Fatah-Hamas resentment flares after alleged Gaza torch-lighting slight
Ramallah leadership will not meet with Gaza counterparts, top official declares; he also defends the PLO’s decision to sign the 1990s Oslo Accords with Israel
Adam Rasgon is a former Palestinian affairs reporter at The Times of Israel
Hussein al-Sheikh, a top Ramallah-based Palestinian official, lashed out at Hamas late Tuesday and declared Fatah leaders will not meet their counterparts in the terror group after Fatah members were allegedly prevented from lighting a torch in the Gaza Strip to mark the 54th anniversary of their party’s founding.
While the Hamas-run Interior Ministry in Gaza has not commented on the allegation, Husam Badran, a senior leader in the terror group, has suggested Fatah did not ask the Hamas-run security forces for permission to light a torch on Monday.
“After what happened yesterday in the Gaza Strip, we in Fatah will not meet the Hamas leadership at all,” Sheikh, a Fatah Central Committee member, told Palestine TV, the official PA channel, adding that Hamas authorities had acted in “an anti-nationalist” manner.
Asked if Fatah leaders would meet Hamas officials if the terror group issues an apology for the alleged incident, Sheikh responded: “What apology?! [What they did] is a sin.”
Sheikh’s comments came a day after PA President Mahmoud Abbas appeared to call Hamas authorities “spies.”
“Shame on those who prevented the torch from being lit today in Gaza,” he said in a speech at the PA presidential headquarters in Ramallah. “Unfortunately whoever does that is a spy.”
Hamas condemned Abbas’s remarks, contending they “are not befitting of a president.”
Hamas and Fatah have been at loggerheads since 2007 when the former ousted the Fatah-dominated PA from Gaza.
While the rival parties have signed a number of agreements to advance reconciliation, they have failed to implement them.
Most recently, Fatah and Hamas signed an Egyptian-sponsored reconciliation agreement in October 2017, but did not succeed in executing it on the ground.
Since a bomb exploded adjacent to PA Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah’s motorcade in March 2018 in Gaza, Ramallah-based ministers have not visited the coastal enclave.
Abbas has accused Hamas of carrying out the bombing; the terror group has vehemently denied the charge.
Sheikh also defended the Palestine Liberation Organization’s decision to sign the Oslo Accords, asserting it enabled the repatriation of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.
“Oslo returned 600,000 Palestinians to the land of Palestine. All the wars the Arabs and Palestinians fought did not bring back more than 100 [Palestinians],” he said.
The Oslo Accords are a series of agreements the PLO and Israel signed in the 1990s, which led to the establishment of the PA.
Hamas officials have long criticized the PLO for signing the Oslo Accords and called on the Ramallah-based Palestinian leadership to abrogate them.
The Times of Israel Community.