Hamas decries Ilhan Omar’s equation of victims with perpetrators

Gaza (QNN)- Hamas decried Ilhan Omar’s comments, which equate the Palestinian resistance with the Israeli occupiers.

The Member of the Bureau of International relations of Hamas, Basem Naim, said Ms. Ilhan Omar’s comments, in which she equates victims with perpetrators, are very strange, as they equate the resistance of the Palestinian people with the crimes committed by the occupation state in Palestine and the United States in Afghanistan.

“We appreciate Ms. Ilhan Omar’s positions, defending justice and the rights of those pressed all around the world, especially the just rights of our people, but this kind of equation is deplorable and goes against justice and international law”, Naim said in a press release.

He added that the Palestinian people have been living under occupation for over seven decades, in which horrible atrocities have been committed against it. The Palestinian people paid heavy prices to confront the Israeli atrocities peacefully, however, the Israeli arrogance and rejection to comply with international law, and the US and international support for the occupation state pushed the Palestinian people towards armed resistance.

“Our people have the right to resist the occupation by all means, including armed resistance”, Naim said. “Here, we remember a famous saying by the freedom fighter Nelson Mandela: It is always the oppressor, not the oppressed, who dictates the form of struggle. What our people have been, and still, doing is a legitimate right”.

Naim added that Hamas had presented several initiatives to spare civilians from the effects of battles, the first of them was by Hamas founder Ahmad Yassin and the most recent has been the current leader of the movement Yahya Sinwar but the occupation state rejected all those initiatives and deliberately and brutally targeted civilians, especially in the recent war on the besieged Gaza strip.

He also stressed that the movement welcomed international commissions of inquiry and expressed its willingness to cooperate in order to bring criminals to justice. Meanwhile, the occupation state completely rejected to cooperate and even prevented international commissions of inquiry from visiting Palestine.

“We hope that Ms. Ilhan Omar, as well as all defenders of the rights of the Palestinian people, describe the situation correctly and accurately because this is the starting point to put the basis of a just solution for this endemic conflict”, he said.

Omar had made the initial comments on Monday, in a tweet accompanying video of a question she asked the secretary of state, Antony Blinken, in a House hearing.

“We must have the same level of accountability and justice for all victims of crimes against humanity,” Omar wrote. “We have seen unthinkable atrocities committed by the US, Hamas, Israel, Afghanistan and the Taliban. I asked Secretary Blinken where people are supposed to go for justice.”