Appendix 06
(Hamas Election Manifesto
for the Legislative Elections held on 25 January 2006)
In the name of Allah Most Gracious Most Merciful
Change and Reform List
"I only desire (your) betterment to the best of my power; and my success (in my task) can only come from Allah. In Him I trust, and unto Him I look."
(Hud: Verse 88)
Election Manifesto
For the elections of the Palestinian Legislative Council
2006
Islam is the solution
A hand builds and a hand resists
Yes to protecting the program of resistance
Yes to the freedom of the prisoners
Yes to rebuilding what occupation has destroyed
Yes to change and yes to reform
Introduction
Emanating from the belief that we stand at one of Islam’s greatest fronts; in fulfillment of our responsibility toward our struggling people and their sacred and just cause; stemming from our duty to contribute to reforming the Palestinian reality so as to ease the suffering of our valiant people, bolster their steadfastness and protect them from the ills of corruption; and in the hope of reinforcing national unity and bolstering internal Palestinian ranks, we have taken the decision to participate in the Palestinian legislative elections of 2006.
The Change and Reform List believes that its participation in the legislative elections at this time and in the shade of the reality endured by the Palestinian cause falls within the framework of the comprehensive program for the liberation of Palestine, the return of the Palestinian people to their lands and homes and the establishment of the Palestinian independent state with Jerusalem its capital. This participation is intended to be an act of support for the program of resistance and Intifada which our have happily resorted to as a strategic option to end the occupation.
The Change and Reform List seeks to build an advanced Palestinian civil society that is based on political pluralism and the alternation of power and seeks to direct the Palestinian political system and its political reform program in a manner that would accomplish the national rights of the Palestinian people while bearing in mind the existence of the heavy, detested and oppressive occupation in our land and people and taking into consideration its overt interventions in every single detail of Palestinian life.
Our List’s program is hereby submitted as a gesture of loyalty to our forbearing masses who see in this approach a wholesome alternative, who consider the Hamas movement to its hope for a better future and who see in this list an honest leadership for a better tomorrow God-willing.
The Almighty Allahs says: “Verily, this is My Way leading straight: follow it; follow not (other) paths: they will scatter you about from His (great) Path; thus does He command you, that you may be righteous.” (Al-An'am; verse 153)
First: Our Invariables
Our List (The Change and Reform List) adopts a number of invariables that stem from the Islamic frame of reference. We believe these invariables to be unanimously agreed upon not only by our Palestinian people but also by our Arab and Islamic Ummah. These invariables are:
1. Islam and civilizational achievements constitute our frame of reference and way of life with all its political, economic, social and legal dimensions.
2. Historic Palestine is part of the Arab and Islamic land; it is the right of the Palestinian people that never vanishes with the progression of time and no military or alleged legal procedures alter this fact.
3. The Palestinian people are united in a single unit wherever they may be living and are an inseparable part of the Arab and Islamic Ummah. [Verily, this Ummah (Brotherhood) of yours is a single Ummah, and I am your Lord and Cherisher: therefore serve Me (and no other).] (Al-Anbiya'; verse 92)
4. Our Palestinian people are still living through the phase of national liberation; they have the right to endeavor to regain their rights and end the occupation using all available means including armed resistance. We must dedicate all our resources to support the steadfastness of our people and provide it with all the necessary means of defeating the occupation and establishing the independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.
5. All the Palestinian refugees and deportees have right to return to their lands and properties. The right to self-determination and all our national rights are considered inalienable rights; they are fixed and cannot be compromised by any political concessions.
6. Full adherence to out people’s inalterable and genuine rights in the land, Jerusalem, the holy places, water, borders and a fully sovereign Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.
