Erekat made the comment in response to a question from The Jerusalem Post regarding recent Israeli allegations that some of the organizations participating in the event were linked to the two groups.
Earlier during the forum, he called Hamas a “Palestinian political party.”“We are a people who strive to achieve our independence, and our choice in the PLO, the Palestine Liberation Organization, is to achieve peace peacefully through negotiations,” he added.
Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon released a statement on Wednesday saying that according to intelligence, the group Al-Haq, whose representative was to speak at the event, collaborates with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, known as the PFLP. Earlier this month, the PFLP claimed responsibility for the murder of policewoman Hadas Malka, killed in a June 16 stabbing attack just outside Jerusalem’s Old City.
In addition, the Israeli mission said information it had received showed that the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, another group at the conference, works regularly with Hamas.
Both Hamas and the PFLP have been on the US State Department’s list of terrorist organizations since 1997. The European Union, too, recognizes them as such.
“They have no shame,” Danon said.
“These are lies and incitement from those who are paying terrorists to kill innocent Israelis. These obsessive attempts to besmirch our good name will not change the fact that the Palestinian leadership refuses to end their support for terror.”
As part of his address to the forum, Erekat also accused Israel’s prime minister of promoting apartheid.
“The Israeli government headed by Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu,” he said, “is trying to replace the two-state solution with one state/two systems: apartheid. Ignoring facts does not mean they don’t exist.”