Palestinian groups send out feelers

Omar Karmi, Foreign Correspondent

• Last Updated: November 15. 2009 1:23AM UAE / November 14. 2009 9:23PM GMT

RAMALLAH // Palestinians will commemorate the Palestine Liberation Organisation’s 1988 declaration of independence today and, in a rare unified act, schools in both the West Bank and Gaza will close to observe the holiday.

This unusual co-ordinated measure comes amid signs that Hamas is ready to sign the Egyptian-mediated reconciliation proposal that will pave the way for a temporary rapprochement between the Islamist movement and Fatah, at least until new elections can be held in mid-2010.

In announcing its decision, the ministry of education in the Hamas-administered Gaza Strip said it decided to give the day off in order to “avoid any misunderstanding with any party”. Yesterday, meanwhile, the Palestine National Council, the PLO’s parliament and the body that issued the 1988 Algiers declaration of independence, calmly exhorted Hamas to “join” the Palestinian national project and end its feud with Fatah.

Such sensitivity and restraint has been rare in Palestinian political discourse in recent months, where heated recriminations have been the norm, and point to a warming of relations. But apparent thaws between the two rival factions have occurred in the past and yielded few results. Indeed, in more than eight months of talks between the factions, the lack of tangible progress has belied their claims that national unity remained their respective priorities.

The stagnation also caused Egyptian mediators to bring out their own proposal for both factions to sign. The proposal, essentially an agreement to disagree, would see Hamas continue its rule in Gaza and Fatah and the Salam Fayyad government its rule in the West Bank, but seeks to establish an oversight committee to co-ordinate governance in the two areas. It calls for a gradual professionalisation of the security forces in both areas under the supervision of Arab countries, and outlines a number of confidence-building measures, including prisoner releases.

Finally, the Egyptian proposal calls for new Palestinian elections to be held in the “first half” of 2010, and as soon as the atmosphere is conducive. This has generally been interpreted as meaning in June and has taken on new importance after the Palestinian Central Elections Commission on Thursday announced that without Hamas co-operation, it would not be possible for it to arrange elections, and certainly not by the end of January as decreed by Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president, in October.

A final draft of the Egyptian reconciliation document was sent to both factions in early October, just when the Goldstone report furore had reached its peak. At a time of highly charged mutual recriminations, Fatah signed the document, but Hamas held off, at the time saying the atmosphere was not conducive to unity.

After the furore died down, however, Hamas announced that it had further reservations about the document. This brought another blast of criticism from Fatah and eventually persuaded Mr Abbas to set a date for elections without a unity agreement.

“The reservations Hamas talks about are simply a pretext,” said Sufyan Abu Zaida, a member of Fatah’s Revolutionary Council. “Fatah signed in spite of its reservations. As with the Goldstone report, Hamas is simply looking for an excuse not to sign.”

Mr Abu Zaida said it was now up to Cairo to “apply enough pressure” on Hamas for it to sign. Egypt, he added, had little choice because unity was too important, not just to Palestinians, but regionally.

But Hamas appears to have warmed to the document in recent days. The movement had baulked at what it said were three amendments in the Egyptian proposal to the compromises Palestinian factions had themselves reached in Cairo. Crucial among them is a clause on the make-up of a new elections commission. According to the compromise agreed between Fatah and Hamas in Cairo, the elections commission should be composed of at least one representative from each faction and acceptable to Mr Abbas.

However, in the final document that Cairo sent to both factions, that clause, say Hamas officials, had been altered, leaving it in Mr Abbas’ power to nominate members of the commission.

Hamas is now seeking an Egyptian letter of assurance on this as well as two other issues – compensation for those who lost their jobs and livelihoods as a result of the division and a date for the release of prisoners in the respective areas – before it will sign the proposal.

However, it is not looking any longer to make more amendments to the document itself, said Mahmoud al Ramahi, a Hamas lawmaker in Ramallah.

“Hamas has agreed to sign the Egyptian proposal without changing it, as long as we get a letter of guarantee from Egypt. That could provide a solution,” Mr Ramahi, who predicted that Hamas would sign the reconciliation proposal “either next month or in January”.

Should Hamas sign, it may calm the choppy waters of Palestinian politics, at least for the time being. Hamas had threatened to break away completely from the PA if elections had gone ahead in January. The lukewarm Hamas endorsement of Mr Abbas as president, revoked whenever there is a crisis in relations between the factions, would certainly have ended had the PA gone ahead with elections without Gaza, said Mr Ramahi.

Fatah, meanwhile, is in disarray after Mr Abbas announced that he did not desire to seek re-election as president of the PA. The announcement left room for speculation, and people are still guessing at Mr Abbas’s intentions. It is still unclear whether he wants only to relinquish the reins of the PA, or also at the PLO and Fatah, or if the announcement was meant to push the US to pressure Israel on a settlement construction freeze. However, with elections in January now off, Mr Abbas may have to continue indefinitely as PA president, presumably undermining any of his intentions.

A unity agreement would also set a date for elections and allow everyone, including Mr Abbas, breathing space to ponder their next move.

okarmi@thenational.ae