Palestine:  Hamas-Fatah unity would accelerate nationhood

-DR. ABDUL RUFF COLACHAL 

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For any freedom movement to be successful, united front and unity among the freedom fighter groups is an essential precondition.  Independence can be achieved by a united struggle rather than waging struggles under various titles.

That is only one freedom movement should make the occupying nations consider quick withdrawal of their brutal occupation of alien nations.

US mediated Israel-Palestine peace talks can make rapid progress if the major parties in Palestine, Fatah and Hamas come together to form a unity government.

Existence of several freedom groups and political parties in Jammu Kashmir have only  emboldened the occupying Indian terror forces to brutally occupy JK and enjoy  Kashmiri blood.

Palestinians can achieve freedom from Israeli yoke fairly easier than by showcasing a disunited, split movement fighting with one another.

However, the occupation forces deliberately fuel crisis in freedom camp so that rivalry remains intact so that occupation can continue as freely as they drink the blood of people of the occupied lands.

Israel-US terror w twins have tactfully split the people of Palestine not just into Hamas and Fatah but, worse, into pro-west so-called democratic and so-called militants.  

Western and Israeli media just criticize the elected Hamas rulers as terrorists and Fatah as good people but in fact they also want to kill every Palestinian.

Even while Fatah-Hamas unity is not progressing at all, the US mediated Israeli-Palestine talks are progressing as the Obama regime is keen to achieve the peace deal in Mideast.

With a view to encouraging the Kerry’s  peace efforts, top officials from the United Nations, United States, Russia and European Union will meet on 1^st February to discuss how they can help US Secretary of State John Kerry’s drive for a Middle East peace deal, the EU said on Friday, the 31 Jan.

The meeting of the so-called Quartet of Middle East peace mediators, having failed to successfully mediate for a peace deal so far, will be held in Munich on the sidelines of the annual security conference there.  EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said she would chair the meeting with Kerry, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Quartet envoy Tony Blair, the former British prime minister. 

This meeting takes place in a moment when difficult and bold decisions need to be made. The dividends of peace for Israelis and Palestinians are enormous. 

While Fatah leader Abbas conducts talks with Israel on behalf of Palestine, the Hamas party ruling in Gaza does not trust Israel and refuses to talk to Zionists because of their criminal activities inside Palestine.  

Fatah wants an election for them to form a unity government. A Fatah spokesman said that the ruling part of Gaza Strip Hamas did not reply to Fatah’s recent proposal on a reconciliation agreement. The head of Fatah's reconciliation team Azzam al-Ahmad said earlier this month that he would visit the Gaza Strip and meet with Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh. However, al-Ahmad’s visit to Gaza is linked to Hamas approval to hold elections and form a unity government. Hamas has yet to reply to the proposal given by al-Ahmad to Haniyeh in the latest phone call.

But Ahmad said that the Gaza government allowing 120 Fatah members back into the Gaza Strip was a positive move and unity is possible now. Ahmad added that despite the positivity of Haniyeh’s gesture, the shortest way to achieve reconciliation remains implementing the reached agreements. Haniyeh said on Monday that 120 Fatah members would be allowed to return to Gaza in order to push reconciliation forward.  He told the al-Kitab satellite channel that the reconciliation file will move forward as long as leaders in the West Bank and Gaza Strip are willing to end the division.

The reconciliation needs to be genuine and durable. Mutual distrust and hatred must be removed once for all. Difference of opinion should not a negative phenomenon and Palestine groups should accommodate that and move further. 

Haniyeh government’s recent gestures towards Fatah and West bank are an evidence of the will to work together to achieve their real goal of complete freedom.  It was important to hold local government and student union elections for a transitional period, saying that there were “community and political reconciliations” that must occur to form a government. 

Not only the Hamas, but even many in Fatah and West bank are suspicious of the current US mediated peace talks. On January 25, Palestinians in the occupied West Bank cities of Nablus and al-Khalil (Hebron) protested against US Secretary of State John Kerry’s proposals for the so-called peace talks with the Israeli regime. 

Protesters called on the Palestinian Authority to reject the proposals, which they say are aimed at destroying the Palestinian cause. They added that the talks deny Palestinians the right of return and allow expansion of illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied territories.

Meanwhile, Iran says a popular referendum can guarantee the rights of the Palestinian nation, noting that the White House pays no attention to solutions that acknowledge the rights of Palestinians. The talks between the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Israeli official as well as repeated trips by Kerry and many US officials to Israel only show that the White House will pay no attention to a solution which recognizes the rights of the Palestinian nation. During the talks with member of the Fatah Central Committee Jibril Rajoub in Tehran earlier this week it was stressed that Tehran regards a referendum with the participation of all Palestinians as an effective solution to the historical tragedy of Palestinians. He correctly feels that the preservation of unity and resistance alone secures the rights of the Palestinian people against the crimes perpetrated by the Zionist regime of Israel.

Israel’s settlement expansion policy is one of the sticking points in the talks. Palestinians demand that East al-Quds (Jerusalem) be their capital and that Israel recognize borders based on the 1967 lines which existed before the Six-Day War, when Israel captured the West Bank and East al-Quds.

Tel Aviv still refuses to return to the 1967 borders and is unwilling officially to discuss the issue of East al-Quds, notwithstanding positive gestures from Israel, favoring the creation of Palestine.

History will never forgive the foolishness of Fatah-Hamas leaders if they fail to compromise in favor of a free, secured Palestine.