Hamas opposes appointments and unilateralism in rebuilding Palestinian National Council
Hamas official Ali Barakeh calls for free elections or an inclusive national agreement to select representatives.
Hamas official Ali Barakeh said Palestinians inside and outside the Palestinian territories should select representatives to the Palestinian National Council through free elections. If elections are not possible, he called for an inclusive national agreement rather than unilateral appointments, warning that exclusion could deepen Palestinian divisions.
Hamas has reiterated its opposition to appointments, exclusion and unilateral decision-making in the process of rebuilding the Palestinian National Council, calling for all Palestinians to participate in selecting the council’s representatives.
Ali Barakeh, head of Hamas’s national relations office outside Palestine, said on Thursday that Palestinians living outside the Palestinian territories have basic national and democratic rights and should choose their representatives to the Palestinian National Council through free and direct elections, according to Iran’s IRNA, citing Shahab News.
Barakeh said that if elections cannot be held, representatives should be determined through a comprehensive national agreement rather than being appointed or imposed by one side.
He warned that monopolizing the process of rebuilding the institutions of the Palestine Liberation Organization under current conditions would not strengthen national unity and could deepen divisions among Palestinians.
Barakeh said Palestinians need broader national participation and coordinated efforts to confront what he described as occupation, settlement expansion, the Judaization of Jerusalem, displacement and ongoing attacks against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and occupied Jerusalem.
He also said excluding Palestinian refugees outside the Palestinian territories from choosing their representatives would violate their national and democratic rights. He reiterated Hamas’s position that Palestinians’ right of return to the lands and properties from which they were displaced is an established right that does not expire over time.
Barakeh urged Palestinian factions, movements and national figures to oppose appointments, exclusion, unilateralism and the monopolization of national decision-making, and to adhere to national agreements and understandings.
He referred to the 2005 Cairo talks and the 2024 Beijing Declaration, saying the agreements emphasized the need to rebuild and activate the Palestine Liberation Organization on democratic, participatory and national foundations.
Barakeh said the Palestinian National Council should serve as an inclusive national framework for all Palestinians inside and outside the Palestinian territories, while the reconstruction of the Palestine Liberation Organization should be based on national participation, respect for the will of Palestinians and their right to freely choose their representatives.