Hamas to change its charter

According to the Jerusalem Post, Hamas have been holding meetings with the aim of changing its charter.

Rather than texts assailing the Jews, as in the current charter, said Tamimi, "The whole language [in the new document] will be changed to political language."

Tamimi, who has given interviews defending suicide bombings that kill Israeli civilians, added in a telephone interview from London, "All that nonsense about The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and conspiracy theories - all that rubbish will be out. It should have never been there in the first place."

The Hamas charter, written in August 1988 shortly after the group was founded, is rife with anti-Semitic statements. One reads: "Our struggle against the Jews is very great... [and will be pursued] until the enemy is vanquished and Allah's victory is realized... 'The stones and trees will say O Muslims, O Abdullah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.'"

The present charter also calls for "jihad" to liberate all of mandatory Palestine and declares that "so-called peaceful solutions contradict the principles of Hamas." It blames "Zionists" for the French and Russian revolutions, and cites the Protocols as a legitimate document.

"Any respectable group would not fall into such a trap because this is a totally false book," said Tamimi, who also advises Hamas leaders on media issues.

I doubt whether the removal of clearly antisemitic passages from the charter will receive as much publicity as their presence has done.