7. Reinforcing and protecting national Palestinian unity is one of the priorities of national Palestinian action.
8. The issue of the prisoners and the detainees tops the list of the priorities of Palestinian action.
Second: In Domestic Policy
At the level of the domestic policy that governs Palestinian political life with all its dimensions we aspire to accomplish the following priorities which we consider a guarantee for a future that befits the struggle and sacrifices of our people and that would bolster their steadfastness in pursuit of comprehensive liberation and the aspired reform:
1. Preserving national Palestinian invariables and resisting any attempt to compromise them or concede them.
2. Preserving the Palestinian presence in Jerusalem and supporting it politically, economically, socially and culturally; resisting the enemy’s attempts to judaize Jerusalem; and protecting the Islamic and Christian Palestinian holy cites from Zionist desecration.
3. Political liberties, pluralism, the freedom to form political parties, resorting for arbitration to the ballot boxes and the peaceful alternation of power are considered the best framework for regulating Palestinian political activity and the guarantee for reform, combating corruption and building an advanced Palestinian civil society.
4. Deepening the ropes of national unity, adopting dialogue and resorting to logic in addressing internal disputes and prohibiting fighting and all forms of the use of force or the threat to use it within the domestic framework.
5. Establish respect for public liberties (the freedom of expression, press freedom, the freedom of assembly, the freedom of movement, the freedom of work, etc.) as the living reality of the Palestinian people.
6. Palestinian blood is one of the taboos within Palestinian society; dialogue is the only acceptable method for resolving internal Palestinian disputes.
7. Prohibiting political detention and rejecting the confiscation of the right to express an opinion.
8. Protecting the institutions of civil society and vitalizing their role in development and in monitoring and inspection.
9. Correcting and rationalizing the role of the security agencies in protecting the security of the citizen, putting an end to erroneous and arbitrary practices, guaranteeing the liberties of citizens, protecting private and public properties and subjecting the practices of these agencies to the control and accountability of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC).
10. Security collaboration, or the so-called security coordination, with the occupation is a crime against the homeland and against religion; it should be severely punishable.
11. Protecting the resistance and vitalizing its role in resisting the occupation and accomplishing the mission of liberation.
12. Building the decent Palestinian human being who is proud of his or her religion, land, freedom and dignity and who is willing to sacrifice the precious and the dear in the Cause of Allah.
13. Vitalizing resistance against the construction of the Apartheid wall of separation until it is brought down; all available means should be employed including international institutions and courts of justice.
14. Guaranteeing the rights of minorities and respecting them in all fields on the basis of equal citizenship rights.
15. Public funds, of all types, are the property of the Palestinian people and should be used in financing comprehensive Palestinian development in a geographically fair manner that would serve social justice away from abuse, extravagance, looting, corruption and embezzlement.
16. The prisoners, the wounded and the martyrs are the symbol of Palestinian sacrifice; caring for them and their families and seeking the release of the prisoners top the priorities in our national agenda.
17. Raising the efficiency of the institutions that specialize in supporting the prisoners and their families and the families of the martyrs and the wounded. The prisoner and the martyr will be treated as if they were still in employment and will be paid a stipend equivalent to the salary they would receive from employment in the civil service.
18. Preserving Palestinian Islamic and Christian endowments, protecting them from aggression and manipulation and developing them in a manner that would conform to the moral and material value of these endowments that are spread across the whole of Palestine.
19. Renovating the relationship between the PLO and the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) in a manner that should serve the national Palestinian objectives and respect the relevant fields of specialization.
Third: In External Relations
1. Consolidate relations with the Arab and Islamic world in all fields for being the strategic depth of Palestine and opening up to the rest of the world countries.
2. Revitalize the role of the Arab and Islamic masses in supporting the resistance of our people against occupation and in rejecting normalization with it.
3. Reject racial, territorial or sectarian claims that seek to divide the Ummah.
4. Establish balanced political relations with the family of nations in a manner that would guarantee an active participation in the international community, preserve the unity of the Ummah and (achieve) its advancement, protect the rights (of the Ummah) and its causes, foremost of which is the Palestinian cause, and deter any aggression it.
5. Emphasize at all international levels in all world forums the illegitimacy of the occupation and all that comes out of it.
6. Consider occupation to be the ugliest form of terrorism and resisting it with all means a right that is guaranteed by Divine religions and internal law.
