Today the UN General Assembly will be voting on a US-proposed resolution to condemn Hamas for firing rockets into Israel and inciting violence. The resolution demands that Hamas and other terrorist groups such as Islamic Jihad cease their "militant" activities, including the use of airborne incendiaries.
Despite the rift between Hamas and Abbas' Fatah, Fatah has come to the defense of Hamas at the UN.
The resolution prompted one Fatah official to declare that if Hamas is considered a terrorist organization, then the entire Palestinian Arab people is "involved in terrorism," Palestinian Media Watch reported. Rather, he claimed, all the Palestinian factions are "national liberation movements":
Fatah Central Committee member Abbas Zaki told Palestine Today: "If Hamas, which is involved in resistance, is considered a terrorist movement, this means that all groups of the Palestinian people are involved in terrorism. This contradicts reality, as Hamas and the rest of the Palestinian factions are national liberation movements that are involved in resisting an Israeli occupation that is implementing terrorism against the members of our people... Hamas is part of us and we are part of it if a resolution is passed against it that defines its resistance as a crime. This is because Hamas - regardless of the internal and political differences of opinion - constitutes a state of resistance, whether we want it or not. It has a broad Palestinian presence, and we cannot abandon it to fight alone on the battlefield."
Similarly reacting to the proposed UN resolution, Fatah Central Committee member Muhammad Shtayyeh denied all Palestinian Arab terrorism. He stated that Abbas' Fatah Movement will not accept that "any Palestinian organization" be declared a terrorist organization.
"Under no circumstances will we agree to any Palestinian organization being defined as a terrorist organization. We will not agree! Because today it is Hamas, tomorrow [Islamic] Jihad, two days from now Fatah... under no circumstances will we agree to Hamas being condemned," Shtayyeh wrote on the official Fatah Facebook page.
Likewise, Osama Al-Qawasmi, official Fatah Movement Spokesperson and Fatah Revolutionary Council member announced that Fatah "opposes the denunciation of any Palestinian as a terrorist":
"Despite all of the differences of opinion with Hamas, and despite everything that it has done to harm the legal Palestinian government we know the order of priorities of the national activity well. We firmly oppose the American-Israeli attempts to denounce Hamas as terrorist at the UN, and we will fight to thwart the proposal," Al-Qawasmi told the official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida.