At least 15 years of negotiations with Israel gave the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Palestinian presidency ample experience to know where to stand vis-a-vis successive Israeli governments. No one is more aware of Israel’s deviousness, its trickery, manipulations, and breaking of promises than the PLO. Yet, whether we like it or not, the Oslo peace accords remain the only internationally recognized basis upon which ultimately a peaceful resolution for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict will be found.
The above is being said in order to spare many the effort of preaching to the Palestinian people and their legitimate representatives on matters relating to Palestinian interests and their concerns for Palestinian unity. The PLO and the Palestinian presidency, who appreciate very much those concerns, are also much more aware, bothered, worried and even scared by and from existential threats facing the Palestinian people’s present and future, and are working day and night to quell and foil these threats.
While Hamas, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood Movement, has a different and larger agenda attached to regional interests beyond the capacity of the Palestinian people to attain, the PLO and the Fatah movement, with the help of the Arab and Muslim world supported by the international community represented by the Quartet, have in their sights the pragmatic and achievable objective of establishing an independent Palestinian state on the land occupied by Israel since June 1967, with Arab East Jerusalem as its capital, and a just agreed upon solution for Palestinian refugees.
It is envisioned that such a state, once established in accordance with international legitimacy resolutions, the Arab peace initiative, first proposed by then Crown Prince Abdullah at the Beirut Arab summit and relaunched at the Riyadh summit last March, and President Bush’s two-state vision, will live in peace and harmony with its neighbors, and will take its rightful place amongst the community of nations, contributing fully toward world stability and prosperity.
In view of and despite what is said above, the idea of conducting a dialogue with Hamas is not rejected by Fatah or the Palestinian presidency, but is a question of how and under which conditions and on what terms the dialogue should take place.
While Hamas was in office it refused to recognize the agreements the PLO signed with Israel under which the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) itself was established, and the Palestinian Legislative Elections in which Hamas participated, were conducted. As a result of Hamas’ refusal, the international community imposed a crippling siege on the Palestinian people, and did not conduct any political or economic dialogue, discussions, or talks with the Hamas-controlled government. This, over time has weakened the Palestinian people’s capacity to stand steadfast on their land. It has allowed and justified Israel and its occupation forces to attack, kill and wreak havoc in Palestinian cities, towns, villages, and refugee camps, pushed tens of thousands of Palestinians to leave their homeland, and worse still, allowed Israel’s propaganda machine to successfully associate the Palestinian people’s struggle for freedom and independence, with terrorism despised by the whole world.
While in office, Hamas wanted the international community to come to its world view, rejected all possible leeway put before it in order to attain international legitimacy and recognition, insisted on implementing its own agenda, sacrificed the interests and the welfare of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian government employees who went without pay for more than 15 months in a row. This, while people loyal to Hamas enjoyed full pay and were not affected by the sanctions imposed on the majority of the Palestinian general public.
Having realized its policies are not working, its popularity is dwindling, and the Palestinian people under occupation no longer are capable of taking more internal or external crippling pressures, Hamas, instead of modifying its policies to deflect the mounting pressure, chose to mount a coup in Gaza, and violently took over all PNA and PLO institutions there.
Worse still, Hamas rejected all of Abbas’ presidential decrees, defied his orders, and began attacking the president and the new Palestinian emergency government headed by Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, all the while calling for dialogue!
What kind of dialogue Hamas is calling for, and on what basis? All concerned should rest assured that a dialogue will begin once Hamas first accepts all presidential decrees, including the decree dissolving Haniyeh’s previous government. When it apologizes to the Palestinian people for what it did, and restored all PNA and presidential institutions to their previous status.
Barring that, it is incumbent on the Palestinian president and the emergency government of Salam Fayyad to save Gaza and its people from the difficult situation it is in now. All measures and steps necessary to end the current isolation of Gaza and to politically and physically reunite the area with the West Bank must be taken and given the utmost Palestinian, Arab, Muslim and international support.
The coup Hamas mounted in Gaza created new realities, and opportunities. The measures taken by the new Palestinian emergency government, which by the way, satisfy all Palestinian obligations toward the first phase of the road map agreement requirements, should be reciprocated by Israel, which must implement its side of the said agreement. The world community and the Quartet in particular, should not allow Israel to escape its obligations. The time to resume meaningful peace negotiations is with us now. The Quartet must not squander this opportunity, which if missed, might never return with the same players in place again.
— Walid M. Awad works for the Central Media Commission in Ramallah, Palestine.