7. Call on all the good peoples and powers in the world to join together in an alliance to establish a just world peace that is based on ridding the world of all forms of occupation and of the remnants of colonialism and preventing foreign intervention in peoples’ internal affairs.
8. Restore respect for the Palestinian rights in Arab and international circles, especially the right to be free from occupation, the right of the refugees to return home and the right to establish a fully sovereign Palestinian state and to press for the issuance of resolutions and positions that support these rights.
9. Call on the international community to contribute effectively to supporting the rebuilding of towns and villages and to provide them with the necessary infrastructure.
10. Reject conditional grants that are only given in exchange for compromising our national invariables and seek earnestly to find honorable alternatives.
Fourth: In Administrative Reform and Fighting Corruption
1. Eliminate all forms of corruption, consider it a main contributing factor to weakening the internal Palestinian front and to undermining the foundations of national unity and pursue the investigation into administrative and financial corruption in prelude to referring the culprits to the courts of law.
2. Enhance transparency, monitoring, auditing and accountability in dealing with matters pertaining to the budget in all of its phases (planning, preparation, discussion, endorsement and implementation.)
3. Modernizing administrative rules and systems in a manner that would enhance the efficiency of administrative departments so as to contribute to providing services with ease and comfort at all levels.
4. Implement the concepts of decentralization, the delegation of authority and sharing in the process of decision-making.
5. Reformulate the policy of employment in the civil service in a manner that would guarantee equal opportunities for all the children of the Palestinian people on the basis of qualifications and fight resorting to nepotism, partisan favoritism and red tape in appointments and promotions in all government departments and public agencies.
6. Form a national parliamentary committee to inspect the dispensing of Palestinian endowment funds, both Islamic and Christian, in order to guarantee proper conduct and enable to accomplish its goals.
7. Fight slackness in government performance and the wastage of public funds and endeavor to bolster the sense of responsibility at all levels of employment. (Each of you is a shepherd [guardian] and each of you is responsible for his flock – as stated in a Prophetic hadith).
8. Adopting the policy of "where have you acquired this from?" in order to call to account those employed in the civil service.
Fifth: In Legislative Policy and Judicial Reform
1. Establish Islamic Shari'ah as the main source of legislation in Palestine.
2. Emphasize the separation among the three powers: the legislative, the executive and the judiciary.
3. Revitalize the role of the Constitutional Court.
4. Seek to enact legislations that would take into consideration the specificity of the values and heritage of the Palestinian people.
5. Establish a judicial training institute.
6. Restructure the Supreme Judicial Council so that its members are elected from among the judges of Palestine on the basis of qualifications and experience with no consideration for political or social factionalism or personal interests.
7. Enact laws aimed at vitalizing judiciary inspection so as to achieve effective auditing within the judiciary at all levels.
8. Enact laws that would bar the politicization of the General Prosecution and would ensure the observance of the parameters of qualification, inspection, review and accountability.
9. Amend the law pertaining to civil and commercial trials and the law of penal procedures so as to prevent the prolonging of court procedures, limit the number of adjourned cases and determine an upper time limit for each type of cases and for the period of adjournment.
10. Reinforce democracy and shura in the various fields and positions and achieve effective participation.
11. Put an end to the encroachment of any government on the constitution through the issuing of temporary laws or repetitive amendments or by delaying the implementation of laws or other forms of abuses.
12. Confront any legislations or agreement with the enemy that contravene the rights of our Palestinian people.
Sixth: In Public Liberties and Citizen Rights
1. Implement the principle that citizens are equal before the law and that they are equal in rights and duties.
2. Provide each citizen with security and with protection for his or her life and properties; no citizen should be subjected to arbitrary detention or torture or revenge.
3. End the intervention of the security agencies in the issuing of licenses for publications, research centres and public opinion polling institutions and stop their intervention in employment.
4. Reinforce the culture of dialogue and respect for all opinions that do not contradict the people’s faith or their civilizational heritage and construct an information policy that is based on the principles of freedom of thought and expression, fairness and accommodation of diversity, pluralism and the right to choose.
5. Protect the rights of special categories (the prisoners and their families, the families of the martyrs, women, children, the disabled and the poor.)
