03 January 2018•Update: 03 January 2018
By Said Ibicioglu
GAZA CITY, Palestine
Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh on Tuesday called for a new Palestinian intifada and a formal end to the peace process with Israel in the wake of the U.S. decision on Jerusalem.
Haniyeh’s remarks came after Israel’s parliament, or Knesset, approved a bill late Monday that makes it more difficult to alter Jerusalem’s status.
According to the bill, any attempt to change Jerusalem’s official status or municipal boundaries requires the approval of 80 out of 120 assembly members instead of a simple majority.
The move comes less than a month after U.S. President Donald Trump announced his decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, drawing widespread condemnation from across the Arab and Muslim world.
Haniyeh stressed that more steps are needed to prevent the U.S. from achieving its goals, including formulating “a united Arab-Islamic plan in coordination with international bodies that support Palestinian rights" who feel they have suffered from U.S. policy in the region.
Haniyeh said “the decisions of Israel and the U.S. make it necessary to act on two political levels”.
“The first one is not to trust the peace process or even to end it. The second is to end the normalization process with Israel.”
“Against Israel’s strategy, we draw attention to a comprehensive strategy that will invalidate the Israeli and U.S. decisions [on Jerusalem] and make it possible to review the Palestine cause as a national salvation project,” he said.
He emphasized that a program including Arabs, Muslims and Palestinians should be carried out to invalidate the U.S. and Israeli decision on Jerusalem.
