The secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization, the umbrella to which the Palestinian Authority belongs, blasted calls for Hamas to disarm and transfer its civil authority to the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza on Monday. He also said that Hamas is not a terrorist group.

“They don’t want Hamas to have any role in the Strip,” said Azzam al-Ahmad in an interview with an Egyptian paper. “We completely reject this, because Hamas is part of the Palestinian national movement.”

He also said that the PLO has held “continuous national dialogue with [Hamas] in order to fulfill the requirements for their entry into the organization,” with the expectation that Hamas would join the PLO.

The PLO is internationally recognized as the organization that represents all Arabs who originate from Gaza, Judea and Samaria, wherever they live throughout the world, while the PA more narrowly administers to Arabs in parts of Judea and Samaria. The PLO, headed by al-Ahmad, establishes guiding principles for all the institutions it oversees.

Al-Ahmad insisted that the PLO “always rejected decisions issued by international institutions or governments to classify [Hamas] as a terror organization, as they are part of the Palestinian national fabric.”

“Everything that is said about disarming Hamas and that it is a terrorist group is rejected by us,” he added, stressing that “Hamas is not a terror organization.”

The Fatah official said that he also rejects any reforms to the PA’s educational materials that contain indoctrination of Jew hatred and incitement to violence against Jews and Israelis, because his folks are smarter than those calling for reform.

“We will not allow them to be modified,” he insisted. “What they are calling for is fabricated reform, and we tell them that we have minds and educated people more than you do, and we have more scholars than they do — some of whom America relies upon.”

“We challenge anyone who says that the security services are pursuing resistance fighters,” he added, unapologetic and unabashed about terror attacks carried out against Israelis.

Al-Ahmad said that the PLO has been negotiating with Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine — all terror groups — to join the body of the PLO, which he hopes will happen soon.

“We have begun … with the comrades in the Popular Front, and made significant progress with them so that they’ll return to engagement. An agreement has also been reached with the Democratic Front,” he said.

All of these groups are designated terrorist organizations with the blood of innocent civilians on their hands, having murdered or caused lifelong injuries to both Israelis and Americans.

Disturbingly, while the Palestinian Authority — the very body that al-Ahmad oversees — has not been invited to join the Board of Peace, a committee to liaise with the board has been established, with Board of Peace High Representative Nickolay Mladenov serving as the liaison.