You put things differently in a press conference than you do in a fund raiser. This message, from Hamas Interior Minister Fathi Hammad, is for internal consumption:
We all have Arab roots and every Palestinian, in Gaza and throughout Palestine, can prove his Arab roots – whether from Saudi Arabia, from Yemen, or anywhere. We have blood ties.
Personally, half my family is Egyptian. We’re all like that. More than 30 families in the Gaza Strip are called Al-Masri (“Egyptian”). Brothers, half of the Palestinians are Egyptians and the other half are Saudis.
Who are the Palestinians?
We have many families called Al-Masri, whose roots are Egyptian. Egyptian!
They may be from Alexandria, from Cairo, from Dumietta, from the North, from Aswan, from Upper Egypt.
We are Egyptians. We are Arabs. We are Muslims.
Good to know…