6. Provide care for media institutions and guarantee the right of journalists to acquire information and to publish it.
7. Protect the freedom to form trade unions, preserve the independence of the trade unions and avoid all forms of hegemony.
8. Recognize political forces, encourage them and benefit from their role and support the various institutions of civil society.
9. Adopt the principle of equal opportunities and appointing the right person to the right position.
Seventh: In Educational Policy
Since education is the foundation for building the generation that is capable of sketching the future of the homeland and accomplishing the dream of freedom, liberation and independence, our List will seek to do the following:
1. Observe the foundations on which the philosophy of education in Palestine is based. These include the principle that Islam is a comprehensive system that attends to all aspects of life and that dignifies the human being striking a balance between individual rights and community rights.
2. Implement the rules pertaining to mandatory education and expand secondary education in both branches the vocational and the academic.
3. Develop the curricula and schooling methods in conformity with the philosophy and objectives of education in Palestine and according to the needs of the age.
4. Pay attention to the humanities and focus on languages especially the Arabic language at various levels.
5. Establish the ethics of the teaching profession, respect the rights of the teachers and develop their skills.
6. Enact legislations aimed at protecting the teaching and academic process in universities and higher education institutions from abuse, moodiness and favoritism.
7. Establish and develop institutions that specialize in providing care to the talented, high achievers and those with extraordinary capabilities.
8. Develop the foundations of higher education and support scientific research including the establishment of the Palestinian Scientific Research Centre.
9. Stop the use of school facilities for more than one term per day and increase the number of schools.
10. Reduce the number of pupils per class and the number of pupils per teacher at all levels of education especially in the elementary level.
11. Encourage the formation of student unions and provide them with support and with the appropriate climate so as to play their aspired role and so as for schools and universities to remain bastions of national action.
12. Provide all schools with sporting and cultural facilities as well as with laboratories and computers.
13. Provide schools across the homeland with the various specialties by attracting migrant Palestinian talents and training those who live inside the homeland.
14. Encourage scouting activities and internal tourism and include them in the educational requirements especially as part of the curriculum of national education.
15. Encourage private educational institutions at all levels (pre-university) because of the savings they contribute to the state budget and the competition they provoke within the educational sector as a whole.
16. Permit the licensing of quality non-profit private universities so as to encourage competition which in turn contributes to enhancing qualifications and to keeping our students at home with substantial savings to our economy.
17. Attend to vocational, technical and agricultural education and training.
18. Develop the educational strategies so as to focus on qualification and shun all forms of favoritism in employment. The quality of those graduating from the educational system will be considered first and foremost.
19. Support Needy University Students Fund and develop its mechanisms so as to have a higher level of transparency and objectivity and deliver aim to those who deserve it.
Eighth: In the Subject of Admonition and Guidance
1. Improve the efficiency of preachers and religious guides, equate their status with that of their peers in other ministries, provide them with rewarding incentives and formulate the rules and guidelines that achieve fairness.
2. End all forms of security intervention in this apparatus, enable the working scholars to perform their roles and end the policy of exclusion.
3. Review the Law of Admonition and Guidance so as to provide those who have the knowledge and the qualifications to perform their religious and national duties.
4. Care for the mosques, build more of them and reinvigorate their missionary and educational role in society.
5. Attend to the issues pertaining to hajj and umrah (pilgrimage) in order to enable pilgrims to perform their rituals with ease and comfort.
Ninth: In Social Policy
1. Support the correct foundation and cohesion of the Palestinian family so as to constitute the solid foundation that preserves our social values and moral ethics.
2. Establish social solidarity and encourage and expand the existing Social Protection Network so as to guarantee the social and political stability of both the family and the society and bolster the elements of steadfastness.
3. Provide social services (education, health and social security) and other public services to all citizens without discrimination, favoritism or partisanship.
4. Unify the pension system so as to achieve equality and fairness among pensioners.
5. With regard to Personal Status Law and Shari'ah Courts:
There is a need to enact a single law derived from Shari'ah texts and from the recognized jurisprudential schools and to opt for what suits best the needs of the Palestinian Muslim society in the modern era.
