This was my second visit to Damascus in 3 months and was organised by the European Campaign to end the Siege of Gaza, who had also been the sponsors for my trip to Gaza, by boat, in November.
On my first visit, which was to speak at a ‘Right to Return’ conference attended by thousands of Palestinians from all over the Middle East, Lord Ahmed had accompanied me.
On that occasion, we were both able to meet Khalid Masha’al, Chair of Hamas’ political Bureau under a great cloak of security! He is the effective leader of Hamas outside Gaza and stays in Syria.
We were very impressed by what he had to say and I resolved that with the help of the European Campaign, we would bring as many parliamentarians as we could out to meet Hamas.
If there is ever to be peace in the Middle East we need to talk to our so-called enemies!
On the second visit I was accompanied by Lindsey Northover and William Wallace from the House of Lords, Clare Short and Lynne Jones, from the Commons, Sandra White MSP and Chris Andrews, from the Irish Parliament.
We were treated to a brief tour of the key sites in Damascus, which is a stunning city, and the oldest continually inhabited city in the world. It’s a place that gets into your being somehow, like all those places in Palestine that, whether we are religious or not, form part of our culture and upbringing!
We had meetings with Khalid Masha’al at the Headquarters of Hamas, President Asad, in the Presidential Palace, and Dr Ramadan Shalah, Head of Islamic Jihad, who insisted that he was Palestine, based and had no connection with other jihadists in the Middle East.
Khalid Masha’al repeated even more convincingly, what he had told Lord Ahmed and I, in November, which had also been endorsed by Ismail Hanniyeh, Hamas’ leader in Gaza.
Hamas will accept a state of Palestine based on the pre 1967 borders, which de facto means accepting a state of Israel. He would not however utter the words ‘right to exist’.
Hamas will also always consider a truce and have offered a ten-year truce, refused by Israel. He pointed out quite rightly that the 6-month truce of last year had been broken by Israel’s incursion into Gaza and killing of 6 people. He was also sore that no progress had been on the opening of the crossings despite the ceasefire. He commented that he felt that Israel did not want peace in any circumstance.
I asked about the Hamas Charter, which is a chilling document, written 20 years ago and he commented that the state of Palestine would have a new constitution, which would NOT include the charter!!
Questions about Cpl Gillit brought the predicable response that 11,000 Palestinians including 40 parliamentarians, were prisoners in Israel and no one mentioned them.
He insisted that the talks in Egypt between Hamas and Fatah were progressing and we later learnt that Islamic Jihad were also there. He claimed contact with several countries but could not name them.
Masha’al is a shrewd, plausible and actually very likeable man, who everyone agreed should be included in all talks on the peace process. Most Palestinians I have talked to hold him in great esteem, and when he appeared at the Right of Return conference in November was cheered for ages by thousands of ecstatic Palestinians. There will be no solutions without Hamas.
Dr Ramadan Shalah was an even greater surprise to meet. Educated in Egypt and Durham University, he was fluent in English and had a terrific grasp of the problems. He agreed with Hamas up to a point and would accept their 2 state solution if it ever occurred, but, like many in the West, fears that it is no longer attainable and that Israel’s intention is to drive as many Palestinians as possible into Egypt and Jordan and make an underclass of those who remain, who would then have to struggle to attain justice and equal rights.
Another picture painted by this man was of increasing anger and resistance to Israel/USA/ Europe by people and an increasing number of states all over the ME. Lebanon and Gaza where preliminary skirmishes, heralding a wider and more terrible war all over the region.
After I tackled him on the use of suicide bombers, his eloquence knew no bounds, “WE love life and happiness like any other human beings,” was the reply.
President Asad gave us a warm greeting. He was pleased that the UK was talking to Hizbollah, but emphasised that the siege of Gaza must be lifted and prisoners must be released. He also thought that the main problem was, that Israel did not want peace and would carry on as long as the USA in particular, continue their support.
He told us that the Palestinians would continue to have support in Syria – we had learned that they have all the same services and rights as Syrians, except the vote, which they do NOT want!
He stated quite emphatically that he would never trade Hamas for the Golan Heights – there have been suggestions that to get the Golan back Syria would have to expel Hamas.
“We will never expel Hamas for Golan – where would they go? Into the sea?”
President Asad felt that relations with Iran and the Arab League have improved since Gaza, and defended Egypt somewhat on the grounds that the government there were afraid of the Muslim Brotherhood taking control.
Amazingly too, he felt that the UK position had changed and that Miliband was ‘different’!
I think that the visit was productive and will herald more visits by parliamentarians. My ambition is for so many of us to have met the Hamas leaders that our government will look stupid if they do not start talks – perhaps they have already. Who knows?
As a Syrian official said to me, “Palestine is the beating heart of Islamic terrorism, when will your governments’ realise this and ACT.”
Quite so.
