Maan: Ahmed Yousef makes every conceivable claim about the Hamas Charter

I don't think this extended attempt to present the "fact" of the Hamas charter addresses a single statement that the Charter actually contains and that the Israelis supposedly mistranslated. Instead we get every possible claim about why it doesn't really mean what it says and why we should ignore it anyway, although it "retains its authoritative value." Let's see, it was mistranslated, taken out of context, only one elder's opinions, created to give "broad strokes direction," ratified when there was "little time . . . to pore over the minutia of . . . its religious and political terminology," and "cannot be construed to demand literal interpretation":

The Israeli occupation has never missed an opportunity to brand Hamas a fundamentalist, terrorist, racist, anti-Semitic organization. True to the Mossad motto which states "By way of deception, thou shall do war," it has excelled at taking select articles from the Islamic party's charter and using them, out of context, to justify its claims.

The Israelis have, for example, translated the charter to several languages, English and French included, intentionally perverting the substance of its tenets to suit their purposes. Those aims were to market its fraudulent translation to as many Western politicians, academics and media channels as possible; and therefore make it easier to claim security concerns as the basis for their legal infractions.

Is it my imagination, or does the first sentence of the above paragraph use the expression "for example"? Is there an actual example hidden in there somewhere?

The fear-mongering is designed to horrify the West so much that it turns a blind eye to the crimes against humanity which contravene international law.

Throughout my tenure as an adviser to Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh in the tenth and eleventh administrations (the unity government), and even after the events of June 2007 when I was assigned as a deputy minister to the Foreign Ministry, journalists and politicians consistently asked the same questions around the charter and the extent to which the government was beholden to it or intent on applying the articles within it.

Despite my consistent clarification that Hamas must be evaluated on its official actions and political positions, it is evident that the Israeli propaganda machine has over a two year period successfully brainwashed those it has targeted. Many observers have become incapable of making an impartial assessment of the significant transformations the movement has undergone; and instead have parroted the Israeli position, adopting the obstinacy of what a local colloquialism notes "is a goat, even if it has wings." [...]

The Islamic Resistance Movement, known by its Arabic acronym Hamas, was born in December 1987 with the first Intifada, or Uprising. Initially, the group mounted demonstrations against Israeli belligerence; and in order to maintain the momentum of the newly created protest culture, the group's leadership needed a platform to crystallize its views and give the "resistance generation" broad strokes direction on the principles and challenges within which they would operate against the occupation. Those early, revolutionary days represent the context within which the concept of a charter was formed.

That document was a practical response to an oppressive occupation. It reflected the views of one of the movement's elder leaders; and it was ratified during the unique circumstances of the Uprising in 1988 as a necessary framework for dealing with a relentless occupation. There was little opportunity, at that time, to pore over the minutia of either its religious and political terminology or the broader perspective of international law.

An internal committee reviewed the possibility of amending the charter during the nineties and ratifying it as a binding manifesto; yet the primary concern, that of being seen as following the Fatah route of offering up concessions on a silver platter, led the group's leadership to shelve such measures.

Instead, new ideas were proposed that reflected the movement's openness to the international community and its willingness to adopt a more realistic political view. This flexibility was evident in official speeches; and more recently in the election platform put forward by the Change & Reform Party (al-taghyeer wal islah).

Despite the group's evolution, it is an inescapable fact that the charter represents a milestone in the struggle against an occupation. At any rate, historical statements remain a testament to the past; and the charter, as a document written over two decades ago, retains its authoritative value. [...]

Got that? The supposedly "fraudulent" translation is here. Yousef's article ends with a list of statements that he wants us to take as Hamas's true principles, but no clarification or translation of any specific statement or passage in the charter.