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Palestinian Factions Announce Deal on Unity Government Palestinian Rivals Announce Unity Pact, Drawing U.S. and Israeli Rebuke
(about 7 hours later)
JERUSALEM — The two main Palestinian factions announced an agreement on Wednesday to heal a seven-year schism and form a unity government within five weeks that would prepare for Palestinian elections six months later. JERUSALEM — The faltering Middle East peace process was thrown into further jeopardy on Wednesday, with Israel and the United States harshly condemning a new deal announced by feuding Palestinian factions, including the militant group Hamas, to repair their seven-year rift.
The two groups — the Palestine Liberation Organization, which runs the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, and Hamas, the militant Islamist group that controls the Gaza Strip — have reached similar accords before that were never carried out. But the latest deal comes as the fragile American-brokered peace efforts between the Palestinians and Israel are approaching an April 29 deadline without a resolution in sight. People familiar with the discussions have said the Israeli and Palestinian sides were far apart even on how to extend the talks past the deadline. Israel canceled a negotiating session scheduled for Wednesday night shortly after leaders of the Palestine Liberation Organization joined hands with their rivals from Hamas at a celebratory ceremony in the Gaza Strip.
Ismail Haniya, the prime minister of the Hamas government in Gaza, said at a news conference here, “I announce to our people the news that the years of split are over.” “Whoever chooses Hamas does not want peace,” the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said in a statement, describing the group as “a murderous terrorist organization that calls for the destruction of Israel.”
Israel responded to the announcement by canceling a meeting among the peace negotiators that was scheduled for Wednesday night. An Israeli with knowledge of the talks said that though it was not yet clear how the reconciliation would ultimately affect the talks, “it introduces a huge complication” at a critical juncture and “takes the winds out of the sails.” The unity pact, coming days before the April 29 expiration date for the American-brokered peace talks that have been the mainstay of Secretary of State John Kerry’s tenure, surprised officials in Washington, which, like Israel, deems Hamas a terrorist group and forbids direct dealings with it. After months of intensive shuttle diplomacy in which Mr. Kerry staked his reputation on the peace process and even dangled the possibility of releasing an American convicted of spying for Israel to salvage the lifeless talks, his spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, called the Palestinian move “disappointing” and the timing “troubling.”
Before the announcement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel warned Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority and leader of Fatah, the main group in the P.L.O., against reconciling with Hamas, which refuses to recognize Israel and which Israel considers a terrorist group. “Any Palestinian government must unambiguously and explicitly commit to nonviolence, recognition of the state of Israel, and acceptance of previous agreements and obligations between the parties,” Ms. Psaki said, citing conditions Hamas has repeatedly rejected. “It’s hard to see how Israel can be expected to negotiate with a government that does not believe in its right to exist.”
“Does he want peace with Hamas, or peace with Israel?” Mr. Netanyahu asked. “You can have one but not the other. I hope he chooses peace. So far he hasn’t done so.” Hamas and Fatah, the faction that dominates the P.L.O., have signed several similar accords before that were not carried out, so it remained unclear whether Wednesday’s deal promised a real resolution or a replay of an old movie.
Adding to the volatile atmosphere, Israel carried out an airstrike in the northern Gaza Strip on Wednesday, around the time the deal was being announced. The Health Ministry in Gaza said that 12 Palestinians were wounded, including two children. Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades, the armed wing of Fatah, said that a group of its members in the town of Beit Lahiya were the target. The Israeli military said it had mounted a “counterterrorism operation” but gave no specifics about the target. Some analysts saw the step primarily as tactic by President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority to pressure Israel to make concessions as the clock winds down on extending the fraught negotiations. He said in statement that “there is no contradiction at all” between reconciliation and negotiation, adding, “We are totally committed to establishing a just and comprehensive peace based on the two-state principle.”
Analysts remained skeptical about whether the Palestinian reconciliation efforts would lead to tangible changes on the ground, because neither Fatah nor Hamas has shown interest in genuine power-sharing in the past, and they have deep differences over how to deal with Israel. Other experts noted that Palestinian political conditions have drastically changed since the signing of previous agreements, which could lead both parties to make the compromises necessary to put this one into action. Hamas has been in a deep political and economic crisis since the military-backed government took over Egypt last summer and largely cut ties with Gaza. Mr. Abbas, at 79, is looking for a legacy and an exit strategy.