Enact legislations pertaining to the Shari'ah courts of various levels so as to be implemented in a unified manner (in Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip) including the laws of endowment, inheritance and non-Muslim sects.
Seek a reasonable representation of the Shari'ah courts in the Palestinian Constitutional Court.
6. Preserve the social fabric of the Palestinian people and public morality, guarantee that social invariables are not violated and prevent any measures or legislations that may undermine them.
7. Support the social institutions that care for the various sections of society such as women, children, orphans, the poor and those with special needs.
8. Develop educational and vocational training centres and institutions to care for the prisoners when still in captivity and then when freed so as to integrate them into society and enable them to contribute to the development of the homeland.
9. Provide comprehensive educational and health care to the families of the martyrs and prisoners and all the needy segments of society.
10. Revitalize, organize and develop the zakat committeese.
11. Combat poverty by pursuing justice in wealth distribution and encourage charitable associations and lift restrictions that may impede their activities.
12. Develop systems of social security so as to help eliminate poverty and maintain social harmony in the Palestinian society.
13. Combat narcotics and intoxicants and all forms of corruption through education, awareness programs and exercising the law.
14. Support the institutions that care for the handicapped and those with special needs and develop programs to facilitate their integration into society.
15. Adopt a clear policy that would care for the human element inside the various departments by means of developing the human labor force and achieve job security and psychological stability for the workers.
16. Revitalize reconciliation committees and support them financially for they play an important role in resolving disputes among members of the community and in restoring climates of amicability and harmony among feuding parties.
Tenth: In Cultural and Media Policy
By virtue of the significant role played by cultural institutions and the media in forming the convictions and thoughts of citizens and hence the identity of the Ummah, our List will pursue the following:
1. Establish the media policy on the principles of the freedoms of thought and expression and on the value of honesty.
2. Immune the citizens, especially growing up young people, against corruption, Westernization and intellectual invasion and combat cultural normalization.
3. Facilitate the tasks of journalists and the mass media and guarantee the right of the masses to learn the truth.
4. End the intervention of the security agencies in the issuing of licenses for publications, research centres and public opinion polling institutions.
5. Elevate the level of public knowledge and awareness of rights, duties, responsibilities and their consequences.
6. Revitalize the public sector media and liberate them from factionalism and bolstering professionalism and transparency in their programs.
7. Found a public foundation, and encourage the founding of private ones, to specialize in Palestinian heritage, modern history and holy places.
8. Direct the official media to contribute to the advancement of Palestinian society and bolster its steadfastness. These media will be turned into pulpits expressing in truth the struggle of the Palestinian people and the nobility of their cause. They will be encouraged to provide a spacious platform for politicians, thinkers and journalists to raise the issues freely but without infringing on the national invariables.
Eleventh: In the Questions of Women, Children and the Family
1. Protection and Care for children emphasizing their right to proper bringing up, nutrition, physical and psychological care, guidance and education.
2. The Palestinian woman is a partner in jihad and resistance as well as in building and development.
3. Guarantee women rights and accomplish the legislative framework for supporting them and endeavor to enable women to contribute in social, economic and political development.
4. Shield women with Islamic education and through making them aware of their legitimate rights and affirm the woman's independent personality that is based on chastity, decency and observance.
5. Revitalize the role of voluntary and construction women institutions which are a significant section of civil society.
6. Establish units in the countryside to teach women the weaving of carpets and mats, spinning and other such crafts to provide the rural women with job opportunities.
7. Encourage utilizing women resources in the public sphere and highlight the role of women in building the society.
8. Support the stability of the family by means of:
developing legislations specific to the working woman with the aim of achieving family stability and generational protection;
showing solidarity with the families whose houses are demolished or whose children are detained or pursued;
providing appropriate health clinics and hospitals so as to render health care to the family and attend to all the needs of maternity and childhood;
protecting women from all forms of abuse and exploitation that demean them or treat them as if they were bodies and nothing else as happens in advertising or as in the case of embroiling them in illicit activities.
