DAMASCUS, Syria (AP):A PROMINENT Hamas leader, whose group achieved an overwhelming victory in legislative Palestinian elections this week, pledged yesterday to continue resistance against Israeli occupation and stressed that the group would not yet recognise the Jewish state.
"As long as there is occupation and so long as our people's rights are usurped, our stand will remain as it is. We would resist the (Israeli) occupation to restore our rights," Moussa Abu Marzouk, deputy head of the Hamas movement, said in an interview.
Hamas ideology does not recognise the existence of a Jewish state in an Islamic Middle East. In recent years, however, some Hamas leaders have grudgingly accepted the idea of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, as long as it is understood to be only a stage toward freeing all of Palestine _ including Israel.
Abu Marzouk stressed that his group does not recognise Israel "and it's not in our mind now to recognise it as we believe that it's a state that has usurped our land and expelled our people. These issues should be handled before we talk about recognition."
