Khaled Mashal

Khaled Mashal (born 28 May 1956), also known as "Khaled Mashaal", is a former leader of Hamas, the Islamist political and military organization currently governing the Gaza Strip of the Palestinian territories.

Khaled Mashal in 2009

Quotes

2005

• Who can tell, my brothers and sisters, when we will celebrate on this podium, the liberation of the West Bank? When will we celebrate the liberation of Jaffa, Haifa, Safed, and the Negev? When will we celebrate the departure of the last Zionist from our land? Yes. Some people ask when this will happen. Say: It could be soon. Such is our faith in Allah. We have no doubt that victory will come, and that just as we liberated Palestine from the Crusaders and from the Mongols, we will regain it – pure and purified - from the Zionist occupiers.
  • Cited in Hamas Leaders Speaking at Damascus Rally: We Shall Regain Safed, Beit Shean, Tiberias, Ashkelon, and Lod at memritv.org (30 December 2005): Mashal adresses the crowd in a rally

2006

• When Israel says that it will recognise Palestinian rights and will withdraw from the West Bank and East Jerusalem and grant the right of return, stop settlements and recognise the rights of the Palestinians to self-determination - only then will Hamas be ready to take a serious step.
  • Cited in "Transcript: Khaled Meshaal interview", BBC News (8 February 2006): Khaled Meshaal, tells the BBC's Middle East editor, Jeremy Bowen, that his organisation is ready to offer a long-term truce to Israel - as long as certain Palestinian rights are honoured.

Address at the Al-Murabit Mosque in Damascus (2006)

The address was delivered following the Friday sermon at the mosque and was aired on Al-Jazeera TV on February 3, 2006. Transcript

• I bring good tidings to our beloved Prophet Muhammad: Allah's promise and the Prophet's prophecy of our victory in Palestine over the Jews and over the oppressive Zionists has begun to come true.

• Tomorrow, our nation will sit on the throne of the world. This is not a figment of the imagination, but a fact. Tomorrow we will lead the world, Allah willing. Apologize today, before remorse will do you no good. Our nation is moving forwards, and it is in your interest to respect a victorious nation.

• Before Israel dies, it must be humiliated and degraded. Allah willing, before they die, they will experience humiliation and degradation every day. America will be of no avail to them. Their generals will be of no avail to them. The last of their generals has been forgotten. Allah has made him disappear. He's over. Gone is that Sharon, behind whose back they would hide and find shelter, and with whom they would feel relatively secure. Today they have frail leaders, who don't even know where our Lord placed them. Allah willing, we will make them lose their eyesight, we will make them lose their brains.

• I say to America, Europe, and the West: It is in your interests to change your relations and policies regarding the Arab and Islamic nation and the Palestinian cause. Because we are winning, it is in your interests to deal with the victors, not the losers.

• Israel will be defeated and will be of no use to you. The Arabs will be victorious. The Muslims will be victorious. Palestine will be victorious. Change your policy soon, if you want to protect your interests, and maintain healthy relations with the East.

2007

• Israel is there, it is part of the United Nations and we do not deny its existence. But we still have rights and land there which have been usurped and until these matters are dealt with we will withhold our recognition.
  • Cited in Hamas leader acknowledges 'reality' of Israel at Theguardian.com, 10 January, 2007: Hamas accepts the existence of the state of Israel but will not officially recognise it until the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza.

• As a Palestinian today I speak of a Palestinian and Arab demand for a state on 1967 borders. It is true that in reality there will be an entity or state called Israel on the rest of Palestinian land. This is a reality, but I won't deal with it in terms of recognising or admitting it.
  • Cited in Hamas softens Israel stance in calls for Palestinian state at Independent.co.uk, 11 January 2007: Mashal on Israel recent work in another interview.

• I say that what Israel did to the Palestinian people is many times worse than what Nazism did to the Jews, and there is exaggeration, which has become obsolete, regarding the issue of the Holocaust. We do not deny the facts, but we will not give in to extortion by exaggeration.
  • "Hamas Leader Khaled Mash'al Praises Sheik Yousef Al-Qaradhawi for His Support of Suicide Operations and States: The Holocaust Was Exaggerated and Is Used to Extort Germany. Zionist Holocaust against Arabs Much Worse", video clip, July 2007

2008

• The U.S. alleges it wants to democratize [the Middle East] whilst it seeks to reverse election results not legally or through polls, but by force, fostering chaos and supporting, financing and arming the corrupt.
  • Al Jazeera Talk to Jazeera - Khaled Meshaal March 5, 2008.

About

• I don't believe that he's a terrorist. He's strongly in favor of the peace process.
  • Jimmy Carter, the former U.S. President (5 May 2015).[1]