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Greek and Italian parliamentarians call for recognition of Hamas

Greek and Italian parliamentary delegations met with Khaled Mishaal, the head of the Hamas political bureau, yesterday in Damascus. They called for the recognition of Hamas as the democratic and legitimate choice of the Palestinian people.

In a press statement following the meeting on Wednesday evening, Giorgos Anagnostopoulos, the head of the Greek delegation, called for protecting Palestinian rights that are being violated by Israel throughout Palestine.

Anagnostopoulos added that there will be no peace without justice, stressing the need to reconstruct the Gaza Strip without delay and refused to accept the notion of linking reconstruction to any other issues.

The Greek lawmaker called on the Israeli government to immediately release all Palestinian prisoners in its jails and to end the siege immediately.

He also underlined that European states realized that Hamas could not be ignored when considering the Palestinian cause, pointing out that the main task now for the European delegation was to promote the reconstruction of war-torn Gaza.

For his part, Fernando Rossi, the head of the Italian delegation, said that Hamas is a legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, deploring the Israeli actions against the resistance movement.

Rossi criticized those Arab countries such as Jordan and Egypt that maintain diplomatic relations with Israel despite the Gaza war, saying there is no justification for not breaking those relations following the war crimes committed against the Palestinian people.

A member of the Hamas political bureau, Sami Khater, welcomed the visiting delegations, describing the visits as courageous and helping to pave the way for more European openness towards Hamas.

Thanks to Hamas and the Palestine Information Center

Support the European campaign to recognise Hamas by signing the petition organised by Campo Antiimperialista. Send a message to camp@antiimperialista.org

See story about the launch and list of notable signators here

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