The phrase “from the river to the sea” is a call for extermination, the Palestinian ambassador to the UK acknowledged on an episode of Piers Morgan Uncensored.

Discussing the conflict in the Middle East, Husam Zomlot claimed that the phrase originated with Israelis using it to advocate the erasure of the Palestinian people.

When questioned about Hamas’s use of genocidal language in referring to Israel, Zomlot told Morgan: “I don’t know what language you’re talking about.”

He went on, “About Hamas as genocidal and exterminating the other, I haven’t seen anything written. But I have read about the charter of Likud,” he said – referring to the Israeli ruling party’s election manifesto of 1977.

Zomlot said: “In the charter, they say the land of Israel is from the river to the sea, [meaning the] complete extermination [and] erasure of Palestine and the Palestinians.”

He asked Morgan: “Why don’t you talk about that?”

When Morgan said, “It works both ways”, the ambassador said it was different when the phrase was used by Hamas, because Israel is a state actor in the UN, while Hamas is a group.

When asked whether he saw Hamas playing a political role in Palestine after the war, Zomlot answered in the affirmative.

“As far as they commit [and] adhere to the framework of the national institutions, the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), and there is a dialogue right now,” he said.

He reiterated that Hamas and any other “Palestinian faction” would have a role in Palestine’s future, as long as they commit to “the end of Israel’s occupation that begun in 1967, the establishment a sovereign Palestinian state on that land with Jerusalem as its capital, resolving the issue of Palestinian refugees in accordance with international law, [and] respecting the right to go back to their homes.”

When Morgan told Zomlot that Hamas’s original 1988 covenant called for the “complete destruction of Israel as an essential condition for the liberation of Palestine and the establishment of a theocratic state based on Islamic law,” Zomlot said: “We are not talking about this.”

“I don’t know where you got that from. Who sent it to you?” he asked Morgan.