Following compromise on both sides, Hamas and Fatah have agreed to form a national unity government for Palestine, reports Khaled Amayreh in the West Bank After weeks of contentious "dialogue," Hamas and Fatah have finally agreed to form a government of national unity which Palestinians hope will extricate them from a crippling crisis brought about by the harsh Israeli-American blockade currently imposed on them. The news was announced last Monday, following a series of intensive meetings in Gaza between Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh. Full details of the agreement are yet to be announced, but both sides appear to be optimistic. Haniya spoke of "glad tidings," saying that the agreement proved the Palestinian factions placed "national interests above all other considerations." He urged Palestinians, tormented by an unrelenting Israeli campaign of murder and terror, to "provide the appropriate atmosphere for this government." He also asked civil servants to go back to work, thus ending a two-weak-old strike which was paralysing public institutions, including schools. He also called on the international community to respect Palestinian democracy. For his part, Abbas said the new government would be formed within a few days. "We have finalised the political programme of the national unity government, and we will begin forming the government within 48 hours," Abbas told Palestine TV. The new government will be based on the "Palestinian Prisoners' National Conciliation Document", which was adopted by Palestinian prisoners held by Israel and including members of the Hamas and Fatah factions in spring 2006. The document calls for a tacit recognition of the state of Israel in return for the creation of a Palestinian state on 100 per cent of the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel in 1967, including East Jerusalem. It also calls for resolving the plight of Palestinian refugees pursuant to UN Resolution 194, which stipulates both repatriation and indemnification. According to reliable Palestinian sources, the agreement between Fatah and Hamas was made possible after both sides agreed to make certain compromises on their initial political positions. Fatah reportedly withdrew its erstwhile demand that Hamas explicitly recognise Israel and accept all previous and outstanding agreements between the PLO and Israel, including the Oslo Accords and their numerous derivatives. For its part, Hamas acknowledged the Arab peace initiative of 2002 as a basis for a possible solution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Hamas also agreed to recognise "existing political realities," a phrase which can be construed as a tacit recognition of Israel's political (but not moral) legitimacy. It is highly likely that Haniyeh will remain prime minister of the new government, which will include seven Hamas ministers and at least four from Fatah. Some portfolios will likely go to a third faction, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The Abbas-Haniyeh accords reportedly also included a clause that would allow a prisoner exchange between Israel and the PA to take place, whereby the Israeli soldier taken hostage on 25 January would be freed in exchange for the release by Israel of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, including dozens of lawmakers and cabinet ministers recently taken hostage by Israel. The conclusion of such a swap has so far been impeded by Israeli insistence that no direct link between the release of the imprisoned soldier and Palestinian prisoners be apparent. The reason for this intransigence, according to the Israeli press, is to enable the Olmert government to argue to an increasingly disenchanted Israeli public that it has not given in to "terrorists." A decision by an Israeli military judge on Tuesday to release 21 Palestinian officials, including three cabinet ministers and the speaker of the Palestinian parliament, may very well be an important facilitating factor towards a possible prisoner exchange deal. The Tuesday decision reinforces arguments by Palestinians and human rights organisations that the detained Palestinians were abducted solely to be used as a bargaining chip. The exhaustive Fatah- Hamas talks came to fruition after Abbas had threatened to dismiss the Haniyeh government and form an emergency government to forestall what some Fatah officials termed an "impending internal implosion." Some observers believe the agreement to form a national unity government has rescued Palestinian society from the prospect of violent turmoil, since Hamas would not have stood idly by if Abbas had decided unilaterally to dissolve its democratically-elected government. The one pressing question now is whether the international community, especially the US and EU, will agree to end their draconian financial and political boycott of the PA. Palestinians hope that the formation of the new government will prompt at least the EU to reconsider its sanctions against the Palestinian government. Palestinian labour minister, Mohamed Barghouti, warned that failure to do so would have disastrous ramifications. "If the international community fails to support this government in a tangible manner, the Palestinian people will have to reconsider the very existence of the Palestinian Authority." For its part, the US said it wouldn't deal with the would-be government unless it met the three conditions put forth by the Quartet (US, UN, Russia and EU). "We have not seen all the details of the new government and we are taking a look, a close look at it. To the extent that we understand this so far, it doesn't meet the standard," said Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs David Welch. Israel also indicated that it was "far from impressed" by developments within the Palestinian camp. The clearly hawkish Israeli Foreign Minister Tsibi Livni said on Monday, hours after the Fatah-Hamas agreement was announced, that Israel would not make contacts with any Palestinian government dominated by Hamas unless that government met three conditions: explicitly recognising Israel, ceasing all forms of resistance, and accepting all outstanding international agreements. However, Israel's adamant refusal to negotiate with a Palestinian government in which Hamas is a key coalition partner has in reality very little if anything to do with the issue of violence. The real reason for the Israeli intransigence in this regard, which Israel strives to conceal, lies in Israeli determination to avoid as much as possible, or to postpone as long as possible, the moment of truth with regard to the conflict with the Palestinians, namely facing the reality that the occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem will have to end and that Jewish settlements, built on stolen Arab land, will have to be dismantled. Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Abbas held talks in Ramallah on Sunday for the declared purpose of reviving the moribund peace process. While in West Jerusalem Blair recognised that the Palestinian issue was at the core of all the troubles in the Middle East and in much of the world. He also told Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that what was happening in Palestine was affecting Britain. Predictably, Olmert, who obviously prefers to keep the conflict over the Palestinian issue a "local Israeli affair," did not like these remarks, reasoning that the external reverberations of the Palestinian issue would increase international pressure on Israel to end the nearly 40-year-old occupation and subjugation of the Palestinian people and their homeland. Most Palestinians, including the political echelon, did not take Blair's visit too seriously, given the British prime minister's obsequious affiliation with George Bush's "war on terror" and his conspicuous support of Israel, including its recent aggression against Lebanon and daily murderous incursions into the Gaza Strip. Prior to the visit, Palestinian intellectuals had asked Blair not to come, calling him persona non grata. (see p.6)
