Hamas calls for Arab summit against Israel annexation bid

The Palestinian Hamas resistance movement has called on Arab countries to resort to urgent action, including a summit meeting, aimed at preempting Israel’s plan to annex huge swathes of the occupied West Bank.

Head of Hamas’ Political Bureau Ismail Haniyeh made the demand in separate letters to leaders of as many as 40 Arab countries on Tuesday, the Palestinian Information Center reported.

The official said the plan amounted to a move aimed at Judaization of the West Bank and the holy occupied city of Jerusalem al-Quds, which is partly located in the territory, and constituted a “real threat,” whether now or in the future, to Palestine and the entire global Arab and Muslim nation.

He called the plan a new instance of Israeli aggression that follows in the footsteps of the other atrocious measures it has taken during its “black history” against the Palestinian and other regional nations.

Haniyeh called on the Arab rulers to hold a summit at the level of the heads of state in support of the Palestinians’ uniform position against the annexation and Judaization scheme.

Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced the plan to annex the areas upon which the regime has been building illegal settlements since its occupation of the territory in 1967, alongside the Jordan Valley. Over all, the areas that are subject to the scheme comprise some 30 percent of the West Bank.

Israel wheeled out the plan emboldened by a hugely-controversial plot that was detailed by US President Donald Trump on January 28, in which Washington supports Tel Aviv’s annexation of the areas.

Haniyeh  urged political, economic, and media support for the national Palestinian drive that pursues restoration of the Palestinians’ legitimate rights, liberation of the occupied territories, and creation of an independent Palestinian state with al-Quds as its capital.

The US plot, ironically dubbed the “deal of the century,” also re-endorsed Washington’s incendiary recognition of al-Quds as Israel’s “capital.” The recognition that came during Trump’s presidency flies in the face of Palestinians’ age-old demand that the city’s eastern part serve as the capital of their future state.

Palestinians stopped recognizing any intermediary role by the US in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict after Washington’s unveiling of the plot.