This is a cross-post by Just Journalism.
Described as ‘head of the Hamas international relations department’, Osama Hamdan offers an official Hamas response to the Palestine papers in The Guardian today, in which he claims that had the Palestinian Authority reached a peace deal with Israel based on the compromises laid out in the exposed documents, it ‘would have represented the biggest act of treason in the region’s history.’
In ‘The Palestinian cause has been betrayed. But no more,’ he describes ‘the right of return for all refugees’ as ‘individual and inviolable’ and claims that any compromise on this ‘is completely rejected by all Palestinians.’
The Hamas official closes his article pledging action to ‘regain the initiative’:
‘As an immediate response to these revelations, we in Hamas have begun a series of communications and meetings with Palestinian factions and prominent personalities to discuss practical measures. It is our responsibility to regain the initiative in order to protect our cause and isolate those who have betrayed it.’
Past quotes from the author of this article include from 2007:
On the goal of destroying the State of Israel
‘We are making the preparations for a confrontation. This is not because we need to be prepared for an Israeli act of aggression – after all, aggression is intrinsic to this entity – but because the final goal of the resistance is to wipe this entity off the face of the Earth. This goal necessitates the development of the capabilities of the resistance, until this entity is wiped out.’
On Hamas suicide attacks on public buses in Israel
‘Anyone who comes to live in a war zone is a combatant, regardless of whether he wears a uniform…
‘Why were buses targeted? Because they are the means of transport used by the soldiers as well. The Zionist soldiers, who go from their homes to their bases and back, use public transportation, because it is free or almost free…
‘Therefore, the way I see it, they need to stop using public transportation, or else society should prevent them from using it, because it is the soldiers who are targeted.’