7

Based on Wikipedia, there was supposed to be an election for the Palestinian Legislative Council in 2014, but it has been postponed because of disagreements between Fatah, and Hamas.

  1. What are their main disagreements?
  2. What are the proposed solutions to come to an agreement?
Improve this question
3
  • Probably Fatah is stalling because they have no real support. This article (huffingtonpost.com/anhvinh-doanvo/…) claims that's why municipal elections were delayed until 2017, and this article (reuters.com/article/us-palestinians-politics-election/…) claims that polls project Hamas would win parliamentary elections
    – Tim kinsella
    Nov 12, 2018 at 5:17
  • 1
    Hamas's success as a separate entity was partly attributed to the corruption and ineffectiveness of the PLO/Fatah government - see e.g. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/… - but I'm not sure how much this is still a factor.
    – Stuart F
    Nov 15, 2018 at 11:23
  • Hamas basically won their elections initially as a protest vote against Fatah corruption, and there has been no democratic process or real political opposition ever since then. Of course since taking power, they have also been increasingly corrupt, but there is no real alternative. Fatah are seen as sub contractors of the occupation, who are gradually conceding land and rights in return for money, What I would like to know, is why there have been no new or alternative political parties rise to prominence to challenge Fatah and Hamas..
    – Icarian
    Nov 15, 2018 at 23:27

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
2

The two parties did come together in order to form a unity government for the purpose of holding elections. Natanyahu and other Israeli politicians stated that they would never allow this reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah to occur, and that Hamas must be excluded from Palestinian elections, as they are regarded as a terrorist group by Israel. Shortly after that, there was another cycle of violence and escalation, a couple of Palestinian teenagers were killed at an anti occupation protest, then three Israeli teens were hitchhiking in the occupied West Bank, kidnapped and killed, followed by a Palestinian teen being kidnapped and burned alive. Israel then invaded the West Bank, and began arresting (or kidnapping depending on your perspective) hundreds of Palestinians it suspected of links to Hamas (political, militant or civil service employees, some countries distinguish between the militant wing and political/civil wing, like the UK, China, Russia, others do not like America and Canada). The stated aims of these raids were to locate and rescue the kidnapped teens, however later reports revealed that Israelis were aware that the teenagers had been already been killed. This led to the usual cycle of violence we're sadly all to familiar with. Hamas indiscriminate rocket attacks against Israel cities, and Israeli ground invasion and bombing campaigns in Gaza.

And the elections? They never happened. The Unity government, which actually consisted of neither Hamas nor Fatah members collapsed a year later due to Fatah unilaterally withdrawing, stating that it had no authority in Gaza. I suspect this was in no small part due to pressure from America, Israel, Saudi Arabia, UAE and other regional players who all wish to marginalize Hamas due to their ties to the Muslim brotherhood and Fatah's dependence on them for funding. http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/6/19/palestinian-political-crisis-deepens-with-collapse-of-unity-government.html

Improve this answer
0

Some points on which Fatah and Hamas differ:

  1. Long term position towards Israel - Fatah supports an agreement with Israel, most likely a two-state solution. Hamas supports destruction of Israel by force.

  2. Religion - Hamas is a religious movement, Fatah is secular. Therefore Hamas tends much more towards Islamic law.

Improve this answer
3
  • 9
    Is this your personal impression or do you rely on some trustworthy source?
    – Philipp ♦
    Nov 12, 2018 at 16:37
  • 1
    i'm pretty sure neither party explicitly supports a permanent two state solution based of 67 borders, but that both have said or implied that they would accept such a settlement provisionally.
    – Tim kinsella
    Nov 14, 2018 at 21:07
  • 2
    "Hamas supports destruction of Israel by force." This was very clear in the 1988 Hamas Charter, but the new text adopted in 2017 is less explicit and less agressive (agreeing to the two-state partition but not recognizing Israel) and Hamas current policy about Israel is unclear.
    – Evargalo
    Nov 15, 2018 at 14:45
0

Main conflicts between Hamas & Fatah

Ideology: Hamas - Islamist Fatah - Secular

Strategy towards Israel: Hamas - Armed resistance Fatah - Negotiations

Objectives: Hamas - Does not recognise Israel, but accepts a Palestinian state on 1967 borders Fatah - Recognises Israel, wants to build a state on 1967 borders

Improve this answer
1
  • This post would benefit from some references to credible sources supporting the claims.
    – Be Brave Be Like Ukraine
    Nov 28, 2018 at 4:37

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .