Palestinian Factions Seek Unity Government, Plan Elections
April 28, 2011, 9:27 AM EDTBy Mariam Fam and Gwen Ackerman
(Updates with Abbas comments in ninth paragraph.)
April 28 (Bloomberg) -- The rival Palestinian Hamas and Fatah groups reached a preliminary agreement to end their almost four-year divide, form a unity government and hold elections.
Egypt, which acted as mediator during the secret talks, will host a meeting of Palestinian factions next week for a formal signing ceremony, Fatah negotiator Azzam al-Ahmad said.
The understanding follows protests in March in which thousands of Palestinians, inspired by the popular uprisings in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya, rallied in support of reconciliation between Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, and the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority, headed by Mahmoud Abbas, which rules the West Bank.
“Unity is good for everyone,” said Samir Abdullah, director of the Ramallah-based Palestine Economic Policy Research Institute. “It will bring back the democratic life that is the most valuable asset for the Palestinian people in their drive for statehood.”
Israel said the deal would kill any chance for peace talks and the U.S. said Hamas can’t play a “constructive role” as long as it is unwilling to accept Israel’s right to exist. Hamas -- considered a terrorist organization by the U.S., the European Union and Israel -- rejects the peace negotiations and refuses to recognize the Jewish state.
The announcement also comes as Palestinian Authority officials lobby Western countries to recognize a Palestinian state in September, a move they say they will take if stalled peace talks with Israel are not resumed.
‘Declaration of Statehood’
“If we think of the Palestinian Authority being serious about the declaration of statehood in September, it would have been absurd with two authorities,” said Jonathan Spyer, a political scientist at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, outside Tel Aviv. “We will see how far they get.”
The Palestinian split dates to 2007, when Hamas ousted Abbas’s forces from the Gaza Strip, ending a coalition government, a year after winning parliamentary elections.
Abbas said in Ramallah today after meeting Israeli peace activists that he will set the policy of the new government and name the Cabinet. When asked about the future of Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, whose economic and administrative reforms have won praise from Western leaders, he said: “It is too early to talk about who will be prime minister.”
Gazans celebrated in the streets yesterday, Mkhaimar Abusada, a political scientist at Gaza’s Al-Azhar University, said in a phone interview. “This is a very significant for the Palestinian people,” he said.
Syria and Iran
Abdullah said the reconciliation may hold “because of the experience of the parties that division brought no one any good, as well as the fact that changes in the region removed some of the environmental aspects supporting the division,” pointing to unrest in Syria and Iran, two countries that have been supporters of Hamas.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a unity agreement would put an end to negotiations and said the Palestinian Authority “must choose between peace with Israel and peace with Hamas.” President Shimon Peres said it would prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state and “sabotage any chance for peace.”
Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman said the agreement “crosses a red line” and suggested the government withhold tax revenue it transfers to the Palestinian Authority and rescind travel permits for its officials. A clause providing for the release of Hamas prisoners from Palestinian jails “will flood the West Bank with armed terrorists,” Liberman told Army Radio today. “The army will have to act accordingly.”
Stalled Talks
Negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority broke down several weeks after they started in September, when Netanyahu refused to extend a partial 10-month construction freeze in the West Bank and Abbas said he wouldn’t negotiate until all construction was halted.
Hamas leaders have said that the U.S.-backed talks can’t succeed because the Palestinian negotiators have made too many concessions that don’t have public support.
While the U.S. supports Palestinian reconciliation “on terms which promote the cause of peace,” that will only be the case if Palestinian parties “renounce violence, abide by past agreements and recognize Israel’s right to exist,” National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor said.
--With assistance from Nicole Gaouette in Washington, Calev Ben-David in Jerusalem and Jonathan Ferziger in Tel Aviv. Editors: Louis Meixler, Terry Atlas, Ben Holland, Leon Mangasarian.
To contact the reporters on this story: Mariam Fam in Cairo at mfam1@bloomberg.net; Gwen Ackerman in Jerusalem at gackerman@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew J. Barden at barden@bloomberg.net
