China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi, centre, hosts an event for Mahmoud al-Aloul, left, vice chairman of Fatah, and Mussa Abu Marzuk, a senior member of Hamas, to meet at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing on July 23. The rival factions have signed a unity deal. [Picture: AP]
Critics have pointed out that a recent breakthrough unity deal between Palestinian organisations Hamas and Fatah might not be as promising as it sounds.
Signed in Beijing, China, on Tuesday, the “national unity” deal deals with the question of Gaza and the West Bank once apartheid Israel concludes its bombardment. The agreement between the adversaries also includes 12 other Palestinian groups.
But the deal, reached after three days of rigorous talks, will have to withstand the test of time if it is to bring Palestinians any benefit. That is according to Na’eem Jeenah, senior researcher at Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection (MISTRA).
“It’s not as unprecedented as some people are making it sound. Similar agreements have been signed before and have just not been upheld by [President Mahmoud] Abbas and Fatah,” he said.
“Similarly, there’s been talk from 2005 of Hamas being included in the Palestinian Liberation Organisation and Fatah has ensured that it is kept out,” he added.
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Difference
On 7 October, Hamas launched Operation Al Aqsa Flood in retaliation to decades of apartheid and occupation. It has differed greatly with Fatah, a Palestinian nationalist and social democratic party, as to how the Palestinian question ought to be solved.
“Hamas believes that resistance to the occupation, including armed resistance, is the path towards liberation of the Palestinian people. Fatah (at least Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah, because there are more than one faction within Fatah) believes that the only way towards Palestinian liberation is negotiation, which has yielded nothing,” said Jeenah.
Addressing the press in the Chinese capital this week, senior Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzuk declared unity was paramount. He said: “Today we sign an agreement for national unity and we say that the path to completing this journey is national unity”.
However, Jeenah was not as optimistic about the latest deal between the rivals. He suspected it would not take long before one party reneged on the deal.
“Many Palestinians are hopeful, but if previous experience is anything to go by, once the Fatah delegation goes back to Ramallah, Mahmoud Abbas will basically squash the piece of paper and move on as if life is as it was three days ago.”
