Publication
Omar Shaban Ismail · مجلة شؤون فلسطينية (Palestinian Affairs) · 2019
This peer-reviewed article in the PLO's Palestinian Affairs journal examines the structural repercussions of fifteen years of Palestinian division on the national project. The author analyzes five dimensions: general consequences of the split, institutional fragmentation (parallel governments, laws, and security apparatuses in Gaza and the West Bank), proliferation of armed actors undermining the rule of law, contradictory legislative environments, and the paradox of converging political programs alongside a deepening cultural and psychological gulf between the two territories. The article warns that the prolonged division has generated entrenched interest groups on both sides that benefit from its continuation, making reunification structurally harder over time — and that regional and international actors, particularly the US and Israel under Trump, are increasingly exploiting this division to prevent Palestinian statehood.
This peer-reviewed article in the PLO's Palestinian Affairs journal examines the structural repercussions of fifteen years of Palestinian division on the…
No genuine transformation from Palestinian Authority to Palestinian state is possible before ending the Palestinian internal division. The division has produced lasting facts on the ground that can no longer be addressed by agreements alone. The most notable development under President Trump's administration has been the open pursuit of exploiting the division—preserving it and practically preventing the establishment of a Palestinian state—through perpetuating the political and geographic separation between the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
**I. Repercussions of the Division**
Hamas's seizure of Gaza entrenched a state of political and administrative separation between the West Bank and Gaza. The Palestinian political system fragmented further, deepening political, social, administrative, geographic, cultural, and psychological divisions within a single people.
Institutional repercussions: The Palestinian Authority split into two authorities. The Palestinian Legislative Council was paralyzed, fundamentally undermining the separation of powers, as executive authority came to dominate legislative and judicial functions alike.
Legislative fragmentation: The Legislative Council in Gaza passed approximately 47 laws in seven years after 2008, plus 2,446 decisions applied only in Gaza, without reference to the President of the Authority.
Cultural and psychological polarization: The sharp polarization between Fatah and Hamas transformed divisions into a mechanism for maintaining the status quo. Israel actively cultivated distinct identities for the West Bank and Gaza to undermine the national project of a unified Palestinian state.
Economic conditions: Gaza's economy suffered a devastating blow from the division and Israel's comprehensive blockade from mid-2007 onward. The combined direct and indirect cost of the division and blockade is estimated at approximately $15 billion over ten years (2007-2017). Economic growth reached negative 6% in the first quarter of 2018, while unemployment among Gaza's predominantly young population exceeded 70%.
**II. Israeli-American Exploitation of the Division**
The division serves Israel's interests. Israel has consistently sought to fragment Palestinian ranks, and its strategy of fragmenting Palestinian identity and dismantling unified Palestinian representation is gaining ground. On one hand, Israel deepened settlement expansion in the West Bank and Judaization of Jerusalem, passing discriminatory legislation such as the Nation-State Law with minimal international pushback. On the other hand, Israel works to sustain the separation of Gaza from the West Bank—a policy it began before Oslo.
The Trump administration seeks to exploit deteriorating humanitarian and economic conditions to extract political concessions in exchange for aid. Jared Kushner expressed this plainly: "I think the Palestinian people are less focused on the political issues and more focused on what the deal will offer them and future generations in terms of new opportunities, better-paying jobs, and access to a better life." As Robert Fisk observed, this is money for peace instead of land for peace—dollars in lieu of a Palestinian capital in Jerusalem, an end to settlement expansion, and the right of return.
**Conclusion**
The prolonged continuation of the Palestinian internal division poses both an immediate and a long-term strategic threat. It has deepened separation between the two territories and created constituencies with vested interests in the division's continuance, making reunification increasingly difficult. The entire Palestinian condition is now imperiled: the American administration and Israeli government actively exploit the division to entrench West Bank–Gaza separation and foreclose the possibility of a Palestinian state—above all by leveraging Gaza's humanitarian crisis to redefine the Palestinian question from a matter of national rights to one of relief and humanitarian assistance.
Published in: Palestinian Affairs Journal (Shu'un Filastiniyyah), Issues 273-274, Autumn 2018 – Winter 2019, pp. 108-121. PLO Research Center.
Topic: Palestinian Politics — الانقسام الفلسطيني · المصالحة الوطنية · سياسة أمريكية · اقتصاد غزة · National Reconciliation · Regional & International Politics · Hamas and Fatah