Palestinian Reconciliation... After Welcoming

Written by: Dr. Hassan Abu Talib
For the seventh time in 15 years, the “Hamas” and “Fatah” movements in Algeria agreed to start a comprehensive reconciliation, in an effort to overcome the great division that began in 2007 after the victory of the “Hamas” movement in the legislative elections that took place in 2006, which turned it into a The status of a Palestinian faction resisting the occupation to a ruling party as a de facto in the Gaza Strip, but without the legitimacy of representing the Palestinians before the world, which remained confined to the National Authority, and its president, Mahmoud Abbas.
It is known that this formula of division, with its political and geographical dimensions, restricted the movement and symbolism of the authority, and “Fatah” in particular, which represents its backbone on the one hand, and the “Hamas” movement and the factions that converged with it on the other, most notably the “Islamic Jihad” movement, and the division also gave Israel freedom of movement. Huge effort to escape from all the commitments contained in the Oslo Accords, including freezing the negotiating process and thwarting all efforts that have been made, unleashing settlements in the Palestinian territories and changing their geographical and demographic features, and questioning the authority’s eligibility as a partner in the negotiation process.
Unexpected Arab and international developments, as well as uncalculated ones, came to add more restrictions to the endeavors and efforts to rehabilitate the Palestinian cause in the international and regional arenas. The situation in the occupied West Bank has also evolved in the past two years towards armed resistance to the occupation, led by groups of Palestinian youth independent of the major factions, to represent a security and political problem for the national authority, and a burden and a blatant challenge to the occupation.
Getting out of the circle of division and agreeing to end it, after years of getting used to it, is a praiseworthy goal in itself, but intentions, however good, are not sufficient to reach the hoped-for national unity, and here the will to act and show flexibility on all sides to achieve unity and solidarity and restore respect for the Palestinian cause They are two prerequisites for success and turning understandings into a living reality.
This principled context makes Algeria's efforts to achieve comprehensive Palestinian reconciliation commendable, especially in light of the larger goal of holding an Arab summit early next month. Greater Arabia economically and politically, and reviving the latent capabilities of the Arab system to face the crises and challenges surrounding it from every side.
According to the Algiers Declaration, which was accepted by the Palestinian factions, it is confirmed that the terms of reconciliation themselves are nothing new from those contained in the documents that were signed by the same factions or the vast majority of them, in Cairo, in the years 2017, 2018 and 2019, and stipulated the need for national unity and support for efforts to resist the Israeli occupation with all its forms, activating the role of the Palestine Liberation Organization, forming a national unity government, holding legislative and presidential elections, ending the division between the West Bank, where the political and administrative structure of the National Authority is, and the Gaza Strip, which is under the control of “Hamas”, and extending the application of Palestinian laws to the Strip as an embodiment of the geographical unity of the occupied territories. , Supporting the legitimacy of the authority in confronting the occupation, and formulating a strategic position that adheres to the right of the Palestinians to an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital, and takes into account the requirements of negotiation with a fierce enemy and the fluctuations of the powers sponsoring this negotiation, led by the United States.
According to the Palestinian experience in dealing with these previous reconciliations, the main sources of disagreement seem to depend mainly on the divergence of the intellectual and ideological vision of Fatah and Hamas, along with the factions of political Islam and the military resistance movement, towards the principle of negotiations and peaceful resistance, and the weapons of the Palestinian factions that are not subject to the laws of the National Authority. , and the principles that will govern the process of legally extending the influence of the National Authority to the Gaza Strip, how to hold legislative and presidential elections, and how a national unity government will be formed, whatever its description, especially the stage before the elections, and also after them if they are actually held.
And in the context of the positions that governed the last reconciliation process that took place in Cairo in 2021 and included a clear agreement to hold legislative and presidential elections, in which all factions would participate without restrictions in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and occupied East Jerusalem, which were elections that President Mahmoud Abbas postponed on the pretext that the occupation refused to hold the elections. In Jerusalem, and therefore the elections are completely canceled, despite the preparations that have already taken place, which proves that there are structural reasons related to the extent and size of the popularity of the “Fatah” movement compared to other factions, whether in the West Bank or the Gaza Strip, in addition to the ambiguity of President Mahmoud Abbas’s decision regarding candidacy. In the presidential elections, it is the one that halted the elections and led to Palestinian indolence regarding the rest of the reconciliation clauses, and a return to square one.
Also, according to the Algiers Declaration, which is the basis for the recent reconciliation, it is clear that many practical steps need to conduct dialogues and put points on the letters before proceeding with them in practice. Elections will be held, and will the factions have to re-examine this issue again, or will they reaffirm the rules that were agreed upon in Cairo in 2020 regarding the elections and the formation of the government before and after them, and what the Arab Follow-up Committee can offer to reach detailed, applicable agreements.
The statements of some representatives of the Palestinian factions indicate that the practical aspects are not subject to agreement yet. Azzam Al-Ahmad, representative of “Fatah” and the National Authority, stressed in statements to the Algerian newspaper “Akhbar Al-Youm” that it was agreed to resolve all the issues that were the subject of disagreement between the Palestinian parties, but he went on to say that “the discussion of forming the government was postponed after settling the issue of organizing general elections.” And the unity of the factions under the banner of the Palestine Liberation Organization, with defining the tasks of the general secretaries to work on reconciliation and resolving differences.” A revealing statement that simply means that there are many basic issues that have not yet been agreed upon. In turn, Anwar Raja, a member of the political bureau of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, stressed in the same Algerian newspaper, “the importance of activating the Palestine Liberation Organization with its institutions and a political program at the current stage,” which are issues that witness sharp differences between the Palestinian parties due to the different visions regarding how to deal with international developments. , especially after the war in Ukraine, and he went on to say: “As for the issue of the life affairs of the Palestinians, whether in the West Bank or Gaza, it will be discussed later.”
Postponing discussion of these issues, which constitute the essence of comprehensive reconciliation, means that the space for divergence is still greater than the space for convergence, which places a double burden on Algeria and the Arab Follow-up Committee, leading to binding understandings for all.

In agreement with the "Middle East"