Is Hamas ready to recognize PA president Abbas?

By Joseph Dana May 4, 2011 | Edit

An unofficial copy of the Hamas-Fatah unity agreement is now on the internet. It looks close to the official text but there is no confirmation. The language of the agreement is vague making it difficult to extrapolate hard details about how this agreement is going to affect Palestinians politics in the coming months. However, two issues stick out; the legitimacy of PA president Abbas and the reformation of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Let’s start with the first clause:

Clause A. Election Committee:
Both Fatah and Hamas agree to identify the names of the members of the Central Election Commission in agreement with the Palestinian factions. This list will then be submitted to the Palestinian President who will issue a decree of the reformation of the committee.

Does this represent a willingness on Hamas’s part to recognize the legitimacy of Abbas? Very difficult to say.  It is likely that Hamas is laying the ground work for their own presidency bid in which they will take over the office. Even more likely is that Hamas’s recognition of Abbas was the entrance requirement for the Palestine National Council and participation in PNC elections where Fatah will not achieve great results.  We will have to wait and see.

Ali Abunimah, writing at Electronic Intifada, has the best analysis of the entire agreement. Below he addresses the second pressing issue in the text; the reformation of the Palestine Liberation Organization. His analysis follows the clause on the Palestine Liberation Organization

Clause 2. Palestine Liberation Organization
 The political parties of both Fatah and Hamas agree that the tasks and decisions of the provisional interim leadership cannot be hindered or obstructed, but in a manner that is not conflicting with the authorities of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

This clause is mysterious. What it seems to be saying is that the Fatah-controlled PLO as currently constituted can carry on with its activities “representing” the Palestinians even without any sort of mandate or accountability. In other words, it gives authority to the Abbas-controlled PLO to continue recognizing Israel and engaging in the peace process charade which Hamas formally rejects. There is nothing here about reforming the PLO or democratizing it to restore its legitimacy. A key demand heard from more and more Palestinians, especially youth who staged demonstrations on March 15, is for elections to the Palestine National Council in which all Palestinians would take part, not just those in the West Bank and Gaza.

Abunimah gets it right. Ultimately, the leaked agreement is far too open ended to allow any serious conclusions. What can be said is that the Arab spring is starting to run in Palestine and Palestinian leaders are trying to harness the power of young civil society movements such as the March 15th movement. Major changes are on the way.

Joseph Dana was a contributing writer on +972 Magazine from August 2010 to December 2011. This is an archive of his work.

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