The head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, accused Israel of “creating” and “financing” Hamas.

Josep Borrell’s statement risks uproar in Israel. The head of European diplomacy, Friday January 19, has the Hebrew state “created” And “Finance” The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, currently in power in Gaza, is behind the unprecedented October 7 deadly attack on Israeli soil.

Speaking at the University of Valladolid (Spain), which awarded him an honorary doctorate, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs urged the creation of a Palestinian state, which the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu.

“We believe that a two-state solution (Israel and the Palestinians) must be imposed from outside to bring peace. If, and I insist, Israel reaffirms its refusal (of this solution) and, to prevent it, it went so far as to create Hamas itself.Mr Borrell said during a speech in Spanish. “Hamas was funded by the Israeli government to try to undermine the Fatah Palestinian Authority. But if we don’t intervene decisively, the spiral of hatred and violence will continue from generation to generation, from funeral to funeral.”he added.

2007 occupation of Gaza

Hamas was formed in December 1987 shortly after the start of the First Intifada, a Palestinian uprising in the occupied territories by a group of Islamist militants claiming to belong to the Muslim Brotherhood, including the influential Sheikh Ahmad Yassin. An acronym in Arabic for “Islamic Resistance Movement”, Hamas was founded specifically to defeat Islamic Jihad and compete with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), a primarily secular movement led by Yasser Arafat.

Twenty years later, in June 2007, Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip, following a quasi-civil war against Fatah, a movement at the heart of Mahmoud Abbas’s Palestinian Authority (PA), Yasser Arafat’s successor.

In recent years, the Gaza Strip, under Hamas control and under an Israeli blockade, has received several million dollars in aid from Qatar, which has drawn criticism from Benjamin Netanyahu, accused by opponents of favoring financing of the movement, which he denies.

Netanyahu and the United States are at odds

Israel’s prime minister has once again, in recent days, rejected the idea of ​​creating a viable Palestinian state, thus attracting criticism from his American ally, who says he is calling for a Palestinian state alongside Israel.

In a column published on January 15, 2024 worldJosep Borrell had already expressed his support for the creation of a Palestinian state and a “Palestinian Authority”, Once the Israeli hostages are released and the war between Israel and Hamas ends.

“Two Lessons to Learn from the Failure of the 1993 Oslo Accords,” which laid the foundations of the Palestinian state, he explained. “The first is that we must immediately establish the need for two states as a solution to the conflict. The second is not to rely solely on Israelis and Palestinians. Conditions for peace must be enforced and guaranteed by the entire international community.requested the head of European diplomacy.