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Letter of the President
16 February, 2007
The Mecca Agreement - pax fiat!
Last month, on 10 January, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) issued a statement in which it "strongly condemn(ed) bloody incidents in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, which are part of the state of security chaos and misuse of weapons". It went on to say that it:
"Calls upon all parties to resort to dialogue and abstain from using violence and weapons in internal differences;
"Calls for ending all aspects of militarisation in the streets and residential areas and allowing the civil police to assume their duties to keep security and order;
"Calls for the establishment of a judicial investigations committee to investigate all incidents and take appropriate legal measures against all those engaged in them whatever their affiliations are;
"Calls upon all nationalist and Islamist parties to make efforts to end tension between the Hamas and Fatah movements, and ensure bringing them back to dialogues; and,
"Calls upon the Palestinian National Authority to reform and restructure its security services on professional foundations, to unify them under one central command to serve as a law enforcement force that has the duty to protect the safety and security of people, and to ensure that (it) will never be politicised or engage in any conflicts."
About a month after the PCHR issued this statement, on 6-8 February 2007, Fatah and Hamas met in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, "to hold a dialogue on Palestinian conciliation, based on the initiative put forth by Saudi King Abdullah and under his sponsorship."
The statement issued by Fatah and Hamas after this dialogue said it "fortunately ended in success". The Mecca Agreement said "an agreement was reached on the following:"
"First: a ban on the shedding of Palestinian blood including the adoption of all necessary measures to prevent this; reaffirmation of the importance of national unity as a basis for national steadfastness, confronting the occupation and achieving the legitimate national goals of the Palestinian people; adopting the language of dialogue as the sole basis for solving political disagreements in the Palestinian arena...
"Second: reaching a final agreement on forming a Palestinian national unity government according to a detailed agreement approved by both sides, and which would be based on taking the appropriate constitutional measures to form this government.
"Third: to move forth in activating and reforming the PLO and expediting the work of the preparatory committee based on the Cairo and Damascus Understandings. Detailed steps in this regard have also been agreed upon by both sides.
"Fourth: to reinforce the principle of political partnership on the basis of enacted laws in the PNA and on the basis of political pluralism according to an agreement ratified by both parties.
"We are happy to present this agreement to our people, to the Arab and Islamic nation and to all our friends throughout the world. We pledge our commitment to this agreement in letter and in spirit so that we can devote our time to achieving our national goals, eliminating the occupation and regaining our rights. We need to devote our time to key issues, mainly Jerusalem, the refugees, the Aqsa Mosque, the prisoners and detainees and to our battle against the wall and settlements."
Subsequent to the conclusion of the historic Mecca Agreement, and consistent with its provisions, the President of the Palestine National Authority (PNA), Mahmoud Abbas, wrote a letter of commission to the PNA Prime Minister, Ismail Abdul Salam Haniyyeh, in which he said:
"In my capacity as Chairman of the PLO Executive Committee and President of the PNA, after reviewing the Basic Law and based on my mandated authorities:
"First: I commission you to form the next Palestinian government within the period stipulated in the Basic Law...
"Third: I call on you as premier of the next government to abide by the interests of the Palestinian people; to protect their rights and preserve and develop their achievements; and to work towards achieving their national goals as ratified by the resolutions of the PNC, the Basic Law, the national conciliation document and the resolutions of Arab summits.
"Accordingly, I call on you to respect legitimate Arab and international resolutions and agreements signed by the PLO."
We warmly congratulate His Majesty King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, President Mahmoud Abbas and Chair of the Political Bureau of Hamas, Khalid Mish'al, as well as the rest of the leadership of Fatah and Hamas for concluding the critically important Mecca Agreement.
All those of us who have long supported the struggle of the sister people of Palestine have watched in anguish as they tore themselves apart in an internal violent struggle, which could not but divert them from the historic task vigorously to pursue the goal of an independent State of Palestine as a united force.
The Mecca Agreement has opened the way to end the fratricidal strife and allow the Palestinian Authority to focus on the challenging task of attending to the many and pressing needs of the people in the Palestinian Occupied Territories. The restructuring of the PLO should also strengthen the unity of the Palestine liberation movement and the people as a whole, which is a critically important requirement for the achievement of the historic objectives of the sister people of Palestine.
It was indeed very painful to read such commentary as reflected for instance in an article written by Ramzy Baroud in which he said:
"The most recent fighting in the Gaza Strip, which has left many people dead, confirms that the internal strife plaguing the Occupied Territories since the advent of Hamas to power in January 2006 was not entirely the outcome of outside meddling in Palestinian affairs. It is, in most part, a violent expression of the already existing weaknesses and disunity that has sadly defined the Palestinian political milieu for generations.
"The fighting intensified between Hamas and Fatah and then reached unprecedented levels when 31 Palestinians, including a toddler were murdered in the matter of five days, starting Thursday, January 25, raising the death toll to more than 60 since last month."
We have also been acutely concerned about the worsening socio-economic conditions of the Palestinian people, which further worsen the great pain they continue to suffer as a result of their loss of statehood and the Israeli occupation.
