Josep Borrell, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, said on Friday that Israel financed the creation of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas with the aim of weakening the Palestinian Authority.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has denied these accusations made by his opponents in Israel and some international media that his government has been actively propping Hamas in Gaza for years.
“Yes, Hamas was financed by the government of Israel in an attempt to weaken the Palestinian Authority led by Fatah,” Borrell said in a speech at the University of Valladolid in Spain, without elaborating much on the alleged financing accusations.
Borrell also accused the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, of “personally” stopping any attempt to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Netanyahu has repeatedly refuted these accusations. His opponents accuse him of being behind the rise of Hamas.
Borrell also asserted that Netanyahu had been refusing a two-state solution, noting that the creation of a Palestinian state is part of the peaceful solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“We only believe a two-state solution imposed from the outside would bring peace,” he said.
