Fourteen Palestinian parties, including Fatah and Hamas, signed a “national unity” declaration in Beijing on Tuesday. Its aim is to maintain Palestinian control over Gaza when the war ends.
The groups pledge to work together to unite Palestinian institutions in the West Bank and Gaza, and say they are preparing for national elections, although no concrete plans have yet been made.
Part of the new agreement is that Hamas will become part of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). This is a coalition of Palestinian parties that signed the Oslo Accords with Israel in 1993. These accords gave rise to the Palestinian Authority (PA), which became responsible for their implementation. Since then, the PA has controlled parts of the West Bank. Fatah dominates both the PLO and the PA.
Reconciliation between Islamist Hamas and secular Fatah would be a turning point. The two largest Palestinian political parties have been bitter rivals since 2007. Hamas defeated President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party in parliamentary elections. When it did not recognise the result, all party members were forcibly expelled from the Gaza Strip and Hamas has ruled there alone ever since. By contrast, Hamas members also speak of the torture to which they were exposed by the PA.
Cooperation with Israel
And while both groups accept the 1967 borders — East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank — for Palestinian statehood, they are far apart in terms of cooperation with Israel. Hamas does not recognize Israel and has never agreed to lay down its arms, said Gershon Baskin, an Israeli columnist and researcher who has negotiated with Hamas for years. Fatah is more cooperative. “In Hamas’ eyes, Fatah, and therefore the Palestinian Authority and the PLO, are traitors because they cooperate with Israel on security issues.”
The question, then, is whether the unity deal will make any difference. Multiple attempts to reconcile the two sides and unite the two Palestinian territories under a single administration failed miserably. In 2017, that agreement collapsed almost immediately when Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah visited Gaza and a bomb exploded near his convoy. Hamdallah’s Fatah party immediately blamed Hamas.
The question is whether Palestinian parties are now at a “historic crossroads,” as Hamas MK Abu Marzouk said on Tuesday. The proof is in the pudding, according to the Palestinians. ““We’ll see if it’s implemented first,” Baskin said.
The 14 parties hope the plan will allow them to retain Palestinian power after the war, because Hamas will not be able to do so on its own. It remains unclear what role Hamas would play in the planned unity government. Neither Israel nor the United States would approve a postwar plan that would leave Hamas in control of Gaza.
Favorable for China
China is already taking drastic measures, says Maria Papageorgiou, professor of politics and international relations at the University of Exeter. “Beijing has long said it wants stability and peace in the Middle East and criticises the US for failing to take into account both sides in the conflict. Now China has shown it can negotiate and be one of the actors responsible for ending the war in Gaza.”
“China has invested heavily in the region over the past ten years and wants to safeguard its economic interests. For the same reasons, China led talks between Saudi Arabia and Iran a year ago and reached out to the Houthis.”
But to truly achieve a ceasefire in Gaza, China will have to involve Israel, Papageorgiou says. “The US will not accept that, given all the aid it gives to Israel. And China is far from able and willing to replace US military assistance in the region.”
Officials from the United States, Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) also met last Thursday to discuss the management of Gaza after the war, the American news site Axios reports. They are said to have met secretly in Abu Dhabi.
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