The socio-economic crisis facing the masses of the people was explained by the economist Shir Hever at the United Nations Seminar on Assistance to the Palestinian People, held in Doha on 5-6 February 2007. Among other things he said:
"There is no need to go into details, once again, about the extensive damage caused to the Palestinians by the Israeli occupation forces. We have heard much already of the mounting poverty rate, that GDP has fallen by 9% during the first half of 2006, that 25% of the Palestinian work force is suffering from a severe loss of income due to the sanctions on the PA, and that welfare payments have fallen by US$180 million. Moreover, per-capita consumption in Palestine has fallen by 12%. Deep poverty is reaching alarming proportions, in Gaza it is already at 79.8%. Additionally, food insecurity is also at very high levels, reaching up to 41% in Gaza...
"The Palestinians' ability to work, produce and earn an income has been severely limited, and the only thing staving off massive hunger and disease is the emergency humanitarian assistance coming in the form of foreign money. The current official unemployment level in the Occupied Palestinian Territories is 30%, but unofficial unemployment levels are much higher. In fact, only 31% of working-age Palestinians have any kind of employment."
Given this dire situation, a direct result of the reality that the Palestine liberation movement has not achieved its objectives, it was indeed critically important that the people of Palestine should establish a permanent peace among themselves and further reinforce their unity. The Mecca Agreement has confirmed that the leadership of the people of Palestine fully understands that it does not serve the interests of these masses to engage in a bitter and deadly civil war in a struggle for hegemony, while these masses continue to suffer as they do.
After the Mecca Agreement was concluded, Khalid Mish'al, leader of Hamas, wrote an article which appeared in the British "The Guardian" newspaper on 13 February. Among other things he said:
"A historic new phase in the Palestinian struggle for freedom and independence has begun. Last week's Mecca agreement between Hamas and Fatah will pave the way for the first ever truly Palestinian national unity government. Hamas and Fatah, joined by all the other Palestinian factions, will now seek to rebuild Palestinian society following the destruction brought upon it by Israeli occupation and resume the campaign for our national rights.
"We are determined to make sure that the recent internal fighting, which appalled our people and dismayed their supporters around the world, becomes history. We firmly believe that it would never have happened had it not been for foreign intervention and the brutal sanctions imposed on our people by Israel and its allies. The crisis would not have existed had international and regional powers respected the results of last year's democratic elections in Palestine.
"The Mecca agreement has laid the foundations for a power-sharing process that will produce a functioning government capable of attending to our people's needs. It will also pave the way for rebuilding the PLO to include all the factions and become the legitimate representative of all Palestinian people. The partnership born out of the Mecca meeting is possible because of the consensus among the Palestinians that their primary objective is to win their freedom, and that their struggle should be solely against occupation. It is now up to the international community to respect this accord and the will of the Palestinian people...
"Now that Hamas and Fatah have agreed to form a national unity government, the international community has no excuse to maintain the siege against our people. We know that many governments around the world are unhappy with these sanctions and want to see an end to them. The Palestinian national accord achieved in Mecca envisages the establishment of a truly sovereign and independent Palestinian state on the territories occupied by Israel in June 1967 - with Jerusalem as its capital, the dismantling of the settlements in the West Bank, the release of all Palestinian prisoners and the acknowledgement of the right of the refugees to return to their homes.
"Once translated into reality, this vision will pave the way for real peace in the region. There must be no more blackmail of Palestinians, for there is nothing else they can give away. Global powers should have learned by now that neither sanctions nor any other form of pressure or bribery will force the Palestinians to abandon their struggle for freedom and independence...
"It must be understood by all that the people of Palestine have the key to both peace and war in the Middle East. There can never be peace and stability in the region without settling the Palestinian question. And that can only be achieved by ending the occupation and recognising our people's rights."
Everybody genuinely interested in securing the legitimate national rights of the people of Palestine, in achieving the long outstanding just and permanent peace between Israel and Palestine, in bringing peace to the Middle East, in the interest of both the peoples of the region and the rest of humanity, must take the observations made by Khalid Mish'al seriously.
The conclusion of the Mecca Agreement must surely serve as a firm signal that the rest of the world must now end all measures intended to isolate the Palestinian Authority, and thus show respect for the wishes of the Palestinian people and their decisions to determine their own internal affairs. Anything else will not contribute to advance the cause of peace between Israel and Palestine and the rest of the Middle East.
The challenge also faces the Government of Israel to respond positively to the Mecca Agreement, among other things by releasing all funds due to the Palestinian Authority and adopting a positive posture with regard to the tasks to reduce the misery afflicting the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, and create a climate conducive to the peaceful resolution of the Israel-Palestine conflict.
The balance of power in this regard decisively favours Israel. To end the destructive conflict that has gone on for far too long, will require the wisdom and courage of the more powerful. The positive results that both the Israeli and Palestinian people pray for will not come of their own accord.
They will come about as a result of conscious and deliberate actions which must be taken in the first instance by the more powerful. Each positive step towards a just peace will create the conditions for the next positive step towards a just peace, until the process towards a just and permanent peace develops an organic logic and momentum that convinces all antagonists that to resort to violence is to turn the guns against the irreversible prospect of peace and security for all.
But it is imperative that the first step is taken, the first building block of peace put in place, without waiting for the perfect conditions for the construction of peace, because those perfect conditions will never amount to anything more than a dream forever deferred. The moment demands that all those charged with the responsibility to lead should dare to sue for peace, inspired by the same courage with which they have dared to go to war.
This page was last updated on Friday January 12, 2007