The Hamas administration Gaza slams as "insulting" the refusal by German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle to meet it while visiting the strip.
The Hamas administration in Gaza on Monday slammed as "insulting" the refusal by German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle to meet it while visiting the strip. Senior Hamas leader and legislator Kamal Shrafi said that while the Islamist Palestinian movement welcomed a visit by an official of his standing, it was "completely wrong to come to Gaza and not meet with the legal government's representative." Westerwelle is the first German government official to visit the Gaza Strip in nearly four years. On Monday, he visited a girls' school and toured a water treatment plant. He said he would not meet Hamas over its repeated refusal to renounce ‘violence’, honor previous Israeli-Palestinian agreements and accept Israel's right to ‘resist’. "We really condemn the refusal of officials and diplomats to hold talks with the Palestinian government, which was legally elected with transparency by the Palestinian people. Every official arriving in Gaza did not meet with anybody here, and this is really insulting," Shrafi said. "We are legal government, and I believe that it is completely wrong to come to Gaza and not meet with the legal government's representatives," Shrafi said. Westerwelle also met with Gaza businessmen Monday to discuss economic problems in the enclave, which has been under an Israeli blockade since the summer of 2006.Hamas Slams German FM’s Refusal to Meet
