Cairo is likely to witness new rounds of dialogue these days between the Palestinian factions, in an attempt to reach an agreement on national unity – something that has been absent since 2007. This would depend on overcoming the obstacles related to the conditions set by the President, which Hamas and most other factions reject, after all previous reconciliation attempts in various Arab and friendly capitals failed.
The incidents of October 7 have made the situation even more complicated. The official Palestinian leadership has increasingly adopted a policy of survival – staying neutral, waiting, and avoiding provocations – fearing the collapse of the Authority and the spread of war to the West Bank. On the other hand, Hamas has expressed its willingness to relinquish the administration of Gaza and to open the door for forming a non-factional national unity government, or a community support committee, while accepting a long-term truce.
At the same time, the Palestinian scene has witnessed positive developments, most notably Hamas’s acceptance of the principles of international law and United Nations resolutions, and its affirmation in its 2017 political document of the goal of establishing a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders, along with asserting its independence from the Muslim Brotherhood. These developments open a new window for national understanding, even though the disagreements over the “national programme, commitments, and the role of the Authority” remain deep.
If a comprehensive agreement “from the top” cannot be immediately reached on the programme or the government – unless positive surprises occur – it is still possible to begin with practical preparatory steps, both “from the bottom up” and “from the top down,” as circumstances allow:
- Form a unified administration that accommodates political and ideological pluralism, paving the way for leadership unity while safeguarding national interests.
- Approve a national media charter that prohibits incitement, defamation, excommunication, exclusion, and the monopolisation of patriotism, religion, or truth.
- Establish a national unity government or a national support committee linked to the government to restore authority to Gaza.
- Create a unified negotiating delegation with a national mandate to discuss the “day after.”
- Organise joint field activities to confront settlement expansion, annexation, and settler attacks on citizens, their properties, and holy sites.
- Form popular and community committees at all levels to address the consequences of genocide, destruction, and displacement, and to resist annexation and settlement schemes in the West Bank and Gaza – while ensuring that reconstruction efforts respond to Palestinian priorities and needs.
- Prepare for local, syndicate, university, and union elections as a step toward comprehensive general elections.
These steps represent a practical and foundational framework upon which unity can be gradually built, away from mere rhetoric and slogans.
Achieving Palestinian unity may be politically costly for some, but it remains far less costly than the continuation of division – which threatens the very existence of the national project. Unity is not an option or a luxury; it is a national necessity, an existential imperative that enables the Palestinian people to confront and overcome the occupation and its schemes, and to rebuild the Palestinian scene on the basis of partnership and genuine representation.
Failure to achieve unity – or at least partial reconciliation steps toward it – would open the door to adopting new approaches that rely more heavily on the people themselves, their initiatives, and the broader national movement – whether through existing factions or new formations. The goal would be to shape a realistic yet ambitious political project that balances aims with suitable forms of struggle, maintaining the right to employ all legitimate means of resistance, grounded in justice, effectiveness, endurance, and the steadfast pursuit of victory.
[by Hani Al-Masri in Arab 48]
Compiled and translated by Faizul Haque