GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories: Palestinians should liberate their land, not beg for recognition at the United Nations, the Islamist group Hamas said Friday, firmly rejecting President Mahmoud Abbas’ quest for statehood at the U.N. General Assembly.

Speaking hours before Abbas was due to ask formally that the United Nations recognize a Palestinian state, senior Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said this would not bring independence.

“Our Palestinian people do not beg for a state … States are not built upon U.N. resolutions. States liberate their land and establish their entities,” said Haniyeh who heads the Hamas administration in the Gaza Strip.

Later, Gaza’s Hamas rulers dismissed Abbas’ attempt to secure United Nations membership as a step with “no substance.”

“Abbas’ speech to the United Nations was an emotional speech which succeeded in presenting Palestinian suffering, but he failed to discuss ways of confronting the occupation while linking his U.N. bid to negotiation with the occupation, making it a step with no substance,” Sami Abu Zuhri, a spokesman for the Islamist movement, told AFP, shortly after the Palestinian leader addressed the U.N. General Assembly.

Hamas government spokesman Taher al-Nunu also denounced Abbas’ speech for seeking a return to some form of negotiation with Israel.

“There is a contradiction in Abu Mazen’s speech between the reality and the solutions he presented,” Hamas government spokesman Taher al-Nunu told AFP, using Abbas’s nom-de-guerre.

“While he diagnosed the reality well, he said he was determined to return to negotiations and recognition of the Israeli occupation,” he said. “Finding sterile solutions does not meet the demands of the Palestinian people.”

Although Hamas has not actively opposed the move to seek U.N. membership, the Islamist movement says it was not consulted over the strategy and does not believe it will achieve concrete results in ending the Israeli occupation.

Earlier this month, senior Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya said the campaign should be seeking membership for a Palestinian state on all of “historical Palestine” – including areas now in Israel.

In May, Hamas and Abbas’ Fatah movement signed an unexpected reconciliation which has yet to be fully implemented, with both sides keen to avoid issues that could exacerbate tensions.