International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, Dec. 2, 2002

The European Union has offered to remove Hamas from a list of organizations deemed as terrorist if the Islamic group suspends suicide missions against Israel.

Palestinian sources said the EU offer was submitted during negotiations with Hamas leaders in the Gaza Strip and Egypt over the last month, according to the MENL news agency. The sources said an EU representative held a series of talks with Hamas in an effort to achieve a limited ceasefire over the next few months.

Earlier this month, the EU sponsored a series of talks in Cairo between Hamas and the ruling Fatah movement to discuss a ceasefire in the intifada. The talks included a series of offers from both the EU and Egypt for a suspension of attacks.

An EU negotiator was said to have offered to remove Hamas from the European list of terrorist groups. Hamas's military wing Izzedin Al Kassam was placed on the list earlier this year while the political arm was left out. According to some reports, the deal attempted to persuade Hamas terrorists to stop suicide attacks within the pre-1967 borders of Israel, arguing that such attacks damage the Palestinian cause abroad.

Meanwhile the Institute of the World Jewish Congress, the multinational representative of world Jewry has criticized Egypt’s attempts to present itself as an honest broker in negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians in the wake of the Cairo talks. Egypt, according to the WJC is seeking legitimacy for its diplomatic efforts in the US and EU, whilst actively encouraging "vicious and unremitting agitation" against Israel.

According to the Congress’ latest "Policy Dispatch," the "state-controlled Egyptian media

and Egyptian institutions of higher learning are hotbeds of anti-Semitic invective," evidenced by President Mubarak decision to defend his Government’s support for the broadcast of the "Knight without a Horse" series during Ramadan. The drama series was based on the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" - an anti-Semitic forgery dating back to Tsarist Russia, outlining a fictitious Jewish conspiracy to take over the world.

The WJC also highlights the "unprecedented wave of antisemitism that swept Western Europe in the wake of the outbreak of the latest Intifada some two years ago," but claims that it has diverted international attention away from Egypt which remains "one of the world's leading centers of antisemitic propaganda."