Press release

Issued by the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas  

Regarding Naksa (setback) day

On this day, 51 years ago, the Arab nations were defeated against the brutality and racist belief of the Israeli Occupation during the six day war in 1967.  The defeat was nothing more than a setback for our just Palestinian cause following the Nakba (catastrophe) in 1948. If anything, it was a turning point for the Arab nations in general and Palestine in particular to prepare and strive for their freedom by any mean from the Israeli Occupation and its Zionist idealogy. 

On this painful anniversary, Hamas affirms the following:

1. We salute our steadfast people in Jerusalem, Gaza, the West Bank and the occupied territories in 1948 and the Diaspora, which, through their sacrifice and resistance affirm every day that they are a people deserving of freedom, independence and a safe and secure life after their liberation from the brutal Zionist occupation.

2. We affirm that Jerusalem is the capital of Palestine and has its religious, historical and civilizational status and all its Islamic and Christian sanctities are a fixed right of the Palestinian people and the Arab and Islamic nation, and there will be no concessions made. The recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of the Zionist entity and the transfer of the American embassy to it by Trump's administration, and all the procedures of the Occupation to Judaize and falsify the facts and its true are null and not accepted. 

3. The resistance is here to stay with all of its means and we reject any infringement of the resistance and its weapons and emphasize on the right of our people to develop the mechanisms and means of resistance.  

4. We call on the Palestinian resistance to commemorate the setback in 1967 - with the largest participation in the Great March of Return set to take place on Friday 8th of June.  

5. We reject all projects and attempts aimed at settling the issue of the refugees and including the attempts to settle them outside Palestine and offering them alternative home projects. We warn against any attempts of infringing the UNRWA as a prelude to ending the refugee issue and to compensate for the damage caused by their displacement and occupation of their land. This right is inherent to the right of return, and is carried out after the implementation of this right, and does not cancel or detract their right of return.

6. We emphasize the need to build Palestinian national institutions upon democratic foundations. We believe in managing our Palestinian relations on the basis of pluralism, democratic choice, national partnership, acceptance of the other and the adoption of dialogue, in order to achieve the national goals and aspirations of the Palestinian people.

7. We call on the Fatah movement to end the division by adhering to all that was agreed upon in 2005 and 2011, and quickly to strengthen the steadfastness of our people by lifting the reprisal sanctions imposed on the Gaza Strip, and holding a national unity council according to the outcomes of the 2017 Beirut meeting. 

8. We strongly reject all normalizations with the Israeli Occupation from any side and at any level, and we consider it an attack on the struggle of the Palestinian people and their hopes for freedom and independence. We welcome the positions of the states, organizations and bodies that support the rights of the Palestinian people, the International BDS organization and others, and all the free people of the world supporting Palestine.

9. We adopt a policy of openness to various countries in the world, especially Arab and Islamic; we seek to build balanced relations, while combining the requirements of the Palestinian cause and the interest of the Palestinian people, with the interest of the nations and its development and security.

The Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas

5 June 2018