Palestinian prime minister Mohammed Shtayyeh has dismissed speculation that the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority will resume rule over Gaza after the Hamas-Israel war ends. He told the Guardian the Palestinian Authority will not go to Gaza “aboard an F-16 or an Israeli tank” and unless there is a “genuine peace process” which produces a “political solution” linking the West Bank and Gaza in a Palestinian state.
Palestinians have been divided since the PA’s 2007 expulsion from Gaza by Hamas and Palestinian-Israeli negotiations ceased in 2014. Since Hamas fighters attacked Israel on October 7th and killed an alleged 1,400, Gaza’s health officials have reported more than 8,300 Palestinians, including 3,000 children, were slain by Israeli bombing and shelling.
Mr Shtayyeh spoke for himself, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) which have lost credibility with Palestinians and Arabs over the dismal failure of 35 years of Palestinian efforts to deliver a Palestinian state.
This began on November 15th, 1988, with the PLO declaration of independence. It covered only the territories conquered by Israel in 1967 rather than the whole of Palestine and was portrayed by the PLO as a “historic compromise”.
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To initiate dialogue with the US the PLO issued a further compromising statement on December 13th, 1988, in which it “accepted United Nations Security Council resolutions 242 and 338, recognised Israel’s right to exist in peace and security and renounced terrorism”.
In 1993 Israel recognised the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people and the PLO recognised Israel’s right to exist In peace. This led to the signing of the Oslo Accord on September 13th and to the expectation that a Palestinian state could emerge according to the “two-state solution”.
Negotiations did not prosper, Israel expanded settlements in the West Bank and besieged and blockaded Gaza. The Palestinian Authority was accused of mismanagement and corruption while its security forces co-operated with Israel to protect Israelis but did not defend Palestinians.
After Saturday’s meeting with the PLO central committee Mr Abbas called on the international community to stop the “genocide” in Gaza, provide humanitarian aid, and halt Israeli attacks in the West Bank. He was encouraged by the United Nations General Assembly’s 121-member vote for a humanitarian truce while it was opposed by the US and 13 allies. The Arab summit he demanded might convene on November 10th.
Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu has called the invasion of Gaza Israel’s “second war of liberation” which, for Palestinians means uprooting and ethnic cleansing (Naqba). During Israel’s 1948 war, half the Palestinian population of 1.2 million became refugees. Palestinians fear that Israel intends to drive Gazans into Egypt and West Bankers into Jordan although expulsion is rejected by Cairo and Amman which have peace treaties with Israel.
Mr Abbas’s pleas have fallen on deaf ears in Washington and some European capitals, prompting many Palestinians to regard Hamas and armed struggle as their only alternative. They recall during his 1974 address to the UN General Assembly PLO chief Yasser Arafat held up an olive branch and a gun and warned: “Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand. I repeat: do not let the olive branch fall from my hand.”