Twelfth: In the issues of the youth
1. Expand the founding of youth institutions and develop those of them that already exist so as to guarantee building a wholesome youth personality and to encourage dialogue among the youth.
2. Support sports and cultural clubs, put an end to interventions in their affairs and combat negative phenomena within them.
3. Support and encourage the talented and the innovative among the youth in various fields and provide them with job opportunities each in his or her field.
4. Provide care for the youth and immunize them against corruption and immorality.
5. Provide the youth, especially university graduate, with honorable and appropriate job opportunities.
6. Enhance the participation of the youth in political, social and cultural activities and in constructive arts.
7. Support the various sports teams so as to take part in local, Arab, Islamic and international tournaments and endeavor to construct sports halls and playgrounds to serve these ends.
Thirteenth: In Housing Policy
1. Allocate certain public property lands for the establishment of residential complexes and villages to distribute them among low earning citizens especially those whose homes were demolished or impoverished families and the families of martyrs and detainees.
2. Ease the problem of housing for low earners and ease the problem of crowding in housing especially inside the Gaza Strip and in some areas within the West Bank.
3. Encourage the construction of functional housing complexes that are annexed to public service institutions such as schools, hospitals, universities and other general facilities.
4. The equitable distribution of charitable housing premises so as to encourage benefactors to continue funding such projects.
5. Activate the construction sector by means of providing funding housing projects and public buildings projects in order to speedily contribute to:
Solving the problem of unemployment among the Palestinians who used to be employed in Israel, especially that most of them possess experience and talents in construction;
Reduce the rental bill the government pays for the buildings it occupies and consequently alleviate some of the burden borne by the budget and divert the resources to other priorities;
Develop social services by means of providing new premises or expanding existing ones especially in the sectors of education and healthcare.
6. Provide housing for junior civil servants and low earners at cost price or with interest free loans, encourage housing contracts and remedying cases of insolvency.
7. Adopt structural and regional plans for Palestinian towns and villages.
Fourteenth: In Health Policy
1. Reform the health insurance system and make it available to all citizens starting with the poor who are in more need.
2. Set a time plan for achieving medical sufficiency in all fields so as to prevent the expenditure of public funds on treatment abroad.
3. Expand the services of primary healthcare and public health centres to facilitate medical treatment and ease the burden on citizens in villages and small towns.
4. Develop public health services so as to surpass in quality the services provided by the private sector.
5. Draw the necessary plans to expand the construction of fully integrated hospitals depending on the needs of various regions.
6. Achieve a balance in specializations and expertise in hospitals and an equitable distribution of qualified personnel and equipment in all regions.
7. Provide rewarding incentives to doctors, nurses and other workers in the health sector who work in rural areas as well as to those with rare specializations in the health sector.
8. Encourage private and specialized health services.
9. Elevate the standard of the health sector (doctors, pharmacists, nurses and health administrators) to meet the needs and requirements of the Palestinian society.
10. Provide the appropriate health facilities to care for the wounded and the handicapped who were hit along the path of Palestinian jihad without discrimination among various segments of the Palestinian people.
11. Provide the free and appropriate healthcare to the families of the martyrs, the wounded, the invalids and the captives.
12. Endeavor to provide a clean environment by means of developing the culture of public cleanliness, planting trees along the roads and in public parks and encouraging private and public gardening.
13. Protect the environment and stop Palestinian environmental deterioration in coordination with international agencies and resist the continuing environmental pollution of the Palestinian lands as a result of the practices undertaken by the occupation and by Zionist settlements and expose these practices at the international level.
14. Maintain the Gaza coast so as to remain clean, pleasant and suitable for summer vacationing and tourism, stop infringements on it such as refuse dumping and prevent environmental pollution emanating from the pumping of household and industrial drainage into the sea.
15. Follow up the studies that have been prepared for the purpose of getting rid of the environmental disaster that emanated from the existence of treatment pools to the north of the Gaza Strip, allocate new land to increase the number of "refuse dumping sites" in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank and establish projects to make use of the refuse.
