- Title: GAZA/FILE: Fatah-Hamas split haunts peace talks
- Date: 31st August 2010
- Summary: GAZA CITY, GAZA (FILE - JUNE 2007) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (REUTERS) VIEW OF SMOKE BILLOWING OVER GAZA CITY DURING HAMAS TAKEOVER OF GAZA, (AUDIO: GUNFIRE) HAMAS GUNMAN FIRING AFTER HOISTING HAMAS FLAG ATOP OF BUILDING HAMAS GUNMEN ON JEEP DRIVING AWAY HAMAS GUNMEN PRAYING AFTER TAKEOVER OF PALESTINIAN LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL BUILDING
- Embargoed: 15th September 2010 13:00
- Keywords:
- Topics: War / Fighting,Domestic Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA65LN66EK9PX2MDNBLPR9HR007
- Story Text: It's the proverbial elephant in the room, the ghost at the banquet, the spectre no one wants to acknowledge, what will happen to the people of Gaza? Even if Israel and the Palestinians can scale a mountain of skepticism and reach a peace treaty in the next 12 months, 40 percent of Palestinians would be part of it in name only, because they live in the Gaza Strip.
Mohammad Abed Rabbo lives on the border area of Jabalya in the impoverished Gaza Strip. Rabbo has been living in a tent since his house was destroyed during the 2009 Israeli offensive on Gaza.
"We as a Palestinian people, must support every form of negotiations, or any other demand the international community makes because anything we miss, is a loss," Mohammad Abed Rabbo told Reuters.
Gaza's Islamist Hamas rulers say they will never give Israel what it most wants from a Middle East deal, which is recognition of the Jewish state and a legitimate place within the Middle East. Hamas see their Fatah rivals in the West Bank, who will be negotiating with Israel over the coming year, as appeasers and traitors to the 2.5 million Palestinians in their charge.
Abed Rabbo's wife, Soad says that there is no hope for the upcoming negotiations.
"We have been negotiating since 1948, and we did not see any benefits, it's all been a waste. So I am not optimistic about these new negotiations," she said.
The establishment of a Palestinian state within the West Bank and Gaza has been an integral part of peace negotiations for the last twenty years. However since Hamas seized power in 2007, about 1.7 million Palestinians would be excluded from the peace process due to the ongoing rift between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority. Hamas refuses to enter peace talks with Israel.
Hamas spokesperson Sami Abu Zuhri says that the negotiations will fail.
"We are certain that these negotiations will fail. Under the best conditions the negotiations will reach a so-called economic peace, Salaam Fayyad's plan for a state. But this state will be confined within the Israeli occupation's walls and will be under full Israeli control over the borders. Therefore, there are no basis and no hope for the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza in accordance with these negotiations," he told Reuters.
In a letter to European Union Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton agreeing to the talks, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas made no mention of Gaza -- a territory separated not only by geography from the West Bank he administers but also by a deep ideological divide.
All Abbas wrote was: "We note that a state with provisional borders is not an option for the Palestinian people".
Asked by Israeli television recently how he would square the circle, Abbas said: "We will solve the problem of Gaza and Hamas." But he did not say how. Last week he told reporters: "If we reached a peace agreement tomorrow, we wouldn't be able to implement it without ending this split."
This not the only elephant in the room. Israel is also divided over the wisdom of accepting a Palestinian state.
Any peace deal will have to be based on concessions Israel is not willing to make.
"This round of talks cannot lead to any real or realistic agreement. It could only lead to a symbolic agreement especially since President Obama says that after the signing of an agreement there will be ten years of implementation. And we know from our experience with the Oslo agreement and all the agreements that followed that Israel does not honour timing or agreements," Hani Habib a political analyst said.
In 2005 Ariel Sharon, overcame opposition to win coalition backing for Israel's unilateral withdrawal from Gaza.
The pullout forced Jewish settlers out of the coastal strip, in scenes that provoked national anguish within Israel.
If Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu make a deal with Abbas, it would involve even bigger settler withdrawals or evictions. Netanyahu would need cabinet backing or greater support from a general election for any peace treaty to work.
But just how Abbas could implement his side of the bargain that would legally apply to Gaza is another question. Gaza is now a territory over which he has almost no control. Fatah forces were expelled by Hamas gunmen when they seized control in 2007.
Western diplomats believe efforts to reconcile Hamas and Fatah will be off the agenda entirely for the 12-month duration of negotiations.
Western diplomats say if Abbas struck a deal with Israel, Hamas could either reconcile with Fatah and support it, or allow the people of Gaza to vote on the settlement in a referendum, or reject it outright and give the electorate no choice.
Since Hamas still has support in the West Bank, substantial risks lie ahead should the talks fail, including the possibility of calls for a return to anti-Israeli violence.
But Gaza is bankrupt and Hamas, despite its possibly growing closeness to Iran, still relies heavily for financial support on Arab states and a share of the aid money Abbas receives from his Western backers. This dependence could give Abbas leverage.
If either the Palestinians or the Israelis, or both, proved too divided to implement a negotiated settlement, an alternative exists: the United States and its major power partners could try to impose a deal, recognising the Palestinian state that Prime Minister Salam Fayyad plans to have ready by mid-2011.
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