Hamas-Fatah face-off leaves hard road ahead for Palestinians

by Guest Sun May 10, 2015 3:12 pm

In recent weeks, a flurry of envoys has beaten a path to Gaza's door: representatives from Qatar, Turkey, the United Nations, the European Union and former U.S. president Jimmy Carter have all visited or tried to visit.

Yet the result has been the same: no success in reconciling Hamas, the Islamist movement that has controlled Gaza since 2007, and Fatah, the more secular, Western-backed party that runs the Palestinian administration from the West Bank.

Nearly a year since Hamas and Fatah signed a "national reconciliation" agreement, the two are no nearer to bridging their differences or tackling the mounting challenges Palestinians' face.

Fatah is convinced Hamas, which fought a war with Israel in Gaza nine months ago, is trying to carve out an Islamist fiefdom in the 360 square kilometres of the Gaza Strip. Hamas goads Fatah about its unwillingness to hold elections out of fear it will lose and Hamas will end up in full control.

Such deep internal divisions are in part the reason why Israel repeats that it has no Palestinian partner to deal with, making a return to peace negotiations near impossible.

"Hamas does not want the division to end," said senior Fatah official Amin Maqboul, adding that Hamas, whose leader lives in self-imposed exile in Qatar, has its own plan for Gaza.

"We know that Hamas has never been in favour of a Palestinian state," he said, suggesting that rather than forging unity with the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the group is determined to create an Islamist "emirate" on the Mediterranean.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/05/06/uk-palestinians-reconciliation-idUKKBN0NR0ZD20150506