Hamas supporters carrying the picture of Prime Minister Ismail Haniyah, during a rally for the Hamas-led government in Gaza, yesterday. Tens of thousands of Hamas supporters demanded that Haniyah head any Palestinian unity government despite a deal for him to step aside as a way of restoring Western aid. (REUTERS)

WASHINGTON • The US Congress approved a bill on Thursday barring US aid to the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority as long as the Islamist movement refuses to recognise Israel’s right to exist and renounce violence.

The legislation also calls on Hamas, which won control of the parliament in January elections, to recognise past peace agreements with Israel.

The US House of Representatives passed the bill, already approved by the Senate, on a hand vote.

The bill forbids visas for members of the Palestinian Authority as long as it is led by Hamas or as long as the radical movement refuses to accept the US Congress’s demands.

The legislation, which now goes to President George W Bush for his signature, allows, however, the continuation of humanitarian assistance and other aid permitting moderate Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, of the Fatah faction, to continue his work.

The bill is a slightly different version from a text the House backed in May that was opposed by the Bush administration. The new text allows the administration to bypass the interdiction in the name of US national security. Republican Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen said Hamas’s electoral victory in January “was a tremendous blow to US efforts to bring peace and security to the region.”

“The US must isolate the Hamas-led government financially and diplomatically through implementing this bill,” she said. International aid to the Palestinians was partly suspended following the Hamas election victory, plunging the Palestinian territories into deep crisis.

The so-called Middle East quartet—United States, Russia, United Nations and European Union—has set three conditions on Hamas, which it deems a terrorist organisation, for the resumption of aid: recognition of the state of Israel and past Israeli-Palestinian accords, and renunciation of violence.

However, tens of thousands of Hamas supporters demanded yesterday that Prime Minister Ismail Haniyah head any Palestinian unity government despite a deal for him to step aside as a means of restoring Western aid.

The public show of support across Gaza for Haniyah, a senior Hamas leader, put pressure on the ruling movement to retain him as their candidate to lead a possible new cabinet.

That would further complicate unity government talks that moderate President Mahmoud Abbas of the rival Fatah faction has said are at a dead end.