Hamas says BG plan to pump gas to Israel an ‘act of theft’

TimesOnline reported The militant Hamas movement has launched a stinging attack on BG Group and vowed to block a potential £2 billion deal being brokered by the company to supply Palestinian gas to Israel.

This is the same Hamas that is complaining because the US and the EU stopped sending money to support the Palestinian Authority, and now we find that Allah provided a way for them to earn money, and Hamas is so mad at Israel that it won't even accept this gift from Allah.

The Islamist group told The Times that any agreement would be equivalent to a modern-day “Balfour Declaration” – the British Government statement that formally approved the creation of an Israeli homeland in 1917.

Islam was spread by Conquest, i.e. taking over other countries by force. The Balfour Declaration was where the victor Britain decided to give away some land it won from the Ottoman Empire in the aftermath of the World War I. Initially Israel was to get all of what is now Israel, Palestine, and Jordan. I believe things would have been a lot better if they had gotten all of that land. They could have arranged for moving all of the Arabs from the west side of the Jordan to the east side, and then given them their freedom and allowed to form a state there.

Ziad Thatha, the Hamas economic minister in the Palestinian Government, said: “BG Group is an embarrassment to the Palestinian people.

Is BG Group made up of Palestinian people? If not, how could it be an embarrassment to them?

“When a company sells Palestinian gas to the Zionist occupation, it is similar to acts of theft the Israelis are practising against our land every day.”

Paying for something is the same as theft? Muslims have a very strange idea of how to do business.

The comments threaten to overshadow key negotiations BG Group hoped would lead to the development of the Gaza Marine gas field it discovered seven years ago. Talks over a 15-year contract are due to begin next week and the Israeli Foreign Ministry said it was keen to conclude a deal “as soon as possible”. The Gaza Marine field is Palestine’s only sovereign natural resource and its development could generate £500 million for the Palestinian economy in royalties from BG Group.

And could the Palestinian economy not benefit from that money?

The gas would meet 10 per cent of Israel’s annual energy requirements. BG Group said that its priority was thrashing out a deal acceptable to the Israeli and Palestinian authorities. “We need a bilateral agreement for this project to get across the line,” a spokesman said.

However, Hamas controls a majority of the seats in the Palestinian Government. The more moderate Fatah Party reiterated yesterday that it wanted guarantees over how cash payments would be made before signing off any deal.

And Fatah probably wants to know how much of it it can steal.

Mohammad Mustafa, the economic adviser to Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian President, said: “We hope that we will reach an understanding and remaining obstacles will be overcome.” BG Group had been negotiating to pump gas from the field, which holds 1 trillion cubic feet of reserves, to Egypt before Tony Blair urged the company to give Israel a second chance last summer.

Michael from Bristol commented So the Palestinians are going to turn down a £500m business deal, which would benefit its economy and population? It shows they put hatred towards Israel before the welfare of the Palestinians...

Hamas puts hatred above everything.

Besides, nobody acknowledges that Israel does provide water and electricity services to the Palestinians...surely they could cut their supplies too! Hamas accepts this but is not willing to give anything in return...

Hamas would just complain that the mean Jews were depriving it of water and electricity.