Even so, some experts said that the latest effort at reconciliation appeared more serious than past attempts, because both factions are under growing pressure. Gaza under Hamas has been severely weakened by an Egyptian crackdown on the smuggling tunnels along the Gaza-Egypt border and an Israeli blockade. And Mr. Abbas, for his part, has faced growing criticism from West Bank residents about the negotiations with Israel and his own legitimacy, with Palestinian elections long overdue. He has threatened to dissolve the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank, if the talks with Israel end in failure. Reconciliation is deeply resonant among Palestinians and could revive the president’s sagging popularity.
Mr. Haniya, the Hamas leader, read the text of the reconciliation agreement out loud to reporters in Gaza. Among other things, it calls for Mr. Abbas to begin talks immediately to form a joint Palestinian government and set a date for elections. A president, parliament and the P.L.O.'s National Council are to be elected at the same time. Several other clauses reaffirmed the need to abide by the articles of the previous deals. “It’s not bad for both sides — it is bad for the peace process,” said Shimrit Meir, an Israeli analyst of Palestinian politics and editor of The Source, an Arabic news website. “It is simply rude, in diplomatic language, when Kerry is doing his last heroic effort to save the peace process, to reward it with reconciliation with a terrorist group. I think this is a message, and it’s very blunt.”
The two factions also agreed to activate a temporary leadership committee of the P.L.O. with the intention of opening the way for Hamas and another militant group, Islamic Jihad, to join the organization. Beyond the damage to the peace talks, joining forces with Hamas could cost the Palestinians millions of dollars in financial aid from the United States and Europe, and prompt a host of retaliatory actions by Israel.
The political schism between the factions has been deeply unpopular among ordinary Palestinians, not least because it split the West Bank from Gaza, the largely poor and isolated Palestinian coastal territory. The rivalry peaked after Hamas won the Palestinian elections of 2006, defeating Fatah. A year later, after a failed unity government and a brief but bloody factional war, Hamas took full control of Gaza, routing the forces loyal to Mr. Abbas, leaving him with authority only in the West Bank. Even as the deal was being announced, there were other signs of tension. An Israeli airstrike hit northern Gaza, apparently missing the militant on a motorcycle it was aiming for and wounding 12 Palestinians, including two children, according to Gaza health officials. Later Wednesday evening, two rockets fired from Gaza landed in open areas of southern Israel.
“The president in Ramallah needs to unite his people,” said Ziad Abu Amr, a deputy prime minister of the Palestinian Authority government and a close aide to Mr. Abbas, in a telephone interview from Gaza. “It’s a psychological and national issue that Palestinians feel they are united. This split is hurting them.” The schism between Hamas and Fatah began in 2007, with a brief but bloody civil war that followed a failed unity government after Hamas’s victory in 2006 Palestinian elections. It left Palestinian territory divided, with Hamas ruling Gaza, the impoverished and isolated coastal expanse, and the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority governing the larger and more populous West Bank.
Mr. Abu Amr, who was not participating in the reconciliation talks, dismissed Mr. Netanyahu’s warnings as a “double standard,” noting that Mr. Abbas had agreed to the current peace talks despite the extreme right-wing views of some members of the Israeli cabinet. Dreams of reconciliation have been repeatedly dashed, after much-trumpeted agreements signed in Cairo in 2011 and Doha in 2012 were never carried out.
“This is arrogance, this is colonial, they should stop insulting the Palestinians and threatening them,” Mr. Abu Amr said. “Nobody has the right, including Netanyahu, to stop Palestinians from reuniting their people and their country.” “Sorry to say that we are familiar with such celebrations,” said Talal Okal, a Gaza political analyst. “I hope that this time will be more serious, but to be more serious is to go directly and quickly to the first step, to let the people touch and see, not to hear only.”
He added that the Egyptian government was facilitating the current talks, and had allowed Moussa Abu Marzouk, a senior Hamas official, to enter Gaza from Egypt through the Rafah border crossing. On Wednesday afternoon, after two days of meetings at the home of the Hamas prime minister, Ismail Haniya, in Gaza City’s Beach refugee camp, the Palestinian leaders vowed to form a government of technocrats within five weeks that would prepare for long-overdue elections six months later.
