“We, in Hamas, welcome the establishment of the Unified National Leadership of the Popular Resistance and the issuing of the first statement by this body, which represents a practical step to turn the national consensus into measures on the ground,” HAMAS said.

Describing the forming of this body as a herald of the beginning of the implementation of the national decisions taken during last week’s meeting of Palestinian secretaries-general in Beirut, HAMAS added: “We are confident that all Palestinian national institutions will proceed with more steps to turn the rejection of all projects intended to liquidate the Palestinian cause into practical moves.” 

“All Palestinian factions have agreed to start implementing the outcomes of the secretaries-general’s meeting. As some Arab nations are scrambling to normalize ties with the Israeli occupation, forming a unified Palestinian leadership has been put on top of the meeting’s agenda, taking into account the necessity of all Palestinians to cooperate in maintaining their internal unity and casting aside all their differences to save their cause.”

HAMAS went on to say: “We laud the massive and immediate response by all Palestinian factions and institutions to handle all dangers posed to the Palestinian cause and the Palestinian National Project.”

“We are confident that the Palestinian public is able to take the initiative and make moves to undermine any proposal aimed at liquidating the Palestinian cause by imposing solutions that will not achieve the Palestinians’ aspirations and national goals,” HAMAS concluded.

The Unified National Leadership of the Uprising (UNLU) (al-Qiyada al Muwahhada) was a coalition of the Local Palestinian leadership during the First Intifada and played an important role in mobilizing grassroots support for the uprising. In 1987.

The Intifada caught the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) by surprise, the leadership abroad could only indirectly influence the events. A new local leadership emerged, the Unified National Leadership of the Uprising (UNLU), comprising many leading Palestinian factions. The disturbances, initially spontaneous, soon came under local leadership from groups and organizations loyal to the PLO that operated within the West Bank and Gaza Strip; Fatah, the Popular Front, the Democratic Front and the Palestine Communist Party.

The UNLU was the focus of the social cohesion that sustained the persistent disturbances. (ILKHA)