News / Palestine

Hamas, Islamic Jihad urge PLO to withdraw recognition of Israel

Thursday, 18 July 2024 6:41 PM [ Last Update: Thursday, 18 July 2024 6:41 PM ]

Ismail Haniyeh, head of the Hamas political bureau, (R) and the Secretary-General of the Islamic Jihad Ziyad al-Nakhaleh meet in the Qatari capital Doha on July 18, 2024.

The Palestinian resistance movements of Hamas and Islamic Jihad have called on the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) to withdraw its recognition of Israel.

The appeal was made during a meeting with Ismail Haniyeh, head of the Hamas political bureau, in the Qatari capital Doha on Thursday.

Secretary-General Ziyad al-Nakhaleh also led the Islamic Jihad delegation.

“The leaderships viewed that, in light of the Knesset's declared position rejecting the Palestinian people's right to establish their independent state, the national collective is required today to take a unified stance to confront these attempts to erase the Palestinian cause,” they said in a joint statement.

The Israeli parliament on Wednesday passed a resolution rejecting the establishment of a Palestinian state. The vote came before Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to the US to address a joint session of Congress and meet with President Joe Biden.

Biden has supported the so-called two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israel's Knesset passes resolution against Palestinian statehood

The Israeli parliament (Knesset) approves a resolution rejecting the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Prominent Palestinian politician Mustafa Barghouti, the secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative, also slammed the resolution.

“No Zionist party from both the government and the opposition voted against the resolution,” he wrote on X.

“This resolution represents a rejection of peace with Palestinians and an official declaration of the death of [the] Oslo agreement.”

The Oslo Accords were first signed between the PLO and Israel in 1993. They called for a viable and sovereign Palestinian state. But Israel has continued to adopt policies such as building settlements on Palestinian land across the occupied West Bank.

As of June 2024, the State of Palestine is recognized as a sovereign state by 145 of the 193 member states of the United Nations – or over 75% of all UN members.

Elsewhere in the statement, the Palestinian resistance movements said Operation Al-Aqsa Storm generated new realities in the struggle against Israel.

“The two delegations emphasized that the of Operation al-Aqsa Storm has constituted a strategic national achievement and created new realities in the struggle with the occupation that must be built upon and accumulated in the coming phase.”

“The two delegations paused to reflect on the heroic steadfastness of the Palestinian people in the face of escalating bloody massacres perpetrated by the occupation, the systematic destruction carried out in the Gaza Strip, and the attempt to destroy all components of human life.”

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