Hamas’ Yahya Sinwar (L) and Ismail Haniyeh (C) meet with PA Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah (2-R) in Gaza City in Oct. 2017. (AP/Prime Minister Office)
The Palestinians rejected Israel’s objection to its reconciliation as an “unacceptable Zionist interference in Palestinian internal affairs.”
The Palestinians dismissed Israel’s list of demands issued as a prerequisite to holding diplomatic negotiations with the Palestinian Authority (PA), after the latter signed a reconciliation deal with the Hamas terror group.
Israel announced Tuesday will not negotiate with a government that relies on Hamas, the terrorist organization that rules Gaza and which calls for the destruction of Israel, as long as it does not fulfill several elementary conditions, including recognizing Israel and ceasing all terrorist activity.
Responding to the conditions, PA head Mahmoud Abbas’ spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh said on Tuesday that the reconciliation deal is “a top Palestinian interest” and that Abbas’ position is to move forward with the reconciliation “in order to realize the hopes and aspirations of the Palestinian people for unity and independence.”
“Any Israeli remarks will not change the official Palestinian position to move forward (with the reconciliation),” Rudeineh stated.
“The international community,” he added, “including the US administration, has welcomed the return of the Palestinian National Authority to the Gaza Strip and the assumption of the National Reconciliation Government of its responsibilities in total in the Gaza Strip.”
Earlier this month, American special envoy Jason Greenblatt said that any unified Palestinian government must accept the Quartet’s principles for the peace process and “commit to nonviolence.” These principles include a two-state solution, which Hamas rejects outright.
Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum called the Israeli list of demands “an unacceptable Zionist interference in Palestinian internal affairs .”
“The response must be to continue to strengthen the internal Palestinian front, and complete the reconciliation in every file under what was agreed in the Cairo agreement,” he added.
By: Aryeh Savir, World Israel News
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