Al-Aqsa satellite channel affiliated with Gaza-ruler Hamas on Saturday denounced a draft resolution presented to the U.S. Congress to classify it and four other televisions as terrorist organizations.
The draft resolution, presented on June 26, was "politically motivated and aimed at silencing every free voice unveiling the American and Zionist acts in the Islamic and Arab region," said Fathi Hamad, a Hamas lawmaker who heads the Gaza-based satellite channel.
The draft resolution condemned the five Middle East televisions of broadcasting incitement to violence against the United States and sponsoring recruitment and fund-raising of terrorism against Washington.
Hamad said his channel "was mainly a resistance television (which) presents programs showing the Palestinian cause and covers the activities of resistance."
Hamad praised "the prominent role these channels carry out" and called on them "to unify their efforts in facing the resolution and preventing it from taking effect."
Hamad said al-Aqsa channel "is going to take alternative steps to secure the continuation of its broadcast."
The four television channels referred in the resolution are the Lebanese Al-Manar, Iranian Al-Alam, Iraqi Al-Zawra, and Iraqi Al-Rafidayn.
The draft resolution also calls for classifying the satellites that provide service to the channels, including the Arab League's Arabsat and the Egyptian Nilesat, as terrorist organizations.
The U.S. and the European Union deem the Islamic Hamas movement as a terrorist organization and refuse to deal with it unless it recognizes Israel and renounces violence.
Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip in June 2007 after routing security forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his secular Fatah movement. Al-Aqsa channel led Hamas media campaign during the deadly fighting.
Source: Xinhua
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