Hamas: PA’s statehood bid does not represent consensus

"Palestinian state in the UN is a separate move that does not represent Palestinian national conformity," Hamas says.

By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
Fatah Hamas reconciliation 521 (photo credit: REUTERS/Asmaa Waguih)
Fatah Hamas reconciliation 521
(photo credit: REUTERS/Asmaa Waguih)
Hamas said over the weekend that it was opposed to the Palestinian Authority’s plan to seek membership for a Palestinian state in the UN next week because it was a “separate” move that did not represent Palestinian consensus.
“Unfortunately, the Palestinian Authority’s decision to apply for membership of a Palestinian state in the UN is a separate move that does not represent Palestinian national conformity,” the Islamist movement said in a statement.
Hamas said it was also opposed to the statehood bid because it was “not part of an agreed comprehensive, national struggling strategy, but an extension of the negotiations [with Israel].”
Hamas reiterated its conviction that “resistance and all forms of popular and political struggles is the real way to liberate our lands and extract our rights.”
Taher a-Nunu, spokesman for the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip, said that PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s speech in Ramallah on Friday “raises many questions that require answers, especially with regards to the future of the Palestinian people.”
There was “much obscureness” in the PA’s decision to apply for membership in the UN, particularly concerning the “right of return” for Palestinian refugees, the Hamas official said.
Hamas can’t support any project that does not call for achieving all the rights of the Palestinians, including the “right of return,” Nunu said.
He accused Abbas of lacking a “political vision” and placing the Palestinians in his “field of experiments.”