Spotlight: Ending Israel-Palestine conflict remains hopeless amid violent tensions

An ongoing wave of violent tensions between Israel and the Palestinians has rendered the hope to make peace between the two sides even slimmer.

The Palestinians threatened to redefine their ties with Israel, including the signed security and economic agreements, as well as continuing to seek membership in the UN agencies.

In the meantime, they still have not figured out a way to end internal divides between Islamic Hamas movement and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

TENSION WAVE

The last three months witnessed the outbreak of violence between Israel and the Palestinians. About 130 Palestinians were killed and thousands injured in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, while about 20 Israelis were killed in a series of shooting, stabbing and cars ramming attacks carried out by Palestinian youths.

Palestinian factions, opposing the peace process, call the wave an "Intifada" or uprising, while the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) calls it a "Popular Blast" and holds Israel responsible for it.

"This wave of tension was the most significant Palestinian event in 2015 and swayed the Palestinian-Israeli file," Hani Habib, a Gaza political analyst told Xinhua, adding "this wave replaced the stalled peace process and was the natural outcome of the failure of this process."

Habib also said that the current wave of tension was a Palestinian response to moving the Palestinian cause to the footnote of the regional and international interests, adding "this wave brought the Palestinian cause back to the front of the densely events in the world."

ALTERNATIVE ATTITUDE

Throughout 2015, there were no serious actions to resume the peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, which had been stalled since 2014. The talks lasted for nine months under the U.S. sponsorship, but it failed in early 2014, due to deep differences between over borders and settlement.

The situation urged Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) to seek for alternatives to the lifeless peace process by adopting a series of plans to move the file of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict to the UN Security Council and the UN General Assembly.

The PLO Central Council in March approved several decisions, including the redefinition of the ties with Israel.

In parallel to these efforts, the Palestinians managed in April to officially become a full member in the International Criminal Court (ICC) following the UN General Assembly decision of upgrading the Palestinians representations to a non-member observer state.

With the full ICC membership, the Palestinians applied two files related to Israeli settlement construction in the Palestinian territories and to the air and ground offensive Israel waged on the Gaza Strip in the summer of 2014.

Israel and the United States reject any Palestinian diplomatic moves and bids to the international agencies, mainly the ICC, which Israel threatened the Palestinians of sanctions in response.

INTERNAL FEUDS

In 2015, the Palestinians were still suffering from weakness due to being unable to put an end to their ongoing internal feuds and split which began in 2007.

These feuds and differences between Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah Party have mounted after the two agreed in 2014 on forming a consensus technocrat government.

Yet Hamas still keeps its grip on the Gaza Strip, sidelining the government, and perplexing the reconstruction process.

Meanwhile, Hamas accuses the consensus government, as well as Abbas and his Fatah Party, of abandoning the Gaza Strip and refusing to pay the salaries of some 43,000 employees, employed by Hamas after the Islamic movement took control of the coastal enclave in 2007.

The feuds continued to mount after Abbas made two separate reshuffling in the consensus government. Hamas accused Abbas of ignoring the movement and carrying out unilateral actions that blocks a real national unity.

Rajab Abu Sereyah, a political analyst from Ramallah, told Xinhua that the differences between the two on government shake-up "show how deep the political dispute between Fatah and Hamas," adding "this shows that these disputes are endless and I don't expect that it can be resolved soon."

The government has failed in carrying out its mission "mainly in ending the signs of the internal division and preparing for the general elections," he said.

The Fatah party, which is the backbone of the PNA, was unable to hold its seventh conference on time. It was scheduled in November, but was indefinitely postponed due to the ongoing tension in the West Bank.

In the meantime, the efforts of President Abbas to hold the meeting of Palestinian National Council (PNC) or the parliament in the Diaspora for electing a new PLO executive committee had also failed. Salim Za'noon, speaker of the PNC announced that holding the PNC conference was postponed for another three months.

So far, there were no sign that the Palestinian leadership would either convene Fatah Party's conference or convene the PNC meeting amid internal differences within Fatah Party and amid internal Palestinian differences.

The PNC is considered as the parliament of the PLO which represents all the Palestinians, either in the Palestinian territories or in the Diaspora. There are 750 PNC members, and the last time the PNC convened was in Gaza in 1996 when the Palestinians voted in favor of amending the Palestinian charter.

Hani El-Masri, the Ramallah-based political analyst told Xinhua that there are no real preparations for holding the PNC, and holding it is linked to exerting more pressure on Hamas to leave its grip on the Gaza Strip.

"Until now, the Palestinian leadership hasn't prepared a political platform for the PLO, where I believe that the current platform needs to be amended following the recent developments and political changes in the region and in the world," said El-Masri.

He proposed that the current possible exit from the ongoing impasses and crisis "is to hold the temporary body of the PLO that includes all the factions, including Hamas and the Islamic Jihad."

"The Palestinian cause has to be reconsidered and the establishments of the PLO have to be rebuilt depending on the national unity principles, depending on democracy and political partnership throughout dialogue and setting a comprehensive Palestinian strategy," said el-Masri. Endit