World Should Support Palestinian Consensus Government

Rasa - Palestinians are only as strong as they are united, and as weak as they are divided. After all, when there is no enemy within, the enemies outside cannot hurt you.

News ID: 433103

Date: 13 October 2017 - 23:38

RNA - On Thursday in Cairo, officials from both Hamas and Fatah signed the long-anticipated agreement to reform the Palestinian Authority, meaning the PA will retake control over the Gaza Strip, and the Gaza and West Bank security forces will merge. The deal is intended to allow for new elections across Palestine for the first time since 2006. In that election, Hamas won a majority of seats. Fatah refused to join the government, and the two sides were at odds until 2007, when they split outright.

There have been talks of unity deals in the past, but none had progressed nearly this far. Putting the Palestinian Authority under both de jure and de facto control of the Gaza Strip is likely to compel major changes in Israel’s illegal blockade.

For the start, the new unity government has a lot catching up to do. For example, it could help the Palestinians to exert more pressure on the usurper regime of Israel to stop building new illegal settlement units on the occupied territories. To this end, the agreement must be supported by the United Nations and the European Union.

That the United States cannot be part of this international support drive is beyond dispute. Just like Tel Aviv, the political class in Washington will never support any kind of unity between the Palestinians. To substantiate, it suffices to state that the United States has formally notified the UN’s world heritage body UNESCO that it is withdrawing its membership of the organisation citing “continuing anti-Israel bias.” The announcement by the Trump administration was followed a few hours later by news that Israel was also planning to quit the financially struggling cultural and educational agency.

The body is best known for its world heritage listings of outstanding cultural and natural sites but has often drawn the ire of Israel and the Trump administration for a series of decisions, including the listing of Hebron, a city in the southern part of the occupied Palestinian territories, as a Palestinian world heritage site.

Nor is that all. Back in 2011, the US also cancelled its budget contribution to UNESCO in protest against the admission of Palestine as a full member. The US withdrawal was proof that the UN resolutions against Israel would have consequences.

Moreover, though Israel has been building at a rapid pace. The current rate of illegal expansion means Israel seeks a record year of settlement expansion. This is in no small part because President Trump is seen as very accommodating to the construction. Trump has at times criticized the expansions, and the US and Israel were briefly in talks earlier this year on an understanding on the settlement. Israel rejected all such proposals, however, and just went back to building.

That said, it is still in the interest of the long-suffering people of Palestine and of a legitimate and representative government for the world community to support the intra-Palestinian reconciliation deal – even though Netanyahu has warned that Tel Aviv would never negotiate with any government backed by Hamas, much less bet on peace or stop building illegal settlement units.

For now, though, the status quo may seem politically safer for Israel in the short term but it cannot deliver any long term gains. Leadership is about making possible what is necessary, and peace is necessary in the region. Peace and security for the Palestinians are moral imperatives for the international community.

So while the new government will help reunify Palestinians, it will not do much to restart the broken up peace talks that failed because of Israeli overstretching and changing the goal posts. Netanyahu’s attempts to push Palestinians to recognize the Jewishness of Israel has been the most obvious sign that he is not ready to make peace despite the verbal words. The US also needs to understand that it can’t just allow the conflict to go on while it supports one side financially and politically yet tries to claim that the parties have to find a solution. The US needs to have a much more effective strategy.

For the Palestinians the only way ahead is unity. Both sides need to appear as serious leaders trying to address their public opinions and their lawful cause for freedom ad self-determination. In between, President Abbas also needs to improve his immune system against the inevitable incoming fire from Israel and the United States.

847/940