebanon to defend its land and people.

This meeting constitutes an important opportunity to affirm Arab solidarity with the leadership, people, and resistance movement of Lebanon, and the response to Zionist arrogance in its on-going aggression against populated civilian areas of Lebanon, in violation of the international norms and laws that prohibit such actions.

The Arab Foreign Ministers' meeting, backing the resistance movement as it does, is a firm indication that our Arab Nation possesses the will to stand together, solid and steadfast, and that it rejects attempts of the Zionist enemy and its hegemonic backers to separate and overcome the Arab peoples, one by one.  This meeting is an important step towards healing the Arab condition in general, bringing it together and uniting its ranks.

The Hamas Movement and with it the Palestinian people, as they hail the Arab foreign ministers' meeting in Beirut, would like to affirm the following points, hoping that they might become a pivot for discussion and counsel:

1. A reaffirmation of the moral and material support of the Arab states for the Islamic and Patriotic Resistance movement in Lebanon against the Zionist occupation, and in affirmation of the legitimate right of Lebanon to defend its territory, and to regain its sovereignty over it.

2. A declaration that the Arab states stand at the side of the Palestinian people and their genuine and active support for the resistance program against the Zionist occupation, and in rejection of the attempts of the hegemonic powers to impose a racist colonialist solution on our people and nation, by negating their just and historic rights through the establishment of a feeble form of "self rule."  The Lebanese and Palestinian resistance is the strongest possible language, one that the Zionist enemy can understand and thoroughly reckon with.

3. A halt to attempts to normalize relations with the Zionist entity that occupies our land and the activation of the declaration of the last Arab summit meeting held in Cairo that called for a halt to normalization.

4. A transcendence by the Arab governments of their differences, and an affirmation of the fact that they are at one in their aims and in their defiance of external attempts to assert hegemony over them, and a firm declaration rejecting the embargo that the United States has imposed upon Iraq and the Sudan, supporting the right of the peoples to choose their own future.

The Hamas Movement renews its support for any step that helps strengthen the unity of the Arab perspective and it hopes that the declarations of the Arab Foreign Ministers' Council will be up to the level of the current threat, and that they will increase real solidarity and respond to the aspirations of the Arab peoples in defiance of the external danger as represented by expansionist Zionist colonialism and its allied powers.  

Islamic Resistance Movement – Hamas - Palestine