The future of a newly formed Palestinian national unity
government is still vague as the siege on the Palestinian people
shows no sign of being lifted, political analysts said on
Thursday.
The Palestinians are divided towards the new coalition which
groups major rival movements of Hamas and Fatah as well as other
factions in a bid to end a one-year international embargo and
internal chaos in the Palestinian territories.
Some believe that the government is the utmost effort of
political powers and the world must accept it, while others see
that as long as international embargo and internal security chaos
continue, it will not last for long.
Ashraf al-Ajrami, a Palestinian political analyst from Gaza said
that the future of the government is subject to its ability to
control the situation in the Palestinian territories.
The success of the government "is also strongly linked to its
ability to lift the Western political and economic siege," he
added.
Hamas, defeating long-dominant Fatah movement in legislative
elections last January, single-handedly formed a government in
March 2006.
But the government was boycotted politically by the Middle East
Quartet committee that groups the United States, the EU, the UN and
Russia, as well as Israel due to its rejection to meet three
demands, namely recognizing Israel, respecting previous peace
agreements and renouncing violence.
In addition, the Quartet cut off monthly financial aids to the
government and Israel largely withheld tax and fees revenues it
collected on behalf of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA),
crippling the economy of the Hamas-led government which was unable
to fully pay salaries of some 160,000 civil and security
employees.
Hani Habib, another political analyst from Gaza, said the new
government, which enjoys Arab support and backup, is distinguished
as the first one to be formed according to a national
understanding.
According to a power-sharing agreement between Fatah and Hamas
reached in a Saudi-brokered meeting in Riyadh on Feb. 8, the first
ever coalition government came to power on March 17, ending months
of infighting in the Palestinian streets.
The new government has collected a lot of support from Arab
countries but many countries are still reluctant to deal with it,
citing that its platform falls short of explicitly recognizing
Israel and renouncing violence.
Habib said although the Arab League decided to act rapidly to
promote and revive a 2002 Arab peace initiative in last week's
Riyadh summit, "it has not taken any real procedure to support the
PNA in front of the Quartet in order to break up the siege."
In addition to these challenges, a status of security chaos and
lawlessness has dominated the Palestinian territories, mainly in
the Gaza Strip.
"Ending embargo and security chaos are two equal tracks, in
other words, the government can't succeed if it overcomes the siege
but fails to tackle internal issues," said al-Ajrami.
But he added that "it is not easy to judge the performance of
the government in such a short period. We need time to say if the
government failed or succeeded."
The Palestinians, mainly employees who still suffer a severe
financial crisis due to not being paid regularly, expressed
concerns that the new government may not last long if the embargo
is kept imposed on it.
Ahmed Abu Dalal, a Palestinian government employee, said that
"if the international embargo continues and security chaos keeps
deteriorating, this government would face the same troubles the
previous Hamas-led government had faced and it would collapse
within a few months."
Hani Habib observed that "it was unexpected that this government
will overcome all troubles and obstacles in days. It has inherited
hard problems that no one has ever been able to end them
quickly."
(Xinhua News Agency April 9, 2007)
