The Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas rejected on Saturday the convention of the “expired” Palestinian National Council (PNC), stressing that holding it goes against the Palestinian national consensus.

Member of Hamas Political Bureau Musa abu-Marzouoq said that insisting on holding the PNC away from the Palestinian consensus means that it is leading to “disunity” and “isolation.”

“Political partnership means holding the unity PNC [which was approved by all the Palestinian factions in Beirut last year] not the one, which has expired,” Abu-Marzouq wrote on his twitter account.

Abu-Marzouq noted that the PNC’s Preparatory Committee had very good achievements in this regard, stressing that the “persistence to hold the non-consensual PNC perpetuates the political isolation of those who reject security cooperation with the occupation and reject to meet under its guns.”

He added: “Political partnership means that the government of President [Mahmoud Abbas], which is being run by him, must be dissolved and replaced with a national unity government, formed by all the Palestinian factions and powers.”

The senior Hamas leader reiterated that “all the Palestinian factions, including Fatah [led by Abbas] and the General Secretariat of the PNC agreed on this in February 2017.”

Abu-Marzouq went on: “Political partnership does not mean that an individual, whoever he is, or a political party, whatever its size is, to monopolise the political decision or the national enterprise. However, it is the reinforcement of democracy and rejecting political isolation and dismissal of opposition.”

He concluded: “Political partnership does not mean one executive authority that controls everything. It is a central authority which shares power with the opposition based on the principle of proportionate authority distribution and the separation between the legislative, executive and judicial authorities. The successful state is based on independent institutions and national sovereignty over its land and its people.”