U.S. Says Palestinian Elections "Historic and Significant"
25 January 2006
White House, State Department say position toward HAMAS is "unchanged"
Washington -- White House press secretary Scott McClellan said the first Palestinian parliamentary elections in 10 years are a “historic and significant moment” for the Palestinian people, and the United States will continue helping them build democratic institutions as Middle East peace efforts move forward.
Speaking January 25 to reporters at the White House, McClellan said the Palestinians “are in a transition to what we all hope is a democratic state,” and the Bush administration is “doing all we can to help … as they move forward on solidifying democratic institutions.”
Press reports quoted the Palestinian Central Election Commission as saying that voter turnout was even heavier than during the 1996 parliamentary elections, with 77.7 percent of 1.3 million eligible voters participating, as opposed to 75 percent in 1996. At stake were all seats in the 132-member parliament.
The elections marked the first time the Islamic militant group HAMAS has participated in the Palestinian political process. HAMAS, which has claimed responsibility for numerous attacks against Israeli civilians and military targets, has been designated a terrorist organization by the State Department.
McClellan said that U.S. policy toward HAMAS has not changed. “We do not deal with HAMAS. HAMAS is a terrorist organization. Under current circumstances, I don't see any change in that,” he said.
Citing a December 28, 2005, joint statement issued by the United Nations, Russia, the European Union and the United States, collectively known as “the Quartet,” McClellan said HAMAS is “a contradiction,” presenting itself as “a political entity while engaging in violence outside the political process and calling for the destruction of a neighboring country. (See related article.)
“[T]hat's a contradiction that needs to be resolved going forward,” he said.
Asked about the possibility of HAMAS participating in a future Palestinian Authority (PA), State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said U.S. policy toward the PA will be guided by three documents:
-- First, the road map agreement, which calls for two independent states -- Israel and Palestine -- living side by side in peace and security. The road map agreement includes a call for the PA to prevent terror and to dismantle terrorist networks.
-- Second, the Quartet’s December 2005 statement which calls on all Palestinian political participants to “renounce violence, recognize Israel's right to exist, and disarm,” and says that a future PA Cabinet should not include a member who “is not committed to the principles of Israel's right to exist in peace and security and an unequivocal end to violence and terrorism.”
-- Third, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s January 11 statement in which she said that, as part of participating in Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts, “the Palestinian partner must at least accept Israel's right to exist,” and in order to “implement agreements on movement and access for the Palestinian territories, the Palestinian partner must be committed to preventing violence.” (See related article.)
“In short,” McCormack said, continuing Rice’s quotation, “the Palestinian partner must be committed to peaceful development."
The United States stands “prepared to work with a Palestinian government that is committed to achieving the two-state solution through peaceful means … across the negotiating table, not at the point of a gun,” he said.
The spokesman welcomed the elections, which he said were marked by high voter turnout and a near absence of violence.
“I would say that it's a great day for the Palestinian people. It's a historic moment for them,” he said, because the Palestinians “are able to express their views and express their will through the ballot box.”
“We have seen time and again that the opening of a political process and getting individual citizens to invest in that political process can have a transformative effect on a society, on a political class,” he said.
A well-governed democracy “is the way for the Palestinian people to realize their goal of a Palestinian state,” he said.
For additional information on U.S. policy, see The Middle East: A Vision for the Future.
(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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