H.E. Mr. Ahmad Abdelrazek:

On co-operation between Hamas and Fatah, when we decided to form the unity government we stated that there would be elections. People will decide between Hamas, Fatah and others. President Abbas has stated that if Hamas wins he will give it the keys, because the people will have made their choice.

On whether the unity government is sustainable, while Hamas and Fatah do not agree with each other ideologically, they are both part of Palestinian society and must therefore work together. Ultimately, however, they will both try to win the presidency.

This morning I read the results of a poll which showed that support for Hamas had increased and that if Abbas and Haniyeh presented themselves for election today, the latter would win the presidency. However, we do not know what will happen tomorrow, as this always occurs after conflicts. We stated that we must hold elections to allow the people to decide what they want. They will decide whether they want to continue the negotiations or, if they consider the negotiations to be useless, to go a different way. That is a choice for the people. Hamas and Fatah understood that they did not have any choice but to go the way of elections. We cannot foresee what will happen or what will be the results if the elections take place next year.

The question to be asked is not "Who started it?", because when two children fight they both say, "I did not hit him; he hit me." The question is whether Israel wants peace. If we are serious about peace and ending the occupation, the "I did not hit him; he hit me" argument will finish. The core problem is occupation. Throughout history, occupation has brought conflict and violence.

There is no history of occupation without violence and violent actions. We have seen it and lived with it for almost 50 years. It is time to finish with violence by establishing peace, but establishing peace is impossible without ending the colonisation. That is what we meant when I said the international community should take more serious steps. It takes steps when it considers a situation is incorrect. We are calling for a boycott of the settlements and anything related to them because they are illegal. The Israelis should understand this cannot continue; therefore, we are calling for a boycott of settlements of all kinds. Some say a boycott is not politic. Why is it politic with other countries and does work and why does not it work with Israel? Why do they consider it legitimate to boycott countries which are considered to have breached the law when Israel is not treated in the same way when it breaches the law? We do not understand this. We are not calling for anything extreme. We say countries should boycott what is illegal in order that Israel will understand this really is illegal because up to now, it has considered it to be right.

The Israeli Foreign Minister, Mr. Lieberman, said yesterday that Israel stood behind its decision to appropriate West Bank land, adding that the official policy of the Government of Israel was, first and foremost, to focus on the settlement blocs which would clearly remain under Israeli sovereignty under a future settlement. Its focus officially is on the settlements. What can I say? This is the Minister for Foreign Affairs; it is not a member of the party. I do not mention the members of the parties who want to expel Palestinians or see them in the sea. I do not care about this; I am talking about officials in the government. I am talking about the Prime Minister, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Minister for the Economy. They are decision makers.

The Israelis take our water from the West Bank. We have the right to only one quarter of the quantity they use. One cannot dig a well on the West Bank without Israeli authorisation. One cannot even do this in Area A. That is why I was not creating or inventing something when I said Israel controlled almost all aspects of our lives. That is the reality. Even the Israeli NGOs which are working on the issue human rights will tell us that.

Amnesty International reports that 90% or 95% of the drinking water in the Gaza Strip is contaminated and unfit for human consumption. Do you know why? It is because normally Gaza gets its water from the mountains of the West Bank, but the Israelis dug wells to intercept the water to transfer it to Israel. That is why sea water and sewage has entered the water system causing nephrotic problems.