Yesterday, Saturday, the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) said that it is studying an initiative put forward by the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, one of the PLO factions, to end the division and restore national unity.
A member of the movement’s political bureau, Hussam Badran, said in a statement, “We have received officially and with high appreciation the initiative of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine related to ending the division, achieving national unity, and arranging the Palestinian house.”
He added that the movement is studying the initiative “positively, in a way that achieves the desired goal that our people aspire to in all their places of existence.”
He pointed out that the initiative reflects the Democratic Front’s keenness on consensus, advancing the national project, reforming Palestinian institutions, and arriving at a comprehensive national strategy that is agreed upon away from exclusivity.
In a press conference in Ramallah last Sunday, Qais Abdel Karim, Deputy Secretary-General of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, said that the initiative calls for the start of a comprehensive national dialogue in light of the challenges facing the Palestinian cause, with the aim of finding an end to the state of destruction and internal fragmentation.
Abdel Karim added that the initiative urges an end to the media exchange between the two parties to the internal conflict (Hamas and the Palestinian National Liberation Movement, Fatah), and a mutual halt to the practices of repression and political arrest, in preparation for initiating a comprehensive national dialogue aimed at reaching a plan that translates into scheduled implementation steps.
The Front proposes, according to Abdel Karim, to work on two overlapping tracks: the path of partnership and comprehensive representation in the institutions of the Liberation Organization, and the path of reunification of the institutions of the Palestinian Authority, leading to general elections.
The initiative includes proposals related to partnership with the institutions of the Liberation Organization, and the conclusion of 2022 by holding legislative and presidential elections on previously agreed dates within the framework of the national dialogue.
The initiative is also based on the implementation of the outcomes of the meeting of the secretaries-general of the factions (September 2020) regarding the formulation and adoption of a new alternative struggle strategy to the Oslo Agreement (signed between the PLO and Israel), and the formation of the unified national leadership to advance the popular resistance; Leading to the comprehensive intifada and national disobedience in the face of Israel, according to Abdel Karim.
The Palestinian arena has been suffering from a political and geographical division since 2007; Where Hamas controls the Gaza Strip, while the Palestinian government formed by the Fatah movement, led by President Mahmoud Abbas, administers the West Bank.
