This story originally appeared on themedialine.org.
Despite the formation of a national consensus government, Hamas has not only failed to reconcile with Fatah, but the Islamist group is also beset by an internal rift between a majority who follow the agenda of the Muslim Brotherhood and those who seek independence from the group.
“The Palestinian cause is being held hostage by Hamas. Hamas is a catastrophe for us,” Palestinian analyst Abdelmajeed Sweilem told The Media Line. Arguing that Hamas is setting the agenda of the Palestinian issue, he charged that Hamas is echoing the Muslim Brotherhood, which does not wish to see statehood established for West Bank and Gaza residents. “Power is their [only] objective; not seeing a Palestinian state,” he said.
Sweilem believes Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood – the party of ousted Egyptian President Mohammad Morsi — are one in the same. Through its actions, he says, Hamas is serving the international organization of the Muslim Brotherhood while waiting for regional differences to benefit them.
“This is a catastrophe for Abu Mazen (nickname for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas) because the [Muslim] Brotherhood wants to end the Palestinian cause. My opinion is that the Muslim Brotherhood has no problem with Palestinians being like North and South Koreans,” said Sweilem, suggesting that the Palestinian president is currently engaged in two fights: the first against Israel and the second versus Hamas.
Hamas spokesmen declined to speak to The Media Line for this article.
Offering an example of the Hamas internal rift, a source in Ramallah close to the Abbas government who spoke anonymously because he is not cleared to speak with media explained that “If one Hamas official in Gaza says something and a Hamas official in Qatar disagrees with it, he will accept it even though it’s wrong to sustain the illusion that there is unity among Hamas.”
Sweilem believes only a minority of Hamas members support reconciliation and peace while the “dominant side is the Muslim Brotherhood,” supporting division and violence.
In an exclusive interview with The Media Line, senior Fatah official Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, who heads the Fatah bloc and Political Committee, confirmed the existence of a split within Hamas.
“Logically speaking — although without proven evidence — there is no doubt that that many members of Hamas were shocked over the 15 explosions,” he said referring to the recent incident in the Gaza Strip where bombs exploded near the homes of prominent Fatah members. A spokesman for Hamas told The Media Line at the time that the group was not involved and that it would launch an investigation. The blasts came as Palestinians in Gaza were gearing up to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the death of Yassir Arafat, but as a result of the incident, the festivities in Gaza were cancelled.
“[Holding commemorations] would have showed how many people are against Hamas,” Sweilem said, suggesting that the explosions were a Hamas tactic: talking in media about ending the Hamas/Fatah division but holding out the explosions to signify the “end of reconciliation” — proof that the Fatah officials there have no good will toward uniting the Palestinians.
In April, after seven years of disunity, the Palestinians were purportedly united, which led to the formation of a national consensus government comprised of technocrats. But the short window of hope was to last only seven months.
Sweilem says Hamas is “sending a clear message that you must deal with Hamas as the rulers [of Gaza] and forget about any elections, unification of the Palestinian institutions and the PLO constitution,” he added.
According to Abdullah, there are two lines of thinking within Hamas: “ideologues who don’t want to end the division [between Fatah and Hamas] as principle; and a second group, which is negatively affected materially and financially from reconciliation because “tunnel trade would end, and along with it, bribery on the crossings.” He gives the example of Gaza residents being forced to pay bribes to Hamas in order to be allowed to leave the enclave.
“Disunity and the lack of a consolidated internal front will no doubt cost the Palestinians,” he said.
Sweilem says anyone who thinks the Palestinians will ever be united is living a lie. “It’s irrational to ever think there will be Palestinian reconciliation. It’s a lie,” he said.
This comes at a time following the donor conference in Cairo which saw contributing nations pledge more than $5 billion to reconstruct Gaza in the aftermath of last summer’s 50-day war between Hamas and Israel that left more than 2,000 Palestinians dead along with vast destruction. Sweilem says that Palestinian Presidential Guards will never replace Hamas forces; and the Palestinian Authority will never have sovereignty over a single inch of Gaza because Hamas’s leadership wants any reconstruction efforts to be channeled through them.
Analysts believe that under the present conditions, there will be no consensus government and no restoration of Palestinian unity because Hamas is absolutely unwilling to accept the authority of the PA under Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah.
As proof that Hamas will not let the reconstruction process happen, Sweilem says, “If they wanted that to happen, they could have used money received after the Israeli attack on Gaza in 2012, but instead they built homes for its members.” He expects the current round of Gaza reconstruction to take place “trickle by trickle.”
Many agree that the elements of the Fatah-Hamas stalemate will also hinder any efforts undertaken on the Palestinian-Israeli peace track.
Referring to rumors reported in local media, a senior source in the Abbas camp adamantly denies that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and PA President Abbas held any secret meetings when both were in Amman to see King Abdullah II and US Secretary of State John Kerry. But it is acknowledged that “Kerry tried (to bring the two together), but Abbas refused because he doesn’t want to.”
Kerry also promised Abbas that he would get negotiations back on track. According to the source, the Palestinian did not respond himself, but someone from his delegation said to Kerry, “Only if Israel honors its commitments not to negotiate for the sake of negotiating, but to negotiate to yield peace results.”
The Palestinian leadership believes that the SecState “is afraid to lose and wants to end his career with any success.” Therefore, they believe Kerry convinced Netanyahu to have given the order to ease restrictions on Muslims allowed to pray at Al Haram Al Sharif (what Israelis call the Temple Mount) even before the Amman meeting with Kerry and the king in order to calm the situation down following a month of elevated tensions at the holy site and rioting in east Jerusalem neighborhoods.
“Netanyahu is looking for an Arab ally at this particular time and that’s Jordan,” the source said. He also says the King of Jordan was very direct with the Israeli Prime Minister, reminding him of the borders between the two, the long peace agreement between Israel and Jordan and the alliance. “We will not accept any actions in Jerusalem,” King Abdullah reportedly told Netanyahu.
Sweilem believes the Americans exerted significant pressure on Netanyahu for the first time. “What this proves is that if the Americans are willing to pressure Israel in to making peace, they can and Israel can’t say no,” he said.
Meanwhile, sources in Ramallah believe that Abbas does not want a third Intifada (Palestinian uprising.)
Dr. Abdullah Abdullah says the Palestinian president is committed to not letting Gaza down. And when asked why Abbas insists on not giving up on unity with Hamas, he says the Palestinian leader is “polite” and wants to “keep the window open” because Hamas is a part of the Palestinians; and Gaza and the West Bank will never be separated. “President Abbas has said to Israel not to give Hamas an excuse to make violence and instead give them hope; and when that happens, it will convince extremists to end their violence because there is a solution.”
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