PAS will not recognise the efforts of Israeli non-governmental organisations in struggling for peace in Palestine until they engage with resistence groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

The Islamic-based opposition party boycotted the international conference on 'Peace in Palestine' held in Putrajaya last week, purportedly on account of the participation of five Israeli Jews representing different peace groups in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

PAS international relations and affairs bureau head Dr Hatta Ramli said Israeli groups should engage with Hamas and Islamic Jihad to effect changes in aspects of their armed resistence, if the Israelis objected to such tactics of suicide bombings as terrorism.

Until they engage with Hamas and Islamic Jihad, PAS will likewise refuse to recognise the Israelis because Hamas and Islamic Jihad represent a large segment of the Palestinians themselves, he added

Hatta said this when met at the PAS headquarters in Kuala Lumpur over the weekend during a forum on 'Remembering One Year of the Martyrdom of Sheikh Ahmad Yasin and Abdul Aziz Al-Rantisi'.

Hamas leaders Yasin and Rantisi were assassinated in April last year by the Israeli armed forces.

Start at home

Hatta said he did not believe that the Israeli groups would help in the Palestine situation and "I don't know what they represent...I don't feel they have any support in Palestine".

"If the Israelis believe they can contribute (to a just peace in Palestine), they should start at home, consolidate with the forces that sympathise with the Palestinians and engage with the struggle on the ground. Engage with Hamas and Islamic Jihad who are facing the wrath of the Israeli forces," he said.

"They (Israelis) can be mediators in the effort to finding a just solution to Palestine. Now is the time, what with the present cease-fire and the overtures by Hamas and Islamic Jihad. This is a great opportunity for dialogue."

Hatta said if these Israelis object to Hamas' suicide bombing activities, they should engage with the groups in order to stop such activities.

"But as they are not engaged with the movement, and have condemned Hamas (as 'terrorists and suicide bombers') and are very rigid on that, it makes you wonder whether they're any better than the Israeli regime," he noted.

Hamas won 35 percent of the votes in the Palestinian municipal elections last December and are positioned to do well in future elections, as they are said to enjoy the backing of a large majority of Palestinians in the occupied territories of Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

At least 60 percent of Palestinians in the occupied territories reportedly support suicide operations against Israeli targets.

On March 28, the Palestinian Liberation Organisation's executive committee agreed to invite Hamas and Islamic Jihad to join its coalition.

Change mindset

Palestinian activist and political scientist Dr Azzam Tamimi said he believed that "it was wrong to have invited Israelis as they are still Zionists".

"I would rather engage with Jews who are anti-Zionists, not Israelis who are not willing to give Palestinians their due rights," said Azzam, the director of the UK-based Institute of Islamic Political Thought.

However, he said PAS should have participated in the conference if only to have their views and perspectives on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict noted by NGOs from around the world

"For a number of years, we refused to attend conferences where Israelis participated. But for the last several years, I have worked to change that mindset among some of us," said Azzam, who was one of the speakers at the conference.

"I think that PAS should have participated. I participated because I did not want my viewpoint to be absent, as it was a wide-ranging audience that (came and participated) in the meeting," he added.

When speaking at the PAS headquarters earlier, Azam said a meeting was arranged in Beirut recently between US officials and representatives of Hamas and the Lebanon-based resistence movement Hezbollah.

These meetings, according to him, were among moves to strike off these two groups from the US and European Union's lists of terrorist organisations.