Palestinian Authority minister under fire for saying Hamas is a terrorist organization

Ahmed Majdalani, a member of the Executive Committee of the PLO and the current social affairs minister in the Palestinian government, is being heavily criticized by Palestinian activists for calling Hamas a "terrorist organization."

Speaking on Al Arabiya's Al-Hadath channel,  Majdalani said, “Hamas is a terrorist organization in its current form, its current program, and its current political discourse, and it may be part of the solution [only] if it abandons armed resistance.” 

Majdalani said Hamas should "rely on a solution based on international legitimacy resolutions and international law,” saying that if this happens, it will be a “fundamental change” in Hamas’s doctrine. 

All of these are entirely consistent with what the PA has been telling the West for years. But Majdalani apparently didn't get the memo that with Hamas' huge popularity among Palestinians since October 7, he must not say anything negative about them or their actions, in the name of "Palestinian unity."

The Palestinian National and Islamic Forces issued a statement saying, “We condemn in the strongest terms the statements that depart from the national consensus made by the minister in the Shtayyeh government, Ahmed Majdalani, to Al-Arabiya channel, in which he speaks with the mouth of the occupation, describing the Hamas movement as a terrorist!”

The statement continued, "These statements are unpatriotic and represent a departure from the national consensus, and they are an instrument to serve the occupation and its agenda aimed at striking the national unity and steadfastness of the Palestinian people who are facing a war of genocide and torture in Gaza and the West Bank."

They demanded his removal from his positions.

The invocation of "unity" is a remarkable thing. It means that the most extreme, violent components of Palestinian political structure have control over everyone else. The more explicit terror groups rarely subscribe to the idea of "unity" and public agreement with the more moderate policies - the unity only goes one way, towards the extremists. 

This is partially because of the Arab honor/shame dynamic. Public disagreements (especially in front of the West) are shameful, and the illusion of Palestinian unity must be maintained, even when everyone knows that Hamas and the PA are bitter enemies. 

As a result, even moderate Palestinian media will not criticize Hamas for its dragging the region into a potential war and for putting the lives of tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza in danger. (This also applies to Arab media altogether.) And this fear of being shamed for public disagreements means that Arab media will not publish anything against the most heinous terror acts - and therefore the people will reflexively support even terror groups associated with the Muslim Brotherhood like Hamas that are largely despised in normal times.

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