Senior Hamas official Mahmoud al-Zahar said Wednesday that the Islamist movement was somewhat skeptical as to the viability of Fatah's September-bound bid for statehood.
Speaking with the Palestinian Ma'an News Agency, al-Zahar said that "all the talk of a Palestinian state is… an attempt to pacify us."
He further wondered as to the nature of the Palestinian state, should it be declared in several months' time: "Where is the land for this state? Are those living in the West Bank and Gaza to be its citizens? What will be the fate of the five million Palestinians in the diaspora? Are we to give up the right of return?"
He also said that anyone who thinks that a Palestinian state would be accepted by the international community without it recognizing Israel first, "does not understand the (political) landscape."
Hamas, he said, is willing to accept a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders, but will maintain its refusal to recognize Israel, since a formal recognition of Israel would "cancel the right of the next generations to liberate the lands."
Al-Zahar did, however, confirm the decision reached with Fatah to maintain the truce with Israel, calling the move "part of the resistance, not a cancellation," and noting that "truce is not peace."
The Fatah-Hamas reconciliation pact was officially signed in Cairo last week. Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh has since extended an invitation to Palestinian President and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas to visit the Strip – where he has not set foot since Hamas took over Gaza in 2007. The visit is expected to symbolically cement the unity agreement with a handshake between the leaders.
According to al-Zahar though, "complications from the (years of) division," have made that visit "impossible for the moment… as the social scene in Gaza is lurching, and needs efforts to solidify the reconciliation between the major families" of the coastal enclave.
He also expressed concerns about Abbas' safety, saying that he "could also not guarantee that Israel will not send its infiltrators to shoot Abbas," or that Gazans who oppose him "would not "come out and throw rocks at him."
Al-Zahar said that while he had high hopes for unity and its impact on the imminent creation of a Palestinian state, he had doubts that the project would be completed by September, a deadline set by the PA before a unity deal was struck.
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