“ Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it.” (Psalms 34:15)

Hamas official Mahmoud Al-Zahar has announced that the terrorist organization, Hamas, will not be bound by any peace negotiations with Israel.  Furthermore, he accused Fatah of perpetuating the rift between the two organizations and of rejecting Palestinian ideals.

“The PA has dealt the final blow to reconciliation talks, and Hamas will never accept the negotiation track and its result,” Al-Zahar said. “We refuse to swap Palestinian principles for politicized money.”

“Abbas agreed to restart the US-brokered negotiations, ignoring the national consensus of the people and political factions who reject this manner which may blow up the Palestinian cause.”

Al-Zahar said that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas had no authority to enter negotiations with Israel, and encouraged his party to isolate him and strip him of representative powers.

We renew our rejection of these futile talks, and consider them purely a means for the occupation (Israel) to look good to the international community,” he told a news conference in Gaza.

Al-Zahar is not the first within Hamas to reject the current round of peace talks.  Ghazi Hamad, a proxy for the Foreign Affairs Ministry in the Hamas government in Gaza, believes Abbas was pressured into returning to the negotiating table.

He added that Abbas is not keeping other Palestinian factions, Hamas especially, informed about the process. “The [PA] is not consulting with the other factions to get their opinions with regard to the political file. The PA thinks that it has a monopoly on that and that no one else is entitled to get involved,” he said.