The leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniya says the decision of the United States President, Donald Trump to recognize Jerusalem as the capital city of Israel is a 'declaration of war against Palestinians' and called for a new 'Intifada' or uprising against US. Haniya made the declaration on Thursday in a speech in Gaza City. He said the declaration by Donald Trump killed the Israel-Palestinian peace process as no agreement would be honoured anymore.
"This decision has killed the peace process, has killed the Oslo [accord], has killed the settlement process. The US decision is an aggression, a declaration of war on us, on the best Muslim and Christian shrines in the heart of Palestine, Jerusalem. We should work on launching an intifada in the face of the Zionist enemy," he added.
Haniya stressed that Palestinians see Jerusalem as united and the capital of their future state noting that what Trump has done is to deny them their future.
"Jerusalem, all of Jerusalem, is ours. We are here today at a critical point in the history of the Palestinian issue and the core of the issue is Jerusalem, a critical point in the history of the Arab and Muslim nations following the provocative decision, the unfair decision adopted by the US administration.
"We urge, we ask and we stress the necessity of rearranging the Palestinian situation to confront this dangerous plot and to put our priorities clearly to face that provocative decision, that unfair decision," he added.
Also, the Secretary General of the Palestinian National Initiative, Mustafa Barghouti has accused Trump of "joining Israel in the war crimes and in confirming the annexation of the occupied Palestinian Territories". He warned that Palestinians would now fight to reclaim the whole of Jerusalem.
"I hope that the Palestinian Authority will not accept to meet with this American team anymore. Israel decided it wants everything. They want everything? Fine. We will also fight for everything," he said.
"We might be talking about a popular wide uprising but non-violent one, similar to the first intifada. That's what we need. Israelis should see the Palestinian resistance everywhere."
