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Palestine Today · 2014-05-12
Palestinian politicians said the reconciliation announcement between Fatah and Hamas is a historic opportunity to build a national political system capable of confronting the pressures and challenges facing the Palestinian cause. Participants said the expected consensus government would manage Gaza and the West Bank until elections are held, while the government formed after the elections would address the core issues caused by the division. Speakers, including Omar Shaban, also stressed the need to complete all reconciliation files, preserve the resistance program, and implement relief and economic development plans in the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian politicians said the reconciliation announcement between Fatah and Hamas is a historic opportunity to build a national political system capable of confronting the pressures and challenges facing the Palestinian cause. Participants said the expected consensus government would manage Gaza…
## Politicians: Reconciliation Is a Historic Opportunity to Build a Palestinian Political System
Politicians affirmed that the announcement of reconciliation between the Fatah and Hamas movements is a historic and national opportunity to build a national political system capable of confronting all the pressures and challenges battering the Palestinian cause.
They stressed during a meeting organized by the Information Center at the Ministry of Planning in Gaza today, Monday, that the role of the consensus government expected to be formed is to manage the affairs of Gaza and the West Bank until elections are held.
They explained that the fundamental solution to the major problems caused by the division will be the responsibility of the government that will be formed after these elections.
Alaa al-Din al-Rafati, Minister of Planning in the Gaza government, affirmed at the meeting, titled “Palestinian Reconciliation: Opportunities and Challenges,” that the Palestinian people are placing great hopes in the recent reconciliation announcement, and that this agreement is different because it was reached on Palestinian soil without mediators.
Al-Rafati explained that the new element in it is the focus on the necessity of implementing the agreed files, noting that “the security services file is under study until national security services are reached that contribute to building Palestinian security.”
For his part, Imad al-Alami, member of the Political Bureau of the Islamic Resistance Movement “Hamas,” affirmed that his movement’s decision on reconciliation and ending the division is final and irreversible, explaining that the popular rallying around this announcement and the necessity of ending the division are the most important matters at this stage.
Al-Alami called for the necessity of unifying the forces and factions into one body in order to confront the occupation and the challenges.
He also affirmed building the Palestinian political system on shared national foundations that guarantee the entry of Hamas and Islamic Jihad into the Palestine Liberation Organization after its reconstruction.
He indicated that completing all the reconciliation files as one package is sufficient to resolve all the problems caused by the division, foremost among them the political system, societal reconciliation, the security services, and elections.
He explained that the psychological division that caused many losses of life and property is something that must be ended before the geographic division, stressing the need to guarantee job security, freedoms, and rights.
Al-Alami called for preserving the achievements of the Palestinian resistance, noting the realization of a formula of the existence of both authority and resistance.
In turn, Muhammad Hijazi, a deputy from the Fatah parliamentary bloc in the Legislative Council, said that the national accord government will have no position on the negotiations, nor will the Fatah and Hamas movements have any relation to them either.
He pointed out that the government will see the light during the current month of May, and that it will be for managing the conditions of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank until elections are held.
Hijazi affirmed that his movement will struggle with all its strength to accomplish reconciliation and will not look backward, considering that the greatest challenge to accomplishing reconciliation is overcoming the financial and employment threat.
For his part, Mahmoud al-Ajrami, former Assistant Undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, affirmed that Palestinian unity must be built on firm national foundations that achieve the national goals.
Al-Ajrami considered that the Palestinian Authority’s recognition of the Zionist entity is the biggest mistake in the history of the cause, explaining that it caused a real erosion of the international resolutions that affirmed Palestinian constants.
He pointed out that the “Oslo Accords” transformed the issue of Palestine from one of national liberation and resistance into a housing issue, and that the occupation and the U.S. administration deal with the Palestinian Authority as a local institution.
He said that protecting national reconciliation comes through Palestinian popular rallying and preserving the program of resistance, stressing the necessity that the coming reconstruction of the Palestine Liberation Organization be in accordance with what the Palestinian people and their constants see.
Moreover, Omar Shaban, Director of the PalThink for Strategic Studies, stressed the need for the coming government to implement relief plans for the residents of the Gaza Strip that lead to achieving development that resolves all economic crises.
Shaban explained the need for the coming government to be capable of addressing the world, considering that the greater role falls on the government that will be formed after the legislative and presidential elections are held.
He called for opening the files of all institutions, and bringing back Palestinian investors so that they may all participate in achieving economic development.
Shaban stated that numerous studies have been completed in this regard, and they will be discussed with experts and officials next week in preparation for presenting them to President Mahmoud Abbas for approval.
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