The two major Palestinian parties, Fatah and Hamas, have made a rare commitment to "National unity", Thursday, July 2, faced with the common threat posed by the proposed Israeli annexation of part of the occupied West Bank. If this declaration remains purely formal, it lays down the principle of coordinating the field actions of the two movements, which have been unable to overcome their divisions since their breakup in 2007.
"We will put in place all the mechanisms to ensure national unity" against the Israeli project, said Fatah secretary general Djibril Rajoub, a former security official, alongside Saleh Al-Arouri, number two in the political wing of Hamas, who was speaking on videoconference from Beirut. Shortly after, the leader of the Islamist movement, Ismail Haniyeh, welcomed this "Major step (…), which reflects a sense of national responsibility ”.
The last such meeting took place in January 2020, when President Mahmoud Abbas had united all the factions, so that they would jointly reject the “Trump plan” for the Middle East, on which the project of annexation. Since then, this demonstration of unity had seemed to go unheeded.
This new milestone, negotiated for over a week, is a message to activists of both parties to cooperate in the West Bank and Gaza. It's about getting there "Common and peaceful demonstrations, without flags (factions) ", and give Hamas a place in local committees in the West Bank, said Moustafa Barghouti, a Democratic opponent of Ramallah, who facilitated this dialogue.
Such a choice would represent a change of strategy for the Palestinian Authority, which has been constantly working since 2007 to erase, in good understanding with Israel, all of Hamas' institutional presence outside the Gaza Strip, of which it is master. This choice would deepen the breakdown of security cooperation with the Hebrew state, the end of which Mr. Abbas already announced in May, and which has been reduced on the ground.
Veiled threat
Rajoub took care to affirm on Thursday that he had spoken with Abbas before he spoke, and that means "Peaceful" resistance would be preferred in the event of annexation. But the joint statement also posed a veiled threat to Israel. At first, Ramallah thus appears to use Hamas as a means of exerting pressure on its foreign partners and on the Hebrew state.
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