Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority. Photo: WEF.

Hamas demanded the resignation of Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas after Abbas said Israel “was founded in order to remain and not in order to vanish” as the result of a nuclear war with Iran, the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) reported Sept. 18.

“We have condemned such statements coming from Israeli leaders, so we must certainly [condemn them] when made by a Palestinian,” said Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri, who called the comments “a shock to the Palestinian people.”

Abbas made his remark during a recent meeting in Ramallah with a group of rabbis led by former Israel Minister of Social & Diaspora Affairs Michael Melchior, according to MEMRI. The PA leader, while saying Israel should not “vanish,” maintained that the Jewish state’s existence “should not be at the expense of the absent Palestinian state.” Nevertheless, Hamas disavowed the comments.