Palestinian President describes Easter Rising as 'courageous and legitimate'

PRESIDENT OF PALESTINE Mahmoud Abbas has described the Easter Rising of 1916 as “legitimate and courageous” in a message to the 2016 Sinn Féin Ard Fheis in Dublin. 

“Every nation has the right to self-determination,” he said.

Abbas compared the Easter Rising with the Palestinian struggle for their own free and independent state.

“I recall Gerry Adams’s visit to Palestine in December 2014. I highly value Ireland’s parliamentary vote to recognise the State of Palestine owing to the motion presented by Sinn Féin,” the Chairperson of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) said.

Wishing Sinn Féin well, he praised the leadership of Gerry Adams TD, noting:

“Gerry Adams is a brave leader who was an instrumental figure in the achievement of peace, as was the Palestinian leadership and President Yasser Arafat in 1993 when they signed the Oslo Agreement.”