Karl Schembri
Ramallah (West Bank)
When Palestinian President US President Barack Obama’s unequivocal rebuke to Israel to freeze all settlements in the West Bank set a new tone to the relationship between the two great allies, but the realities on the ground show this is but a tiny step towards the two-state solution.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas visited Washington Thursday leading an utterly fractured administration. Boycotted by his own Fatah party and lambasted as illegitimate by Hamas, it gave Israel even more pretexts to defer any substantial moves towards agreement for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
Israel was quick to rebuff Obama’s call, saying that while no more settlements will be built, it will allow what it calls the “natural growth” of existing settlements to go on.
The choice of words could not be more misleading – there is nothing natural in the illegal settlements dotting the Palestinian landscape. They are built on private land belonging to Palestinians, segregating villages and stopping the free movement of people. And according to Israel’s own statistics, more than one-third of settlers contributing to the “natural growth” are not even born in the settlements but come from outside.
Ultimately, settlements will have to be dismantled and Israel will have to redraw its borders for a Palestinian state to be possible. Beyond settlements, there is the even more arduous issue of the right of return of over 5 million Palestinian refugees, whose fate has been totally left out of the Obama formula so far.
Meanwhile, Gaza remains totally out of the 74-year-old president’s control, while the concerted efforts made by Abbas over the last years to rein in on militants were not met with goodwill gestures especially from Israel, which retains its unrelenting occupation policy firmly in place.
In such a scenario, Obama’s ostensibly tough stand with Israel will not be enough to boost Abbas’s internal credibility unless tangible results start materialising soon.
Even before he met Obama, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum said the Islamist movement would not recognise any agreements reached with the US, dismissing Abbas’s new government as being unrepresentative.
Be that as it may, a ray of light for Abbas came just a day ahead of his meeting with Obama through another fact on the ground: public opinion.
A survey published by the reputable Birzeit University based on the replies of 6,398 Palestinians in both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank shows that the people in the street do back Abbas and his party.
Contrary to past surveys, 37% of Palestinians in Hamas-ruled Gaza would vote for Abbas’s Fatah party if a new parliamentary election were held. Only 23% of Gazans said they would choose Hamas.
Carried out last April, the survey shows that Fatah would get 31% of votes in the West Bank and Gaza, against 17% for Hamas. The figures show Fatah is now even more popular in the besieged Gaza strip, still devastated by the Israeli war that killed some 1,400 people and destroyed around 5,000 houses.
On the other hand, Abbas’s negotiations strategy as the road to national liberation is supported by just 17%, against 43% who consider armed resistance combined with negotiation as the most successful strategy.
The majority of Palestinians, at 82%, support a solution to the conflict with Israel based on UN resolutions and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, with the capital in Jerusalem and a just solution for refugees.
National unity is crucial for more than $4 billion in foreign aid pledged to reach the Gaza Strip, as foreign governments refuse to pass the funds to Hamas in a crippling boycott since the Islamist party was democratically elected in 2006.
Yet after five rounds of talks between Fatah and Hamas in Cairo, the two rival factions are still divided by disagreements. While 52% of respondents believe the Palestinian political dialogue aims for national reconciliation, 42% believe the people engaged are only pursuing personal interests.
Still, Hamas is viewed more positively over Fatah on questions of resisting the occupation, transparency and integrity, while Fatah scores more on issues of general freedoms, interest in improving peoples’ conditions and democracy. In Gaza alone, 43% of respondents believe Hamas to be more repressive , compared to 21% in the West Bank.
As regards the occupation, 21% said they were personally beaten by the Israeli army, 14% said they had been arrested, 31% said they were verbally insulted by the occupation forces and 5% were sexually harassed, particularly in checkpoints.
Despite the recent war on Gaza and the stifling occupation, 68% of Palestinians expressed optimism about the future. Even when the road to peace looks terribly tortuous, the Palestinians’ hope remains alive.
Karl Schembri is a correspondent for Ramattan News Agency
Any comments?
If you wish your comments to be published in our Letters pages please click button below. Please write a contact number and a postal address where you may be contacted.
Search:
MALTATODAY
BUSINESSTODAY
Download MaltaToday Sunday issue front page in pdf file format
All the interviews from Reporter on MaltaToday's YouTube channel.
