Mansour Abbas on refusal to call Hamas a terrorist organization: ‘I want to be able to speak to both sides’

In an interview with the Saudi channel Al Arabiya, Ra’am party chairman Mansour Abbas addressed why he repeatedly avoids calling Hamas a terrorist organization, including at the President’s Residence the previous day. He said the reason was to preserve the ability to speak to both sides – Israelis and Palestinians.

“We must maintain our ability to speak to both sides and bring their positions closer together, because both sides – the Palestinian side and the Israeli-Jewish side – have lost hope in the possibility of ending the conflict and bringing peace based on a two-state solution,” he said. “I was cautious in this answer because I want to leave the doors open for myself to speak both to the Palestinian side and to the Israeli side.”

“If we are asked to condemn political violence against civilians, we have not hesitated to do so since the days of the first Oslo Accord, because that is the normal and logical thing for us to do as law-abiding citizens of the State of Israel, and as Arab Palestinians who have a position regarding what is happening on the Palestinian side, and who care about the present and future of our Palestinian people and its right to freedom and independence,” Abbas added.