The Palestinians remain trapped between two bad choices: the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority (PA) and the Iran-backed Hamas terrorist group.
The Palestinians have tried both.
The result has been corruption, authoritarianism, political repression, terrorism, violence, division and, ultimately, immense suffering for the Palestinian people.
Yet, as the Palestinians prepare for another parliamentary election, they are once again being offered essentially the same political choice.
The latest quarrel between Fatah and Hamas illustrates the problem.
Majed Faraj, director of the PA’s General Intelligence Service, recently called on Hamas to apologize to the Palestinian people for the catastrophe that has befallen them since Hamas’s October 7, 2023 invasion of Israel. Faraj, who was recently elected as a member of the Fatah Central Committee, a key decision-making body, said that such an apology should be a precondition for Hamas to return to participating in Palestinian political life.
At first glance, demanding accountability from Hamas may appear reasonable. Hamas launched the October 7 attack, in which 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals were murdered and more than 250 abducted and held as hostages. The attack triggered a devastating war whose consequences have been catastrophic for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
There was, however, something revealing about Faraj’s demand. He did not ask that Hamas apologize to the families of the Israelis and foreign nationals who were murdered by the terrorist group on October 7 and after, or to the surviving hostages. He only requested that Hamas apologize to the Palestinians for the disaster that befell them.
The distinction is telling. For many Palestinian leaders, the main problem with October 7 is not what Hamas did to its Israeli and foreign victims, but what happened to the Palestinians afterwards.
Hamas, predictably, rejected Faraj’s demand. Senior Hamas official Bassem Naim responded that if Hamas must apologize for October 7, then Fatah and the late Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat should also apologize for the “disasters” that have befallen the Palestinian people over the decades.
Naim was most likely referring to major episodes in Palestinian history, including the 1970-71 Black September conflict in Jordan, when the PLO attempted to overthrow the government of Jordanian King Hussein, who ultimately expelled the PLO from Jordan; the PLO’s instigation of the Lebanese civil war between 1975 and 1990; and the 1990-91 Gulf War, particularly Arafat’s decision to align with Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein when Iraq invaded Kuwait, even though for decades, Kuwait had generously welcomed and employed hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.
These hostile initiatives led to severe consequences for the PLO and Palestinians, including the loss of financial and political support from Gulf states and the expulsion of roughly 400,000 Palestinians from Kuwait.
In short, Hamas’s answer to the PA’s Fatah was essentially: If we are guilty, so are you.
This response illustrates the fundamental problem with Palestinian politics. Fatah points to Hamas’s crimes and failures. Hamas points to Fatah’s crimes and failures. Each side demands accountability from the other while refusing to undertake any serious examination of its own record.
Both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority owe the Palestinian people – as well as Israelis and other victims – countless apologies. They owe apologies for corruption and mismanagement. They owe apologies for failing to build transparent and accountable institutions. They owe apologies for suppressing dissent and freedom of expression and for persecuting political opponents, journalists, human rights activists, and critics. They owe apologies for repeatedly rejecting compromises and peace initiatives and for policies that have contributed to decades of Israeli and Palestinian bloodshed. They owe apologies for failing to use international assistance to build a functioning economy and institutions that serve ordinary Palestinians. They owe their people an honest explanation for why Palestinians remain divided between two rival governments and without a functioning democratic political system.
The timing of this latest dispute is particularly significant.
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It comes less than two months before the parliamentary elections scheduled for November 28. Hamas has decided to participate, although it has not yet announced its own electoral list or candidates.
Reports that Hamas may participate through affiliated candidates who are not formally or openly identified as Hamas raise even more serious questions. If true, such an arrangement would allow Hamas to re-enter Palestinian politics through the back door.
Palestinian Authority Vice President Husein al-Sheikh recently told Palestinian journalists that Hamas’s “participation would take a different form, and that it would not participate under its current name or structure.” He claimed that Hamas had reached an agreement with the United States not to participate in Palestinian political life in its current form. Al-Sheikh indicated the possibility of figures affiliated with Hamas participating under a new political framework.