Fifteenth: In Agricultural Policy
1. Develop the agricultural sector and animal resources in the direction of achieving food security for the Palestinian people in prelude to accomplishing a surplus in production for export purposes.
2. Endeavor to categorize lands in Palestine, determine their agricultural uses such as for growing citruses, grains, fruits, etc., and enacting the necessary legislations for developing them.
3. Restructure and revitalize the farmers union across all the provinces so as to contribute to implementing the agricultural policies that are aimed at advancing this important sector.
4. Endeavor to adopt an agricultural loaning system to replace the interest-based system and encourage in-kind agricultural loaning.
5. Endeavor to bolster coordination among the concerned agencies within the agricultural sector with regard to policy making, production, manufacture and marketing and seek to open up Arab and international markets for Palestinian agricultural produce as part of the available preferential treatment agreements.
6. Adopt the approach of comprehensive rural development as a framework for agricultural development by means of providing the necessary infrastructure for agricultural projects.
7. Encourage the establishment of food processing projects so as to make use of leftovers; and develop the quality of locally produced seeds, insecticides and fertilizers.
8. Attend to the fisheries industry and protect the rights of fishermen.
9. Regulate the import, marketing and use of insecticides and agricultural or veterinary medications; rationalize the use of chemical fertilizers; and provide agricultural guidance services.
10. Encourage the reclaim of lands and support farming and irrigating them.
11. Endeavor to develop animal resources and bridge the gap between demand and supply.
12. Monitor the performance of the "Costal Water" Authority so as to serve the best interests of the homeland and the citizens.
Sixteenth: In Economic, Fiscal and Monetary Policy
The Almighty Allah says: "Those who, when they spend, are not extravagant and not niggardly, but hold a just (balance) between those (extremes)." (Al-Furqan; verse 67)
The Almighty also says: "Allah will deprive usury of all blessing, but will give increase for deeds of charity; for He loves not creatures ungrateful and wicked." (Al-Baqarah; verse 67)
1. Achieve economic and monetary independence and disengage with the Zionist entity and its economy and currency by ending the subordination to it and seeking to issue a Palestinian currency.
2. Review economic and fiscal legislations and regulations.
3. Provide the appropriate legal and procedural environment to encourage investment and enact additional and vital economic laws such as the law of preventing monopoly and the law of customs.
4. Endeavor to establish a "resisting economy" and encourage self-dependency; shun extravagance and abuse; and avoid unproductive projects or those that damage social and moral matrices such as nightclubs, gambling parlors, etc.
5. Thoroughly considered distribution of projects and expanding their geographic and human zones so as to protect them and lessen the likelihood of action by the enemy aimed at striking these projects or imposing siege or sanctions.
6. Reconsider the international economic agreements taking into consideration the special circumstances of the Palestinian economy. The following are among the most important agreements that will be reviewed:
Paris economic agreement
Free trade agreement with the United States of America
Partnership agreement with the European Union
Economic cooperation agreements with Egypt and Jordan
7. Develop economic and trade relations with the Arab and Islamic world through the conclusion of preferential trade agreements that would contribute to the development of Palestinian economy and assist it in ending its subordination to the Israeli economy.
8. Formulate economic policies (fiscal, monetary, operational, commercial, industrial and agricultural) that seek (during the term of the PLC which lasts four years) to accomplish balanced economic development, bolster local resources, protect vulnerable groups, preserve social solidarity, stabilize prices and wages, combat poverty, reduce unemployment, keep inflation under control, achieve economic growth and improve individual standard of living.
9. Develop the infrastructure so as to meet the requirements of the industrial and agricultural and public services sectors; concentrate on training and qualifying the Palestinian labor force so as to fulfill the needs of the Palestinian market and consequently solve the problem of dependence on the Israeli market for employment.
10. Protect public properties and assets and utilize them in a manner that would bring general benefit to current and future generations. This requires the implementation of an ambitious program of fiscal and administrative reform in PNA agencies and departments and the use of international aid in the best possible way so as to accomplish the objectives of comprehensive development away from extravagance and misappropriation and would as a result achieve social justice.
