Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
Photo: AFP
Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh
Photo: AP
Olmert calls Haniyeh a 'terrorist'
Prime minister tells Time Magazine Palestinian prime minister Haniyeh transferred $1 million to gunmen to carry out attacks against Israel
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
called Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas a "terrorist" and accused him of transferring more than $1 million to Palestinian gunmen to carry out attacks against Israel.
Israel has been urging other countries to shun Haniyeh and the government, citing Hamas's refusal to recognise the Jewish state and renounce violence.
Haniyeh aide Ghazi Hamad said Olmert's statements were "confused and irresponsible".
Olmert's allegations, in an interview with Time magazine released on Friday, marked a sharp escalation in an Israeli campaign against Haniyeh and the unity government he formed with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction this month.
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"Just lately Haniyeh transferred over a million dollars for a group of terrorists to carry out terrorist actions against Israeli citizens," Olmert said.
"He's a terrorist. You have a terrorist who is prime minister of the Palestinian Authority now."
Olmert said the funds came from outside the Palestinian territories and were transferred to one of Hamas's armed wings for the "explicit purpose of carrying out terrorist actions".
He offered no other details about the transfer.
An Israeli security source said Israel believes that Haniyeh was directly involved in the decision to make the transfer, which took place in recent weeks. The money was not taken from the Palestinian government, the source said.
According to Olmert, Abbas said "time and again that 'I will not agree to have a government with Haniyeh as prime minister.'"
It was not immediately clear where Abbas had made such statements.
Olmert has vowed to shun the Palestinian unity government and has urged other countries to follow suit. He has agreed to meet Abbas every two weeks.
In a March 2006 interview with Ynet, Olmert called Haniyeh an "enemy" but said there was no evidence he was involved in Hamas's "terror" operations.
Olmert said at the time that Israel could target Haniyeh if the senior Hamas leader got involved in militant attacks.
Hamad brushed aside Olmert's comments in Time. "It seems that the Arab and international support for the unity government has provoked and angered Olmert, and has pushed him to take a confused and irresponsible position," he said.
"The terrorist is the one who kills children, raids villages and (refugee) camps, builds settlements and confiscates the land. It is not Ismail Haniyeh."
The Quartet of Middle East mediators -- the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations -- has demanded the Palestinian government recognise Israel, renounce violence and accept interim peace agreements with Israel.
The unity government's program contains a promise to "respect" previous Israeli-Palestinian pacts but does not call for recognising Israel and says resistance against the Jewish state in "all its forms" is a legitimate right.
