Peace with Israel and unity between rival Palestinian factions may seem like very different challenges, but both require some of the same difficult abilities: putting aside a history of conflict, accepting vastly different ideologies, and confronting reality as it is, rather than holding out for an idealized society.<\/p>\n
The Fatah Democratic Reform faction appears to be trying to manage just that.<\/p>\n
Dimitri Diliani, a former member of Fatah\u2019s Revolutionary Council, spokesperson for the FDR faction, and president of the National Christian Coalition in the Holy Land, made his views clear to The Jerusalem Post earlier this week.<\/p>\n
He described Israel as a \u201cmorally bankrupt\u201d society, while arguing that the policies of \u201cincapable\u201d Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas have helped produce the disaster facing the Palestinian economy.<\/p>\n
Though critical of Israel, Abbas, and those who use violence, which he said would only lead to a \u201cfailed society,\u201d Diliani is among a group of politically active Palestinians arguing that Palestinians must learn to coexist with people they may profoundly disagree with, and do so peacefully, if they are to build a functioning society.<\/p>\n
A MAN drives through Beirut\u2019s Burj al-Barajneh Palestinian refugee camp beneath portraits of Yasser Arafat and Mohammad Dahlan, whose Fatah Democratic Reform faction is seeking a new path toward Palestinian unity and political change. (credit: JOSEPH EID\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n
\u201cOur faction looks at the State of Israel as a state that we need to make peace with in accordance with international law…. We don\u2019t characterize its nature. It\u2019s none of our business.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd we demand, as victims of that state, that the state also mind its own business in terms of our composition, our views… and look at us as a people that you need to make peace with to continue your survival in this Middle East,\u201d he told the Post.<\/p>\n
That same pragmatic approach appears to inform the reform faction\u2019s efforts to engage with Hamas.<\/p>\n
The faction\u2019s leader, Mohammad Dahlan<\/a>, the first head of the PA\u2019s Preventive Security Service, spent years battling Hamas and, according to an exclusive report by Vanity Fair, was involved in a Bush administration-backed plot to oust the group from Gaza in 2008. Dahlan was removed from his position in Khan Yunis<\/a>, where he was born, following Hamas\u2019s violent takeover of the Gaza Strip. After years of political confrontation, Dahlan also eventually left the West Bank amid allegations from officials within his own Fatah party.<\/p>\n Following a leaked recording in which Dahlan criticized Abbas and his sons, the PA brought a series of allegations against him, including that he had attempted to mount a coup against Abbas, been involved in the circumstances surrounding Yasser Arafat\u2019s death, and embezzled approximately $16 million in public funds.<\/p>\n Dahlan has consistently denied the allegations.<\/p>\n Some analysts have argued that Abbas\u2019s campaign against Dahlan was also linked to concerns that Dahlan was being positioned by the Bush administration as a potential deputy and successor.<\/p>\n The bad blood between Dahlan, Hamas, and the Fatah leadership was notably absent from a letter penned by the Dahlan obtained by the Post, and did not prevent him from meeting with Hamas leadership in Cairo earlier this month.<\/p>\n \u201cThe catastrophe that has struck Gaza, the dangers facing the West Bank and Jerusalem, and the collapse, weakness, and fragmentation that have affected our national institutions require us to undertake an honest and courageous reassessment \u2013 not to put the past on trial or settle scores, but to understand what happened, draw lessons from it, and prevent its repetition,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n \u201cTherefore, the most important question is no longer who was right and who was wrong. Rather: How do we protect our people and our cause, save our people in Gaza, and protect our people and our land in the West Bank and Jerusalem? What kind of political system do we want to establish for future generations?\u201d<\/p>\n For Diliani, the explanation for Dahlan\u2019s rapprochement with Hamas is simple: Hamas exists, will continue to exist, and it isn\u2019t pragmatic to plan for a political future on an impossible premise.<\/p>\n \u201cWe believe that Hamas exists. Hamas was not eliminated by the genocide, and Hamas will not be eliminated by force. Hamas is there as a resistance to the occupation. So, as long as there is a military occupation, there will always be Hamas…. As long as there is one Palestinian out there, there will be a faction that will resist the military occupation,\u201d he argued.<\/p>\n Palestinian politicians accept the reality that Hamas will continue to function, regardless of the fact that the US-backed agreement signed by both Hamas and Jerusalem demanded that the Iran-backed group \u201cagree to not have any role in the governance of Gaza, directly, indirectly, or in any form.\u201d<\/p>\n Diliani claimed that Hamas has \u201cso far honored the Trump plan… [and] the law\u201d \u2013 though the IDF has frequently accused Hamas of violating the agreement \u2013 and so would likely \u201cadhere\u201d to restrictions surrounding the Palestinian Legislative Council elections in November.<\/p>\n Husam Badran, a senior member of Hamas\u2019s political bureau, confirmed on Al-Aqsa TV last month that the group plans to participate in the PLC elections. Prof. Kobi Michael, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies, told the Post at the time that it may do this by forming a new party, not under the name of Hamas, or by allying with Dahlan.<\/p>\n To participate in the elections, a party needs to recognize the Palestine Liberation Organization as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people and be a Palestinian citizen with permanent residency in the Palestinian territories. Hamas does not recognize the PLO\u2019s authority, partially because it rejects recognition of the Israeli state, and Dahlan is a resident of the United Arab Emirates, not the Palestinian territories, making the issue of their running all the more complicated.<\/p>\n Still, an alliance could give Hamas supporters a way to cast their votes, empowering the FDR fragment of Fatah, while allowing Hamas a say, protection, or control over the future of the Palestinian territories.<\/p>\n \u201cWhether Hamas will have a role or not… the ideology is there,\u201d Diliani said. \u201c…To [claim] that the idea, the ideology, has disappeared would be ignorant, to say the least.\u201d<\/p>\n PA presidential election could take place in 2027<\/p>\n BEYOND THE PLC election, which is only months away, a presidential election could finally take place in 2027.<\/p>\n The election has been postponed<\/a> for the past 15 years, allowing Abbas to remain in office well beyond the end of his four-year term.<\/p>\n Palestinian polls have repeatedly shown his limited support, with the latest survey by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research finding that just 14% of Palestinians would vote for him if a presidential election were held today.<\/p>\n Convicted in absentia by a Palestinian court, Dahlan would currently be barred from running for president under Article 37 of Decree-Law No. 1 of 2007 on General Elections, and under Article 75 of the Palestinian constitution, which prohibits candidates who have been convicted by a competent court of a felony or a misdemeanor involving dishonor or breach of trust.<\/p>\n His eligibility could be restored if the conviction were overturned or otherwise removed by an appeals court, or if amnesty were granted as part of a national unity agreement.<\/p>\n With Abbas pushing hard to see his son take his place, Diliani said there was also motivation among the Palestinian voters to stop the same style of power transfer that allowed the Assad regime to control Syria.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat took place in Syria between Hafez al-Assad and his son is a mutation, and in the Arab world, it will never happen again. No one has succeeded in doing that except Hafez al-Assad, and we know how that ended up,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cHis [Abbas\u2019s] son [Yasser Abbas] is not going to take his place. His son is unelectable, even within Fatah, let alone beyond it. Even within his father\u2019s faction. Let\u2019s remember that he was appointed to this position in a very choreographed, controlled environment, which would not be possible if any reconciliation within the movement took place.\u201d<\/p>\n ‘No authority acquires or is armed with weapons legitimately over the will of the people’<\/p>\n