Qatar Hosts Meeting Between Fractured Palestinian Parties

Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal at a meeting with journalists Source: Wikimedia Commons

Qatar hosted a meeting between the leaders of the two Palestinian parties, Fatah and Hamas, on October 28 to promote Palestinian unity. Palestine, composed of the separate Gaza Strip and West Bank territories, has been politically divided since Hamas won the Gaza elections in 2006, with violence and political tensions preventing unification efforts. Although previous meetings between the parties stalled, Qatar invited them together in another attempt to foster compromise and encourage a joint outlook that would address Palestine’s plights. However, even after the meeting, progress toward cooperation failed.

Hamas, which was founded as an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood’s brand of political Islam in 1987, remained a radical fringe organization until 2006, when it won a majority of the Palestinian legislature. Hamas’ refusal to denounce violence and accept Israel as a state earned it the status of a terrorist organization for some countries. Fatah, the secular and more moderate group led by Mahmoud Abbas, refused to join a coalition government under Hamas. The two Palestinian territories separated under different administrations after Hamas violently removed Fatah officials in Gaza. While each claim sole legitimacy,  the international community considers Fatah the authority of Palestine, while Hamas remains under economic sanctions.  

Attempts to unify Hamas’s Gaza and Fatah’s West Bank have witnessed both periods of violence and moments of optimism. Starting in 2006 and occurring intermittently afterwards, militants of both allegiances have instigated deadly conflicts between the parties. In 2012 and 2014, two separate attempts were made at a national unity government; however, each ended in failure.       

In this meeting, Qatar stressed the need for cooperation in promoting the Palestinian state and its prosperity. In spite of its failure to foster political unity in the Palestinian territories, Qatar persists as a peace-broker. Nevertheless, Hamas and Fatah’s continued refusal to compromise has left them with only each other to blame for their failure to unify Palestine.