Palestinian Reconciliation is Delayed and Tied to the Fate of Negotiations

Procedural issues are overwhelming the Egyptian document for Palestinian national reconciliation. The document disregarded the content of the National Charter and the political programme of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) and the government, for example, which represents the lowest common denominator, and the formation of a national unity government or national accord during the transition period. The national unity government is supposed to assume its role at the moment a reconciliation agreement is signed, and terminate with the legislative and presidential elections, to be held in conjunction with elections to the Palestinian National Council (PNC), which are to be conducted on the basis of full proportional representation. Can any agreement on national reconciliation omit to specify a concrete stance on the aforementioned issues? Must an agreement specify a stance on negotiations, the resistance, and whether or not the Palestinian Authority (PA) should remain as it is, be dissolved, or be modified to assume a position as one of the instruments of the PLO?

The views represented in this paper are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Arab Reform Initiative, its staff, or its board.