Newsletter No. 179
February 1, 2006

 

MOFA ON HAMAS

In a press conference yesterday, MOFA Deputy Press Secretary Tomohiko Taniguchi gave a more complete reaction of the Japanese government to the electoral victory of Hamas than was available in the initial statements:

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MOFA PRESS CONFERENCE OF JANUARY 31, 2006

Q: I have a question about Hamas. Japan is one of the largest donors to Palestine, and there are calls to stop aid to Palestine. What is the Japanese position on this?

Mr. Taniguchi: You are absolutely correct in saying that Japan is one of the largest donors of financial and other support to the Palestinian Authority. Indeed, Japan is second only to the United States of America (US) if you exclude a group of nations like the EU. In 2005 alone the amount of support that the Japanese Government gave to the Palestinian Authority amounted to 3.5% of the gross domestic product (GDP) of the Palestinian region, so that was without question a large chunk of money which Japan provided to the Palestinian people.

Let me say a few words about the election. Japan sent Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Shintaro Ito to the Palestinian region as an election monitor together with 16 other specialists. Japan also provided some amount of money for educational purposes in the run-up to the election. So it is Japan among other nations which has got first-hand knowledge and insight about how the election was conducted. We have no doubt at all that the election was conducted in a very democratic fashion and very much smoothly. So what you can say is the election of Hamas is itself a product of democracy.

Now the question is whether the newly formed government within which Hamas is obviously going to have the majority is going to be an agent for democracy, is going to advocate democracy, and is going to abolish some of their policies about terrorism, in other words, whether or not they will stop being an advocate of terrorism. We are watching very much keenly what sort of position the newly created government is going to take with Israel.

With that said, it will take a month or so for the new government to really take shape. I understand that if there is anyone who was very much surprised by this result, I think it was the Hamas themselves. I think it is probably the case that inside the Hamas organization, those leaders are thinking very hard about the points I mentioned and about what sort of policies they should have after forming the new government. Japan is waiting for that to come and for that to be made clearer, but our principle is what I have just said; they should stop being an advocate of terrorist activities and they should stick to the Road Map clearly laid out for a peaceful settlement, that is to say, the two state solution.

With those points in mind, what I can say at the moment is to encourage Hamas people to become a full-fledged agent for democracy because their power within the government itself has been brought about by the implementation of democracy, not by terrorist activities. That is pretty much what I can say at the moment.

Q: What would happen if Hamas does not follow these conditions such as a two state solution?

Mr. Taniguchi: I know that there is such a possibility, but we are hoping that that is not the situation that would evolve and take shape. I said we are not discouraging but encouraging the Hamas people and the newly created government to really stick to the peace process and to become an agent for peace and democracy.