News Analysis: Palestinians fail to accomplish internal reconciliation in 2016

The failure to end the decade-long internal Palestinian division between President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah Party and Islamic Hamas movement has dimmed the opportunities of resolving the Palestinian problem, according to local observers.

The internal Palestinian division between the two rivals began in the summer of 2007, right after Hamas violent takeover of the Gaza Strip following weeks of bloody fighting with Abbas' security forces. Since then, Gaza has remained in Hamas grip and the West Bank continued under Abbas control.

Several mediating countries, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, brought the two rivals' leaders to their capitals and a series of agreements and understandings have been reached for the reconciliation.

Yet no real positive results have been achieved. Meanwhile, the political and geographical division has negatively influenced all aspects of life in both Gaza and the West Bank.

MEETINGS CONTINUE WITH NO BREAKTHROUGH

In 2016, several bilateral meetings were held between the two rival groups as part of the mediators' efforts to achieve reconciliation. However, observers warned that the failure to end their feuds would deepen the division with less chance to end it.

Talal Oukal, Gaza-based writer and political analyst, believed the failure was mainly due to the frequent disappointment to implement the previous agreements.

"The current decline of optimism to end the internal division is natural because there has been no change in the visions of Fatah and Hamas to accomplish that," Oukal told Xinhua, adding that "each side is sticking to its position, using their own powers they have in hand."

Oukal added the major obstacle blocking the opportunity is that both sides lack a complete roadmap based on full partnership, not just an agreement based on implementing parts of the reached agreements.

He went on saying that another obstacle is related to the fact that Turkey and Qatar were the only two countries exerting efforts this year to urge the two rivals to accomplish reconciliation.

"This can't be enough as long as the major sponsor of the dialogue, Egypt, was absent," said the analyst.

Oukal stressed that any new reconciliation agreement would certainly need powerful Arab sponsorship and guarantees, adding that "the chances for any new reconciliation agreement to succeed would be slim if Egypt doesn't bless it and is not fully and really involved."

Egypt has been sponsoring the internal Palestinian dialogue for more than 10 years. In May 2011, Abbas and Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal signed a historic reconciliation agreement. However, the agreement only remained on papers with no implementation.

In 2013, Egypt abandoned the Palestinian dialogue file after its ties with Hamas getting tense because the Islamic movement supported the ousted Egyptian Islamic President Mohamed Morsi. Egypt accused Hamas of intervening into Egypt's internal affairs.

With little involvement of Egypt in the past three years, Qatar tried to fill the gap with more efforts. In 2016, dialogues were held in Qatar in March, June and October, but no tangible breakthrough was achieved.

Meanwhile, feuds between the two rivals grew on the role and performance of the consensus government which the two groups reached an agreement to form in 2014.

A Palestinian court ruling to postpone holding the municipal elections in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip had deepen the feud between the two and the opportunities to bridge the gaps between them were dimmed.

IMPACT OF FATAH CONGRESS

Abbas' Fatah Party held its seventh congress in the West Bank city of Ramallah in November. The congress re-elected Abbas as the chairman of the party, and a new central committee and a revolutionary council were also elected.

During the congress, ties between Fatah and Hamas showed positive signs. Hamas let Fatah members to leave the Gaza Strip to participate in the congress and accepted an invitation to send their representatives to attend the opening session. Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal also addressed the congress.

However, Hani al-Masri, the West Bank-based political analyst, told Xinhua that the Palestinians shouldn't count too much on the positive atmospheres between the two groups "because President Abbas insists that the end of division can be done through new parliamentary and presidential elections."

"Abbas' recent vision to end the internal split reflects no seriousness because we have heard him saying the same thing so many times before," al-Masri said, adding that "Abbas neglected the unification of the Palestinian establishments, mainly the police and security in both Gaza and West Bank."

The analyst ruled out that Israel would accept the results of the elections in case Hamas wins again if the general elections are held in the Palestinian territories. "Not only Israel but Fatah and its supporters wouldn't accept the results of the elections in case Hamas wins."

EXPECTATIONS AND OBSTACLES

The seventh Fatah congress stressed that the internal division must end and called for convening the Palestinian parliament in exile, better known as the "Palestinian National Council" (PNC), within three months.

Rajab Abu Serreya, Ramallah based political analyst, told Xinhua that "this attitude reflects the fact that the Palestinian leadership has become more concerned than before to re-arrange the internal situation in a bid to boost itself for next year's international dues."

"After a new Fatah leadership was elected in the congress, Hamas is also preparing to hold its elections and would soon elect a new chief and a new political bureau," said Abu Serreya, adding that "I expect that this would create more chances for political partnerships between the two rivals."

He expected that holding the PNC meeting in three months would be a positive step for accomplishing an internal reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas. Endit