A Palestinian state without an armed struggle against Israel is an illusion and
won’t add anything for the Palestinians, top Hamas official Osama Hamdan was
quoted Sunday as saying.
Hamdan, who is based in Beirut, said that the
result of the UN General Assembly vote last Thursday on the statehood bid was a
“political step, but not a victory or great achievement.”
He pointed out
that the PLO already had representation in the UN.
“The PLO has paid a
heavy political price for this representation because it relinquished its claim
to the lands of 1948,” Hamdan said. “Therefore, the real achievement lies in the
liberation of the land, the return of the refugees and achieving steadfastness
on the land. These are the achievements which the people respect and
appreciate.”
The Hamas leader said that the UN vote in favor of upgrading
the Palestinians’ status would be considered a political achievement “only if it
were part of a comprehensive strategy for liberation, with the resistance being
its main basis.”
Hamdan explained that Hamas had welcomed the statehood
bid “because it reflected the international community’s readiness to fix what it
corrupted in Palestine.”
He also reiterated Hamas’s commitment to the
armed struggle against Israel. He said that his movement would continue to seek
the “liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea.”
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