For the past eight years or so, Palestinians and Arabs have been urging the Palestinians to unite. But when the moment finally came, the reaction was subdued. After a short ceremony to install Rami Hamdallah, a former academic, and his 16-member cabinet in power, President Mahmoud Abbas told the nation that a “black page” of disunity had been turned. But most Palestinians are bracing themselves not only for Israel's punitive measures, but also for turbulence within their united administration. Hamdallah's government, made up mostly of lawyers and businessmen with no formal ties to Fatah or Hamas, will have its hands full. Shorn of a clear political programme, this government is expected to prepare for legislative and presidential elections while alleviating the blockade on Gaza and handling the fractious security services formed by the two main Palestinian rival factions. The new government was born out of a deal reached by Fatah and Hamas in Gaza on 23 April. It was a deal born out of necessity, said analyst Tawfiq Abu Shomar. “What happened was an unusual step brought about by the circumstances surrounding both Fatah and Hamas. This is not the outcome of a well thought out process or planned strategy,” he added. Financial crisis in Gaza, where the Hamas government has been unable to pay salaries for months, and political stalemate in Ramallah, where Abbas has ended nine months of negotiations with the Israelis with nothing to show to his constituents, why the Palestinians have been re-joined in reluctant unity. Hamas had seized Gaza by force in mid-2007 in what Fatah called a “coup against legitimacy”. Since then, Ramallah and Gaza have been acting more as foes than partners in a vulnerable — and some would say diminishing — homeland. “The reconciliation government will be faced with tough issues, including the security dossier which, although formally postponed till the elections, may explode at any moment,” said Abu Shomar. The only remarkable change that the new government will bring immediately to the security realm is that Presidential Security Forces will be allowed to run the Rafah Crossing with Egypt. Despite Hamas protests, President Abbas pledged to continue security coordination with the Israelis. Speaking to 300 or so Israeli activists in Ramallah last week, Abbas promised: “security coordination... we will continue, regardless of whether we agree on politics.” Hamas politburo member Moussa Abu Marzouk called coordination with the Israelis “unacceptable”. Analyst Abdel-Razek Abu Gazar said that addressing the deteriorating economic situation in Gaza, with a budget that is already strained, would not be easy for the new government. Gaza, home to 1.8 million Palestinians, has faced massive shortages of food, medicine and building materials because of years of Israeli blockade. The situation became desperate since the Muslim Brotherhood was removed from power in Egypt in 2013. The destruction of the tunnels, which was a major source of income to the government, is what drove Hamas into an unwilling pact with the Fatah-led, Ramallah-based government. In the years of estrangement, the duplication of government personnel in Gaza grew into a problem of massive proportions. According to Abu Gazar, the “administrative dossier” will be a challenge for the new government. After controlling Gaza, Hamas appointed nearly 50,000 officials to run the strip, while the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority went on paying nearly 70,000 others to sit at home and do nothing. Consequently, a united government is left with almost 200,000 employees on its books, more than half of them in Gaza alone, and more than one quarter with no active function. Arab and Western financial backing may help alleviate the crisis, but Israel's continued opposition to the new government is going to create another set of problems. Abu Shomar admitted that a financial crisis was “inevitable”. The West, he said, will wait and see how much Abbas is able to rein in Hamas. If the outcome is satisfactory, help may be in the way. According to Abu Shomar, the success of the reconciliation government hinges on the ability of Palestinian officials to come up with a unified strategy and long-term solutions that have nationwide support. Other Palestinian factions, not just Hamas and Fatah, should be brought into the discussion, he said. This may be a tall order considering that Israel is already waging an international campaign to keep Americans and the West from backing the new government. Speaking at a recent cabinet meeting, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said: “I call on all responsible people in the international community to not rush into recognising a Palestinian government that includes Hamas.” Netanyahu added: “Hamas is a terrorist organisation that calls for the destruction of Israel… and supports terror, not peace.” Hamas, which does not recognise Israel, calls for the creation of a Palestinian state on pre-1948 borders. In an emergency session held only hours after the formation of the Palestinian government, the Israeli cabinet decided to discontinue negotiations and communication with the new government, because of its affiliation with Hamas. Using the nom de guerre of the Palestinian president, Netanyahu said: “Abu Mazen said yes to terror and no to peace.” Abbas, meanwhile, said that the new government is going to follow its own policies, not those of Hamas. He also reassured the West that members of that government are independent technocrats with no direct link to Fatah or Hamas. Reacting to Israel's threats, Abbas said: “Any measures taken by Israel to harm the interests of our people is not going to pass without answer. We do not wish to escalate and we do not seek tensions, but we will not tolerate collective punishment.” Lashing out at Netanyahu's government, Abbas said: “The true intention of the occupation is to disrupt the unity of the Palestinian people, confiscate their land, build more settlements, control Jerusalem, and undermine all international efforts to bring about peace.” European and US diplomats say that, despite Israel's reservations, they were willing to cooperate with the new Palestinian government. US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said that the US position is one of wait-and-see. “We will be judging this government by its actions… but we will be watching closely to ensure that it upholds the principles that President Abbas reiterated.”
