Asia

Home page

Asia

Hamas slams Abbas over statements on right of return

02 November 2012 18:45 (UTC +04:00)

Islamic Hamas movement on Friday slammed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas over statements he made to Israeli Television channel II on the Palestinian right of return.

Abbas had said in an interview with the Israeli TV that will be aired later on Friday evening that he is a Palestinian refugee from Safad (in northern Israel) "and I won’t return back there once again."

Sami Abu Zuhri, Hamas spokesman in Gaza said in an emailed press statement that Abbas’ statements "became a serious coherent with the Zionist vision to the lands of the historic Palestine."

Abbas said in the interview that he does not think he will go back to his hometown he left as a refugee in 1948 "But we want an independent Palestinian state on the territories occupied in 1967 beside the state of Israel."

"These statements are representing an umbrella to the occupation and encourage it to commit more crimes and stupidity against our people, and build more settlement and tighten the siege on the Gaza Strip."

However, both Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) that Abbas chairs and leaders of Hamas movement, which has been ruling the Gaza Strip since 2007, had accepted a Palestinian state on 1967 territories.

The two rivals disagree on the right of return, where Abbas wants it to be resolved in accordance to the United Nations resolutions related to the issue of refugees, while Hamas wants a right of return back home in historic Palestine.

"Abbas statements only represent him and never represent the stable Palestinian merits and legitimate rights that can never be dropped. Abbas offers everything to the occupation for free," said Abu Zuhri.