They are referred to in the 1988 Hamas charter.

Tamimi hoped a revision of the Hamas charter would make it a non-antisemitic document.

He insists that the Hamas charter "sounds as if it came straight from the pages of Der Stürmer."

The Hamas charter calls for Israel to be destroyed and replaced by an Islamic state.

And although the Hamas charter calls for the destruction of Israel and the liberation of Palestine "from the river to the sea," the party's campaign manifesto made no mention of these goals.

The Hamas charter retains poisonous language toward Israel, and the group has yet to renounce its views on the place of violence in the Palestinian resistance.

In reality, however, the vote was neither a rejection of President Abbas and his peace program nor an endorsement of the Hamas charter.

The election of Hamas has provided evidence for this view, with the Hamas charter stating unequivocally that it does not recognize Israel's right to exist.

Unlike the Hamas charter, the PLO charter recognises the legitimacy of Israel.

Today, though, the threats of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran to eradicate Israel dovetail with the Hamas charter, which denies Israel's right to exist.