11. Review the prices of gas and other petroleum products and of electricity, telephone and water so as to alleviate the burden borne by citizens.
12. Attend to Palestinian production sectors through the implementation of the recommendations of serious scientific studies especially those that seek to develop the internal resources of the Palestinian economy.
13. Develop the Palestinian trade and customs policy so as to suit the developmental posture of the Palestinian economy and the objectives of Palestinian foreign trade.
14. Reformulate the income tax law so as for tax to become 'ascending' and therefore ease the burden on low earners; and amend indirect taxation in the Palestinian economy and reduce the value added tax so as to correspond to the Palestinian growth level.
Seventeenth: In Questions pertaining to Labor and Laborers
1. Respect, develop and encourage the activities of trade unions and specialized professional associations.
2. Setting a minimum wage limit for the various labor sectors so as to guarantee an acceptable standard of decent living.
3. Implement a serious national plan to deal with the phenomenon of unemployment. The plan should rely on developing the local resources of the Palestinian economy and the appropriate use of funds (whether local or through international aid).
4. Disseminate labor culture and awareness of rights and duties among all workers in the various sectors using different legitimate means and methods.
5. Include workers in all sectors in the comprehensive health insurance system.
6. Develop the law of labor and laborers so as to guarantee the rights of laborers including their right to form and join trade unionist activity and in a manner that would dispense justice to all workers in the various production sectors.
7. Link workers' wages and salaries to the inflation index.
Eighteenth: Transport and Passages
1. Rehabilitate all the roads across the homeland in accordance with modern specifications.
2. Construct new roads among towns and villages; citizens prejudiced reserve the right to be compensated.
3. Affirm the importance of active and free communication between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
4. Open free passages between Palestine and Egypt and between Palestine and Jordan and reject any degree of foreign intervention in these passages.
5. Endeavor to open the port and the airport so as to contribute to the development of the Palestinian economy and serve the facilitate communication among the children of the one people inside and outside.
Conclusion
The blessed Al-Aqsa Intifada has created new facts on the ground that rendered the Oslo program a thing of the past and different parties, including the Zionist occupation, have already spoken about "burying Oslo." Our people today are more united, more aware and more invincible. Hamas is approaching the elections having, with the help of Allah and in cooperation with all the honorable ones, reinforced the method of resistance and engraved it in the minds, hearts and souls of our people.
Brothers and sisters the voters,
This is our manifesto which we submit to you. We share your ambition and place our hand in yours. We do not claim to create miracles and we do not possess a magic stick.
However, together we aim and proceed toward achieving our national project along the path toward our greater goals: a single, free and guided Ummah.
Brothers and sisters the voters,
The responsibility is mutual and righteous deeds are raised and blessed by the Almighty Allah.
Our approach relies on trustworthy and qualified representatives who pledge sincerity to Allah and loyalty to Him, to the people and to the cause. So, rest assured that they will fulfill their promises and prove to be truthful to their slogans.
Brothers and sisters the voters,
When you stand before the ballot box, remember your responsibility when you meet the Almighty Allah. You are entrusted with your vote in choosing your representative to the Legislative Council. When this representative speaks and discusses issues pertaining to religion, to the homeland and to future he or she acts on your behalf. So, make sure you make the right choice through which you aim to please your Lord and your Prophet peace be upon him. "Truly the best of persons for you to employ is the (one) who is strong and trusty."
Yes, make the right choice for your happiness and the happiness of your people, God-willing.
"Islam is the Solution"
This is our path toward change and reform
Our program is our means to rebuild the society that has been destroyed by occupation and to protect its resistance
Our program is our course toward bolstering Islamic-national unity along the path of full liberation
Our program is the program of the entire people and the entire homeland
[And say: "Work (righteousness): soon will Allah observe your work, and His Messenger, and the Believers: soon will you be brought back to the Knower of what is hidden and what is open: then will He show you the truth of all that you did.]
(Al-Tawbah; verse 105)
Brothers and sisters the voters,
Your vote is a trust, so testify nothing but the truth