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PA has to announce 'death' of Oslo Accords, insists Hamas official

December 30, 2017 at 10:08 am

PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin after the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993 [Saar Yaacov/Flickr]

A senior Hamas official in Gaza has insisted that the Palestinian Authority should announce the “death” of the Oslo Accords signed with Israel in 1993, Shehab.ps reported on Friday. Mahmoud Al-Zahar made his comments on Turkey’s Channel 9 television.

“Oslo did not bring our nation anything except destruction,” Al-Zahar explained, “and the last chapter of this was Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.” He stressed that the Palestinians have to stick to the option of all kinds of resistance, including “armed resistance”. The PA, he added, should also declare the whole of Palestine to be occupied territory.

However, noted Al-Zahar, the PA does not want to abandon Oslo. He pointed out that the late PA President Yasser Arafat was killed because he wanted to use the “armed resistance” to push Israel to “turn to him” and “to achieve political gains through negotiations”.

When asked about internal reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah, Al-Zahar said that his movement had “conceded everything” to guarantee its success. Nevertheless, he insisted that Hamas would never accept the ongoing procrastination should the PA continue to refuse to take full responsibility for the Gaza Strip.