The Palestinian unity government formed after the 2006 elections was short-lived, as Western nations cut off aid to it because Hamas, which is classified as a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union as well as Israel, refused to meet international demands that it recognize Israel’s right to exist, renounce violence and accept previous signed agreements. “I announce to our people the news that the years of split are over,” Mr. Haniya said triumphantly.
The rival Palestinian factions tried to reconcile in Cairo in 2011 and again the following year in Doha, Qatar; those accords called for a joint interim government of technical experts to prepare for elections. Azzam al-Ahmad, a senior Fatah official who headed the P.L.O. delegation to Gaza, said he hoped the deal would be “a true beginning and a true partnership.”
But those efforts foundered over questions about who should lead the interim government, as well as broader issues like security coordination. Ziad Abu Amr, deputy prime minister of the Palestinian Authority and a close aide to Mr. Abbas, said the new deal came about because “the situation has become more demanding and the pressures are rising.” He cited Egypt’s frequent closing of the Rafah border crossing, Gaza’s gateway to the world, which he said a technocratic government could reverse, as well as domestic political concerns.
Kobi Michael, a former head of the Palestinian desk at Israel’s strategic affairs ministry, told reporters he believed that this time, too, the “ideological gaps, the political gaps and the cultural gaps” between Hamas and Fatah remained too wide for any meaningful reconciliation. “It’s a psychological and national issue that Palestinians feel they are united,” Mr. Abu Amr said. “This split is hurting them.”
“I cannot find any sort of strategic bridge between these two players,” Mr. Michael, who is now a university lecturer and researcher. He said financial aid and diplomatic relations with Western countries would once again be put in jeopardy if Hamas joined a unity government. He and other Palestinian leaders dismissed Israel’s threats and said reconciliation was an internal matter, noting that the presence of extreme right-wing members in Israel’s governing coalition had not stopped Palestinians from participating in the peace talks. They also pointed out that some Israeli leaders had questioned Mr. Abbas’s ability to deliver a peace deal with Hamas controlling Gaza.
“The Palestinians will be in a very serious problem, not only with Israel but with the Americans and the Europeans as well,” he said in a conference call organized by the Israel Project, an advocacy group. “Mr. Netanyahu and his government were using Palestinian division as an excuse not to make peace,” said Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator. “Now they want to use Palestinian reconciliation as an excuse for the same purpose. This is utterly absurd.”
Ghassan Khatib, a Palestinian political analyst based in Ramallah, observed on Tuesday, when the P.L.O. delegation was on its way to Gaza, that a power-sharing deal would inevitably be lopsided, because Israel would never tolerate Hamas having a say in the West Bank, where Israel retains ultimate control. “The sides may be in need of a reconciliation process, " Mr. Khatib said of Fatah and Hamas, “but neither side can afford success.” Israel’s cabinet planned to meet Thursday to plan its next steps. Dore Gold, a senior adviser to Mr. Netanyahu, called the Palestinian deal “a real game changer,” and said, “You cannot have a serious peace process with Hamas inside.”
Tzipi Livni, Israel’s chief negotiator, said the reconciliation was a “very problematic development.”
Some Washington-based Middle East experts, who had long thought Mr. Kerry’s efforts to be an uphill struggle given the yawning gaps between Israeli and Palestinian positions on fundamental issues, said Wednesday’s developments boded ill.
Aaron David Miller, a former State Department peace negotiator, said Mr. Abbas had “bought peace at home in exchange for significant tensions with the Israelis” and called the move “one more nail to a peace-process coffin that is rapidly being closed.”
Dennis B. Ross, another former American peace envoy, said that the move could make Mr. Abbas “less susceptible to a domestic backlash for continuing the process with the Israelis,” but that “the timing is very problematic — when the process is already faltering, this could be a body blow.”
Tamara Cofman Wittes, director of the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution in Washington, said the implications depended on the precise terms of the reconciliation, which have yet to be revealed.
“If, and it is a big ‘if,’ Hamas comes under the P.L.O. umbrella in such a way that it accedes to the P.L.O.’s recognition of Israel and the P.L.O.’s signed agreements with Israel,” she said, “that would be historic.”
“What would make it horrible is if Hamas were to join the P.L.O. without those kinds of commitments,” Ms. Wittes added. “Then it calls into question the P.L.O.’s commitments that it has already made.”