A more moderate Hamas?
As I mentioned earlier this week, NPR's Linda Gradstein let me tag along with her on a reporting trip on Monday into Ramallah, where we met with Palestinian legislator Abed Al Jabir Mustafa Fukaha, a member of Hamas. It was a little disconcerting to listen to the 40-year-old father of three. I was thinking, "This is a ...
As I mentioned earlier this week, NPR's Linda Gradstein let me tag along with her on a reporting trip on Monday into Ramallah, where we met with Palestinian legislator Abed Al Jabir Mustafa Fukaha, a member of Hamas. It was a little disconcerting to listen to the 40-year-old father of three. I was thinking, "This is a man that millions of people consider to be a terrorist," yet he was soft-spoken, intelligent, and reasonable. Fukaha lives in the West Bank, where Hamas members tend to be more moderate -- and also less powerful -- than their brethren in Gaza.
As I mentioned earlier this week, NPR's Linda Gradstein let me tag along with her on a reporting trip on Monday into Ramallah, where we met with Palestinian legislator Abed Al Jabir Mustafa Fukaha, a member of Hamas. It was a little disconcerting to listen to the 40-year-old father of three. I was thinking, "This is a man that millions of people consider to be a terrorist," yet he was soft-spoken, intelligent, and reasonable. Fukaha lives in the West Bank, where Hamas members tend to be more moderate — and also less powerful — than their brethren in Gaza.
He described how the Palestinians are in a crisis situation. With the U.S. and EU putting the brakes on the inflow of cash, and with the pledged donations from Russia and Qatar having no way of getting distributed to the people, Palestinian civil servants are now into their second month without salaries. Unemployment is over 70%, and schools are starting to empty because teachers aren't getting paid, and children can no longer afford the bus fare to get there. Fukaha says his government's first priority is getting salaries paid, then after that, tackling reform. He says the world needs to give Hamas a chance to show that it can govern. I have to run, but I'll get into more of what he said in a post later today.
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