Abbas’ advisor: The Palestinian people abhors violence and opts for “peaceful popular resistance”

“During a speech he [Mahmoud Al-Habbash] gave at a conference on interreligious dialogue organized by the King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz International Centre for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue in the Austrian capital, Vienna, he [Al-Habbash] emphasized that the Palestinian people aspires to a just and inclusive peace which will bring prosperity, stability and security. In addition, he emphasized that the Palestinian people abhors violence, and opposes the harming of innocents, but that, at the same time, it cannot accept the continuation of the Israeli occupation and aggression, nor the continuation of [Israel’s] desecration of the holy places and human rights violations. Al-Habbash added: ‘Peaceful popular resistance is the option the Palestinian people and its leadership have chosen. This resistance is a legitimate right, guaranteed by the international organizations.’”