Israel accused of financing Hamas… EU pressures Netanyahu
Josep Borrell, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, stated that Israel funded the establishment of the Hamas movement in an attempt to weaken the more moderate Palestinian Authority.
Borrell mentioned in a speech at the University of Valladolid in Spain, according to Reuters, “Yes, the Israeli government funded Hamas in an attempt to weaken the Palestinian Authority, led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, in the West Bank, and thus prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state.”
He added that the international community should “impose a Palestinian state on Israel from the outside if necessary,” noting that “otherwise, the cycle of hatred will continue to turn from generation to generation.”
Borrell emphasized that Israelis and Palestinians are no longer able to reach a compromise, stating that “the parties involved are angry at each other to the point that they cannot reach an agreement on their own.”
The EU’s foreign policy chief called on “the Arab world, Europe, the United States, and the United Nations as a whole” to recognize the establishment of a Palestinian state, even in the face of resistance from Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denies accusations from his opponents in Israel and some international media that his government spent several years effectively strengthening Hamas in Gaza to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state.
In a related context, Palestinian Minister of Social Development Ahmed Majdalani stated that Josep Borrell‘s remarks about Israel financing Hamas to weaken the Palestinian Authority come as part of the pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to open a political path to end the occupation or stop the war.
Majdalani explained in statements to the Arab World News Agency that “money for Hamas in Gaza was transferred via private planes from Qatar to Lod Airport in Israeli cars, under the sponsorship of Israeli security, and this was not a secret.”
