Khaled Mashaal took to the stage at the forum to repeat Hamas’ rejection of calls to disarm.
By Dina Bucholz, Jewish Breaking News
Khaled Mashaal, speaking at the 17th Al Jazeera Forum in Doha, Qatar, wrapped up his message with the most exquisite of Freudian slips. “To a free Israel, with God’s help,” the video clip with subtitles that has gone viral on social media shows him saying, in a sharp departure from his strong messaging discipline. “Thank you very much, and a free Palestine,” he adds, quickly recovering.
Although the published transcript does not record the slip-up, the remark was immediately clipped and posted to Israeli social media, where it quickly made the rounds.
Mashaal took to the stage at the forum to repeat Hamas’ rejection of calls to disarm.
“As long as our people are under occupation, talk of disarmament is an attempt to turn our people into victims, to make their elimination easier and to facilitate their destruction at the hands of the Israeli side, which is armed with every international means of warfare,” Mashaal said.
“Questions about the resistance’s weapons are being raised forcefully,” he continued. “Some want to place it in the context that whoever carried out Oct. 7 must be cornered and made to pay the price. As those who participated in the resistance, we must not accept this.”
In 1997, Israel attempted to assassinate Mashaal, poisoning him while he was in Amman, Jordan. Jordan’s then–King Hussein threatened to kill everyone involved in the plot and end the peace deal with Israel unless it supplied the antidote. Israel did so, and Mashaal survived.
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