Hamas government in Gaza ‘dismisses’ Palestinian UN Representative

Wednesday November 14, 2007 02:35 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC

The democratically-elected de facto government in Gaza on Tuesday ‘dismissed’ the United Nations representative for the Palestinian people, Riyadh Mansour, after he proposed legislation that would declare the Hamas movement an illegal militia.

UN spokesman Riyadh Mansour

Tahir al-Nunu, a spokesman for the Hamas movement, made the announcement during a press conference in Gaza, accusing Mansour of engaging in numerous “abuses of power” which were “insulting to the Palestinian people”

The move comes after Mansour introduced a resolution to the United Nations branding Hamas and other resistance groups in Palestine “illegal militias”.

The dismissal, however, is likely to be largely symbolic, as the Hamas government is not recognized by Israel or the US, and their decisions as a government are not considered legitimate, despite the fact that the party was democratically-elected to power in the Palestinian territories last year.

gaza strip | international politics | news report saed at imemc dot org