The Palestinian National Liberation Movement “Fatah” affirmed that “whoever caused Israel’s reoccupation of the Gaza Strip, and caused the Nakba that the Palestinian people are experiencing, especially in the Gaza Strip, does not have the right to dictate national priorities,” in response to criticism leveled by the “Hamas” movement regarding Appointment of Muhammad Mustafa, who is close to the President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, as head of the new government.
On Friday, Hamas criticized what it described as the “individual” decision taken by Abbas to appoint one of his allies as prime minister and assign him to help reform the Palestinian Authority and rebuild Gaza.
The appointment of prominent businessman Muhammad Mustafa comes after mounting pressure to reform the Palestinian Authority, which administers the occupied Palestinian territories, and improve its governance in the West Bank, where its headquarters are located.
Hamas said that Abbas made the decision without consulting it, despite its recent participation in a meeting in Moscow in which Abbas’s Fatah movement also participated, to end long-standing divisions that weaken the political aspirations of the Palestinians.
Hamas said in a statement reported by Reuters: “In light of the Palestinian Authority’s insistence on continuing the policy of exclusivity, ignoring all national efforts for Palestinian unity, and uniting in the face of aggression against our people, we express our rejection of the continuation of this approach that has harmed and continues to harm our people.” And our national cause.”
She added, “Making individual decisions and preoccupation with formal steps devoid of substance, such as forming a new government without national consensus, is a reinforcement of the policy of exclusivity and a deepening of division, at a pivotal historical moment, when our people and their national cause are most in need of consensus and unity, and the formation of a unified national leadership prepared to take action.” Free and democratic elections with the participation of all components of the Palestinian people.”
In its response to Hamas, Fatah affirmed that “the real disconnect from reality and from the Palestinian people is the leadership of the Hamas movement, which has not, until this moment, felt the extent of the catastrophe that our oppressed people are experiencing in the Gaza Strip and in the rest of the Palestinian territories,” according to the statement reported by the Palestinian News Agency.Wafa“.
Fatah expressed its “surprise and disapproval” at Hamas’ talk of exclusivity and division.
In its statement, it asked, “Did Hamas consult the Palestinian leadership or any Palestinian national party when it made its decision to carry out the adventure of last October 7, which led to a catastrophe more horrific and cruel than the Nakba of 1948? And did Hamas consult the Palestinian leadership as it is now negotiating with Israel and offering it concessions after concessions?” It has no goal other than for its leadership to receive guarantees for its personal security, and to try to reach an agreement with (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu again to maintain its divisive role in Gaza and the Palestinian arena. The question is whether Hamas consulted anyone when it carried out its black coup against Palestinian national legitimacy in 2007, and it refused. All initiatives to end the division?
Fatah indicated that “it is the right” of Abbas and “in accordance with the Basic Law to do everything that is in the interest of the Palestinian people,” stressing that the President’s assignment of Dr. Muhammad Mustafa is at the heart of the President’s political and legal responsibilities, and that the priorities set in the assignment book are the priorities of the Palestinian people.
She added, “Every sane person who is not separated from his people and the reality of the terrible tragedy that our people are experiencing, exposed to great injustice in the Gaza Strip, realizes this,” stressing that the priority of all Palestinians today is to stop the war immediately, prevent displacement, provide relief to our afflicted people, rebuild the Gaza Strip, end the division, and reunite. The Palestinian homeland, which, as Hamas indicates in its statement today, is not its priority.”
Fatah confirmed that the Prime Minister-designate, Mustafa, is “armed with the national agenda and not with false agendas that have brought nothing but woes to the Palestinian people and have not achieved a single achievement for them.” Fatah asked, “Does Hamas want us to appoint a prime minister from Iran, or for Tehran to appoint him for us?”
Fatah criticized the actions and practices of the Hamas leadership and its behaviour, and said: “It seems that the comfortable life that this leadership lives in seven-star hotels has blinded it to what is right,” adding, “Why do most of Hamas’ leaders live abroad, and why did they and their families flee and leave the Palestinian people facing a war of extermination?” Brutality without any protection.”
Fatah called on the leadership of the Hamas movement to stop what it described as “its policy dependent on foreign agendas, and to return to the national side in order to stop the war and save our people and our cause from liquidation, and in order to provide relief to our people and rebuild Gaza, leading to complete withdrawal from the land of the State of Palestine, with Jerusalem as its capital.”
On Thursday, the President of the Palestinian Authority appointed the economist close to him, Mustafa, as the new Prime Minister, in an effort to strengthen his leadership and restore its credibility.
The Palestinian leadership has been divided since the armed confrontations that took place between the Fatah and Hamas movements in the Gaza Strip in June 2007, as a result of which Hamas overthrew Abbas’s authority from the Strip.
The division has deepened since then between the Palestinian Authority, headed by Mahmoud Abbas, with limited powers in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, and Hamas, which clings to power in the Gaza Strip, which has been devastated by the current war between it and Israel.
In recent months, many Palestinians have criticized Abbas, 88 years old and elected in 2005, for his “inability” to confront Israeli strikes.
In his letter accepting the assignment, Mustafa said that he is “aware of the seriousness of this stage that our national cause is going through,” stressing adherence to the leadership’s position that “there is no state without Gaza, and no state in Gaza apart from the West Bank and Jerusalem.”
Ambiguity prevails about the role that the Palestinian Authority can play after the end of the war, given its limited influence and the refusal of the Israeli Prime Minister, Netanyahu, to any vision of a future Palestinian state.
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