PALESTINIAN RECONCILIATION
Agreement Lacks Mechanism for Implementation
The reconciliation agreement, which was signed by 14 Palestinian factions in Algeria, requires political will to be implemented on the ground, leading to an end to the 15-year-old conflict and division between the “Hamas” movement, which controls the Gaza Strip, and the “Fatah” movement, which rules the West Bank.
It is not the first time that the two movements signed a reconciliation agreement between them. They did it always without finding means for implementation. None of nine articles of the agreement signed in Algeria stipulates a mechanism for implementation or a time frame. It leaves the door open to the challenges of implementing it. This threatens the very agreement to be aborted even before its ink dries.
The Israelis and their allies are trying to remove the Palestinian cause as a central and only issue of the common people facing the most severe types of occupation and turn it into a mere internal crisis between a “hardline” and a “moderate” factions.
However, the internal Palestinian situation needs more than a mere formal agreement between the factions. It needs understanding, dialogue and unification of efforts to reach a national consensus among the various Palestinian forces and factions. This is required so that they can confront the hostilities of the Israeli occupation. This will only be done through reaching a peaceful and safe mechanism to get rid of factional conflicts. In the wake of sufferings of Palestinian people, the path of the internal struggle for power is no longer affordable.
[by Omar Kosh in Syria TV]
The announcement of Palestinian reconciliation from Algeria, this week, will not be able to bring any joy and good news to the Palestinian people, if the decisions just remain ink on paper.
The Palestinian national reconciliation cannot progress one iota if the security coordination remains the main concern of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah. At the same time, Palestinian reconciliation cannot move one step forward unless the existing authority in the Gaza Strip changes its priorities in establishing its exclusive rule over the strip and shows real openness on the ground towards building a national unity of all factions in the region and develop participation in the governance. This is necessary as a prelude to building confidence among the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, inculcating hope for development of a national unity which is not just a grandiloquence.
The factions which signed the Algeria Declaration, particularly Fatah and Hamas, will have to translate their assurances into actual steps, and stop rhetoric against each other. This is not only because they are the two largest factions, but also because each of them practically and effectively governs a large part of the Palestinian people.
All this will not happen without restoring the confidence of the Palestinian people themselves in their national leadership. It is a task which is not easy, as much as it will be a long process. This is because building what the Palestinian leadership has lost over the past 15 years will not be easy and swift.
[by Nidhal Mohammad Watid in Arab48]
Compiled and translated by Faizul Haque