Palestinians Can’t Even Agree Amongst Themselves

(From the Al Qabas newspaper, Kuwait, August 22)

 On February 8, 2007 Fatah and Hamas agreed to sign the Mecca Agreement. In this historic accord 4 pivotal agreements emerged from these discussions.

    a)     halting and preventing further bloodshed among Palestinians and unifying the stance against occupation through dialogue to resolve political differences.

    b)     forming a Palestinian unity government.

    c)     revitalizing and reforming the Palestine Liberation Organization, and accelerating the efforts of the Preparatory Committee in line with the Cairo and Damascus agreements.

    d)     upholding the principle of political partnership based on existing Palestinian Authority laws, emphasizing political pluralism.

      Only weeks later, Hamas staged a coup against the PA and seized control of the Gaza Strip, rendering the Mecca Agreement seemingly ineffective.

In 2009, There was an Egyptian mediation attempted to reconcile the factions, giving rise to the Egyptian Paper, followed by the Cairo Agreement in 2011. Yet, these efforts too yielded no meaningful results.

The Doha Agreement in 2012, facilitated by the former emir of Qatar, this was succeeded by the Beach Camp Agreement in 2014. This failed within 6 months.

In October 2017, the Cairo Agreement emerged yet again, and both parties agreed to empower the Government of National Accord. However, the division remained.

Now, in 2024, driven by urgency and the relentless war on Gaza the Palestinians are seeking to sign yet another agreement, the Beijing Declaration.

Neither the Mecca agreement nor the 13 subsequent agreements over the years were honoured. Will the Beijing Agreement be any different?