Palestinians anxiously await the outcome of the meeting of Palestinian factions scheduled to be held in Cairo on 30 July.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called for the meeting on 3 July in response to the largest military operation that Israel has carried out against Jenin in over 21 years.
Invitations have been extended not only to factions that are members of the PLO but to those that are not, including Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), both of which refuse to sign the PLO Charter because it includes recognition of Israel in accordance with the 1993 Oslo Accord.
Egypt has agreed to host the meeting to ensure the broadest possible participation. Both Hamas and PIJ have previously refused to attend meetings held in the occupied West Bank, citing the difficulty of getting there from Gaza and concerns over the safety of their leaders.
Egypt has hosted many talks on internal Palestinian-Palestinian relations, including reconciliation dialogues aimed at ending the inter-factional rifts that, since 2007, have prevented Palestinians from adopting unified positions on the multiple threats they face in occupied Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza.
The Palestinian Authority (PA) is on the verge of collapse. It faces a debilitating financial crisis, and the repercussions of Israel’s campaign to Judaise Jerusalem, the occupying power’s frequent raids against West Bank towns and cities, the increasingly rapid pace of illegal Israeli settlement expansion in the West Bank and the lack of any prospect for peace under Israel’s current extremist government.
On 13 July, Israeli NGO Peace Now reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government promoted 12,855 housing units in the West Bank in the first half of 2023, a record number. The organisation, which began to systematically record settlement activity in 2012, said “2023 has emerged as the highest year on record in terms of units approved.”
“Development and construction of settlements is the main activity of the current government. In the past six months the only sector that Israel has vigorously promoted is the settlement enterprise,” noted Peace Now.
The unbridled settlement expansion pursued by the Israeli government jeopardises any prospect for a two-state solution.
The PA is also frustrated with the administration of President Joe Biden. Biden is approaching the end of his first term without having achieved a single tangible step towards peace between the Palestinians and Israelis. Palestinians are low on the priorities of an administration preoccupied with the war in Ukraine and its strategic confrontation with China.
Palestinians living in Hamas-controlled Gaza face dire economic circumstances due to the nearly two-decade Israeli blockade and recurrent wars and airstrikes which have undermined already bad conditions for the 2.3 million Palestinians who live in the narrow strip.
Palestinians worry the planned meeting of the heads of Palestinian factions will fail to rise to the great challenges they face. “Our experience in this area is bitter,” Mahmoud Al-Zaq secretary of the Palestinian National Action Committee, told Al-Ahram Weekly. “We have held many dialogue rounds and reached six agreements, none of which have been implemented.”
“Our people are convinced that the occupying power is trying to annex the West Bank. Statements by ministers in the fascist Israeli government composed of far right political and religious parties all point in that direction. The situation is very dangerous.”
Al-Zaq believes that Israel is bent on asserting tighter control over the West Bank, further isolating Gaza and undermining any form of Palestinian entity.
“We must work hard to make the dialogue in Cairo meaningful and form a Palestinian Unity government tasked with preparing for legislative and presidential elections,” said Al-Zaq.
Any hopes pinned on the forthcoming talks are inevitable compromised by the ongoing rift between Hamas and Fatah and the acrimony that characterises their relationship.
Hamas and PIJ have accused the PA of detaining their members in the West Bank. In a statement last week, PIJ Secretary General Ziyad Al-Nakhala said “the PA’s arrest of our members in the West Bank places the forthcoming meeting at risk of failure”.
The PA denies that it has detained Hamas and PIJ members on political grounds, saying that some members had been arrested for acts of violence and incitement, including attacking Palestinian security service premises with stones and Molotov cocktails.
Abd Al-Ilah Al-Atira, a member of Fatah’s Revolutionary Council, has urged Palestinian parties to do everything in their power to ensure that the Cairo meeting convenes as scheduled and produces results.
“We need to learn from previous meetings and understand why they failed. We must be realistic in our proposals. At the very least the meeting should lead to a unified political stance and recommendations that can be implemented on the ground.”
He also hopes that Egypt will spearhead an effort to rally broad Arab backing for any decisions that emerge from the meeting.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 20 July, 2023 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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