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Why Did Abu Marzouk Retract Statements on ‘Hamas Recognizing Israel’?

Ismail Haniyeh, Hanna Nasser, and a bottle of Palestinian oil during an election committee meeting with Hamas, October 2019 (Reuters)
Ismail Haniyeh, Hanna Nasser, and a bottle of Palestinian oil during an election committee meeting with Hamas, October 2019 (Reuters)
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Why Did Abu Marzouk Retract Statements on ‘Hamas Recognizing Israel’?

Ismail Haniyeh, Hanna Nasser, and a bottle of Palestinian oil during an election committee meeting with Hamas, October 2019 (Reuters)
Ismail Haniyeh, Hanna Nasser, and a bottle of Palestinian oil during an election committee meeting with Hamas, October 2019 (Reuters)

Hamas senior official Mousa Abu Marzouk has retracted statements in which he hinted at his movement’s readiness to recognize Israel, asserting that the Palestinian group does not acknowledge the legitimacy of the occupation.

“I confirm that the Hamas movement does not recognize the legitimacy of the Israeli occupation, and does not accept giving up any of the rights of our Palestinian people,” said Marzouk in a statement distributed by Hamas.

“We affirm that the resistance will continue until liberation,” he added.

Marzouk had said in an interview with Al Monitor that Hamas “wants to be part” of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and respects its obligations.

The PLO, a coalition of Palestinian factions, recognized the state of Israel more than 30 years ago.

Respecting the principles and commitments of the region has been a longstanding point of contention for decades between the PLO and Hamas, which has consistently refused to adhere to the region’s commitments, as doing so entails recognizing Israel.

The PLO acknowledged Israel in 1993 as part of its efforts to establish a Palestinian state along the 1967 borders.

For a long time, Hamas rejected the idea of establishing a state along the 1967 borders.

However, its rhetoric has shifted in recent years, with the group now stating that it accepts such a state, albeit without recognizing Israel.

Marzouk affirmed that Hamas seeks to establish a Palestinian state along the 1967 borders.

“Israelis have rights, but not at the expense of others,” he said in the interview.

Marzouk’s retraction of his statement, a departure from typical Hamas rhetoric, was expected, as it challenged a fundamental principle of the movement.

But did Marzouk truly not mean what he said?

Observers see Hamas joining the PLO as a crucial move amid Gaza’s devastation by Israel and the US-Israel collaboration advocating “the day after the war without Hamas.”

Therefore , Marzouk’s statement may be seen as a trial balloon.

It came hours after Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh announced that the movement is open to discussing any initiatives that lead to a ceasefire in Gaza.

For decades, Hamas and the PLO remained at odds, and a series of agreements failed to alter the reality.

Hamas consistently refused to cede control of Gaza to the Palestinian Authority, relinquish its governance, and disarm.

Conversely, the Palestinian Authority rejected incorporating Hamas into the PLO without genuine reconciliation.

Disputes persisted on all matters related to the PLO, including representation percentages, elections, its structure, program, commitments, and reform.

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Climate Change Imperils Drought-Stricken Morocco’s Cereal Farmers and Its Food Supply

A farmer works in a wheat field on the outskirts of Kenitra, Morocco, Friday, June 21, 2024. (AP)
A farmer works in a wheat field on the outskirts of Kenitra, Morocco, Friday, June 21, 2024. (AP)
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Climate Change Imperils Drought-Stricken Morocco’s Cereal Farmers and Its Food Supply

A farmer works in a wheat field on the outskirts of Kenitra, Morocco, Friday, June 21, 2024. (AP)
A farmer works in a wheat field on the outskirts of Kenitra, Morocco, Friday, June 21, 2024. (AP)

Golden fields of wheat no longer produce the bounty they once did in Morocco. A six-year drought has imperiled the country's entire agriculture sector, including farmers who grow cereals and grains used to feed humans and livestock.

The North African nation projects this year's harvest will be smaller than last year in both volume and acreage, putting farmers out of work and requiring more imports and government subsidies to prevent the price of staples like flour from rising for everyday consumers.

"In the past, we used to have a bounty — a lot of wheat. But during the last seven or eight years, the harvest has been very low because of the drought," said Al Housni Belhoussni, a small-scale farmer who has long tilled fields outside of the city of Kenitra.

Belhoussni's plight is familiar to grain farmers throughout the world confronting a hotter and drier future. Climate change is imperiling the food supply and shrinking the annual yields of cereals that dominate diets around the world — wheat, rice, maize and barley.

In North Africa, among the regions thought of as most vulnerable to climate change, delays to annual rains and inconsistent weather patterns have pushed the growing season later in the year and made planning difficult for farmers.

In Morocco, where cereals account for most of the farmed land and agriculture employs the majority of workers in rural regions, the drought is wreaking havoc and touching off major changes that will transform the makeup of the economy. It has forced some to leave their fields fallow. It has also made the areas they do elect to cultivate less productive, producing far fewer sacks of wheat to sell than they once did.

In response, the government has announced restrictions on water use in urban areas — including on public baths and car washes — and in rural ones, where water going to farms has been rationed.

"The late rains during the autumn season affected the agriculture campaign. This year, only the spring rains, especially during the month of March, managed to rescue the crops," said Abdelkrim Naaman, the chairman of Nalsya. The organization has advised farmers on seeding, irrigation and drought mitigation as less rain falls and less water flows through Morocco's rivers.

The Agriculture Ministry estimates that this year's wheat harvest will yield roughly 3.4 million tons (3.1 billion kilograms), far less than last year's 6.1 million tons (5.5 billion kilograms) — a yield that was still considered low. The amount of land seeded has dramatically shrunk as well, from 14,170 square miles (36,700 square kilometers) to 9,540 square miles (24,700 square kilometers).

Such a drop constitutes a crisis, said Driss Aissaoui, an analyst and former member of the Moroccan Ministry for Agriculture.

"When we say crisis, this means that you have to import more," he said. "We are in a country where drought has become a structural issue."

Leaning more on imports means the government will have to continue subsidizing prices to ensure households and livestock farmers can afford dietary staples for their families and flocks, said Rachid Benali, the chairman of the farming lobby COMADER.

The country imported nearly 2.5 million tons of common wheat between January and June. However, such a solution may have an expiration date, particularly because Morocco's primary source of wheat, France, is facing shrinking harvests as well.

The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization ranked Morocco as the world's sixth-largest wheat importer this year, between Türkiye and Bangladesh, which both have much bigger populations.

"Morocco has known droughts like this and in some cases known droughts that las longer than 10 years. But the problem, this time especially, is climate change," Benali said.