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In a televised speech, Hamas Political Bureau Head Ismail Haniyeh said that U.S. President Trump's declaration recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital was a "declaration of war against our Palestinian people." Declaring the following day, December 8, as a "day of rage," beginning the "Freedom to Jerusalem and the West Bank Intifada," Haniyeh said that all member and wings of Hamas were on "full readiness for any orders to confront this strategic threat to Jerusalem and the Palestinian cause."
Ismail Haniyeh: "We are standing today at a historic juncture for our Palestinian cause, with Jerusalem at its heart, and for our Arab and Islamic nation, following the stupid and unjust decision by the U.S. administration to falsely recognize Jerusalem as the capital of the so-called Zionist entity.
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"Today, we emphasize that Jerusalem is united. There is no East Jerusalem and West Jerusalem. It is Palestinian, Arab, and Islamic. It is the capital of the state of Palestine – Palestine in its entirety. Today, I saw that Palestine is one and united, stretching from the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea. It cannot be divided into two states or two entities. Palestine is ours, and Jerusalem in its entirety is ours. We do not recognize the legitimacy of the occupation. Israel has no existence on the land of Palestine. It has no existence on the land of Palestine and thus, needs no capital.
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"The first priority of the Palestinian people today is to declare, once and for all, that the so-called peace process is dead and buried. There is no partner in the peace process with the Palestinian people. There is no 'deal of a century,' nor a deal of half a century or of a quarter of a century.
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"Our top priority today is to get out of the tunnel of the Oslo Accords, and to declare clearly that there is no settlement or peace process anymore. It did not exist to begin with, but this decision has buried the Oslo Accords.
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"I stress the need to convene an urgent comprehensive Palestinian meeting of the Palestinian leaders and the secretary-generals [of the various factions], in order to study the current situation and to agree on the future Palestinian policy.
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"I would like to emphasize that the American-backed Zionist policy can only be confronted by sparking a renewed Intifada against the occupation, and blessed resistance against this occupation – a popular Intifada, like the one recently sparked by our people in Jerusalem.
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"The American decision is an act of aggression against our people. It is a declaration of war against our Palestinian people.
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"The Arab League or the Organization of Islamic Cooperation should make the decisions that the peoples of this nation expect, the decisions that our Palestinian people expects. At the very least there should be a clear declaration of a boycott of the US administration. There should be a clear resolution not to cooperate with this administration when it comes to the Palestinian rights.
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"We have issued instructions to all members and wings of our blessed movement to be on full readiness for any orders to confront this strategic threat to Jerusalem and the Palestinian cause. In Hamas, our only conflict is with the Zionist occupation. The weapons we have amassed will not be used in any internal conflict, but only against the Zionist occupation.
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"Trump will strongly regret this decision. But then, it will be too late, and Netanyahu and his government will not be able to escape the wrath of our people and the wrath of our Arab and Islamic nation. So let tomorrow, December 8, 2017, be a day of rage. Let it be the beginning of a widespread Intifada, which I hereby name the 'Freedom to Jerusalem and the West Bank Intifada.'"
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