The Islamist Hamas movement that rules the Gaza Strip slammed a speech by Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Wednesday, saying it confirmed US "hostility" to Arabs and Muslims.
"We consider the statements of Obama to be further evidence of the hostility of the American administration to Arabs and Muslims," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said.
In the speech delivered to a powerful US-Israel lobby group in Washington, Obama reaffirmed his support for Israel and said Jerusalem should remain Israel’s "undivided" capital.
Palestinians, including moderate president Mahmud Abbas, have demanded that east Jerusalem — occupied and annexed by Israel in the 1967 war — be the capital of their promised future state.
Obama did however say he would push for a negotiated settlement to the decades-old conflict if he is elected to the White House in November.
Abu Zuhri said Obama’s statements on Jerusalem "confirm the consensus of the two American political parties on unlimited aid to the (Israeli) occupation at the expense of Palestinians and Arabs."
The speech, he said, "destroys any hope for change in American policies toward the Arab-Israeli conflict."
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