Hamas leader stresses Palestinians' ownership of Palestinian lands

A prominent member of the Palestinian Hamas Movement voiced his movement's agreement with the establishment of a Palestinian state, but at the same time rejected any move to surrender the Palestinian territories to the occupying regime of Israel, stressing that Palestinians are the owners of entire Palestine and not just a part of it.Speaking to FNA in Gaza city on Tuesday, Mahmoud al-Zahar pointed to the Head of the Palestinian Authority (PA) Mahmoud Abbas's UN membership bid and establishment of a Palestinian State within the 1967 borders, and stated that Hamas supports establishment of such a Palestinian state, no matter it is within the 1967 borders or even on a palm of the Palestinian lands. "But, the occupying regime should not be recognized and even a span of Palestine's soil should not be ignored," Zahar noted. "If efforts are directed towards establishment of a Palestinian state based on 1967 borders, we should unify our efforts. Of course this is not our borders, our borders are well known and cover the entire Palestine and even more than Palestine," Zahar stated. Many Palestinian groups have blasted Abbas's unilateral move to win the UN's acclaim for a Palestinian state, and said he should have discussed the issue with other Palestinian groups beforehand. These groups also stress that although establishment of a Palestinian state is necessary, the 1967 borders are not the borderline of the Palestinian lands as Palestine means all the lands belonging to the Palestinians, including the territories occupied in the 1940s. Also, earlier this month Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei called for holding a free referendum in the entire Palestinian lands (including those under the Israeli occupation) to determine the fate of the country, and rejected the plans which envisage division of Palestine."We neither propose dumping the migrant Jews in the sea nor the UN arbitration, rather our proposal includes a referendum to be participated by all Palestinians," Ayatollah Khamenei said, addressing the 5th International Conference in Support of the Palestinian Intifada in Tehran at the time. He also dismissed the West's plots to disintegrate Palestine, and said, "Today the West is standing on a crossroad and it should either leave its age-old bullying and recognize the rights of the Palestinians or wait for harder blows in the near future."