Top EU diplomat Josep Borrell has accused the Israeli government of having created and funded Hamas in a bid to avoid a two-state solution. Meanwhile, Israel stepped up its attacks in the south of Gaza.
DW
Top European Union Diplomat Josep Borrell has accused Israel of having “created” and “financed” the militant group Hamas — which carried out unprecedented and deadly attacks on Israel on October 7 — in a bid to weaken the two-state solution.
“We believe that a two-state solution must be imposed from outside to bring peace. Although, I insist, Israel is reaffirming its refusal (of this solution), and to prevent it they have gone so far as to create Hamas themselves,” Borrell said during a speech at the University of Valladolid in Spain.
“Hamas has been financed by the Israeli government to try to weaken the Palestinian Authority of Fatah,” the EU foreign policy head said.
Hamas was founded in the 1980s and has been opposed to the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the multi-party confederation of which Fatah is the dominant faction, since its inception. There have been claims by various critics that the Israeli government helped finance Hamas in its early days to build up a counterweight to the PLO — though all actors in question deny Israel played any role in establishing the organization.
Unlike the PLO, Hamas does not recognize Israel’s right to exist.
Fatah is considered a more moderate political option for Palestinians than Hamas. It currently rules the West Bank, while Hamas is in power in Gaza following a war between the two factions in 2007. The European Union, as well as the United States, Germany and several other countries, classify Hamas as a terrorist organization.
