Hamas rejects appointment to the National Council and insists on the right of Palestinians abroad to vote

Ali Baraka, head of the National Relations Department of Hamas abroad, affirmed the movement's rejection of the continued approach of appointment and exclusion in the restructuring of the Palestinian National Council, and its insistence on the right of Palestinians abroad to elect their representatives through free and direct elections, warning that monopolizing the restructuring of PLO institutions deepens division.

Ali Baraka, head of the National Relations Department of Hamas abroad, affirmed the movement's rejection of the continued approach of appointment, exclusion, and unilateralism in the restructuring of the Palestinian National Council. Baraka considered that one of the most basic national and democratic rights of Palestinians abroad is to choose their representatives in the National Council through free and direct elections, stressing that the impossibility of holding elections must be met with comprehensive national consensus, not appointment or the imposition of factional representation by one side. He warned that monopolizing the restructuring of the institutions of the Palestine Liberation Organization under the current circumstances does not serve national unity, but rather deepens division and fragmentation. Baraka called on all Palestinian factions, forces, and national figures to reject appointment, exclusion, unilateralism, and the monopolization of national decision-making, and to adhere to national understandings and agreements, starting from the Cairo dialogue of March 17, 2005, up to the Beijing Declaration of July 23, 2024. He stressed that the Palestinian National Council must be a comprehensive national framework for all members of the Palestinian people at home and in the diaspora.