Wed. 15 Sep. 2011 @ 16.09 –
Hamas spokesman rejects UN statehood bid because it could lead to ‘recognition of Israel’s right to exist’, echoing previous antagonistic statements towards Jewish state.
Hamas spokesman Salah Bardawil has spoken out in disapproval of the Palestinian Authority’s UN bid for state recognition. Ynet reports Salah Bardawil’s statement rejecting the two state solution, citing his argument that the bid could be dangerous as it may force an official recognition of the state of Israel:
‘September’s plan does not stem from reasonable principles and is part of the negotiation process. If it works, it will cement the Palestinians’ recognition of Israel’s right to exist.
Hamas officials have repeatedly refused to recognise Israel, calling for the destruction of the Jewish state on several occasions. In July Hamas foreign minister Mahmoud Al-Zahar proclaimed that ‘Palestine means Palestine in its entirety, and Israel cannot exist in our midst’ and in June stated that as a ‘matter of principle’ Hamas will never relinquish ‘a single inch of the Palestinian land’. Following the announcement of the Fatah-Hamas unity deal in May, Ismail Haniyeh, the de-facto prime minister of Gaza, argued that ‘the Zionist project in Palestine must end’, while a Hamas cleric claimed that:
‘In just a few years, all the Zionists and the settlers will realize that their arrival in Palestine was for the purpose of the great massacre, by means of which Allah wants to relieve humanity of their evil.’
Bardawil also explained that there exists no consensus on the issue of the UN bid between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, arguing that it does not enjoy widespread support among the Palestinian population:
‘The Palestinians’ UN campaign for statehood, he [Bardawil] stressed, was a private initiative led by Palestinian President and his associates. The move is devoid the support of the Palestinian factions, or – for that matter – the Palestinian people, he added.’
The article refers to the failures of Fatah-Hamas reconciliation, stating that the two factions have been ‘struggling to see the deal come to fruition’, but that PA officials decided to move ahead with the statehood bid regardless.
Just Journalism has previously reported on how the unity deal between Fatah and Hamas has yet to be implemented, to the extent that Gaza and the West Bank run on different time zones, despite the pact being heralded by parts of the British media at the time.
