Hamas Spokesperson Hazem Qasim stated the following:

Receiving the head of the settlement council in the West Bank by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and signing economic deals with him represents an actual support for settlement activity in the occupied West Bank. 

We believe that the growing ties between the UAE and settler groups in the occupied West Bank boost the Israeli occupation’s ability to implement its colonial annexation plans; this confirms the false claims practiced by some states that have signed normalisation agreements when they announced that such moves aimed at suspending the Israeli annexation plans. 

The UAE’s collaboration with settler groups violates all resolutions of the Arab League that call for boycotting all forms of colonial settlement activity.

It is shameful that several countries and international sides resolve to boycott Israeli settlements while the UAE is sparing no effort to develop relations with the colonial Israeli settlement establishment.

Sunday, 15 November 2020