Watching the Gaza genocide from Beirut’s Shatila refugee camp brings back painful memories to Palestinians who lived through siege and war, but it is also providing inspiration to a new generation with hope of a liberated Palestine.
The new reconciliation deal between rival Palestinian factions could not come at a more critical time. As Palestinians face the Gaza genocide, the political survival of the Palestinian leadership might hinge on finally finding unity.
In a visit this week, Mahmoud Abbas hailed the Jenin refugee camp as an icon of resistance even as the PA continues imprisoning resistance fighters. But as a member of the Jenin Brigade once told Mondoweiss, “Ramallah will not see freedom” while the PA rules there.
Following the Israeli army’s withdrawal from the Jenin refugee camp this week, outraged Palestinian youth confronted Palestinian Authority security forces in the city, accusing them of being “collaborators” with the Israeli occupation.
To say the current Palestinian political crisis is simply a Hamas-Fatah split is to ignore a history of division that cannot be solely blamed on Palestinians.
The Palestinian Authority has announced a new move to limit freedom of expression for Palestinians already living under Israel’s occupation. The PA’s decision comes on the heels of the torture and murder of activist Nizar Banat, and a wave of arrests and intimidation of activists, journalists, and the employees of legal assistance and human rights organizations. Mahmoud Abbas is hoping to extinguish criticism from inside and outside the PA and Fatah, but these repressive policies will generate even greater hostility from Palestinians whose dreams of freedom are being smothered by a corrupt and brutal authority.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ April 30 decision to postpone elections, which would have been the first in 15 years, will deepen Palestinian division and could potentially signal the collapse of the Fatah movement, at least in its current form.
Gaza’s youngest voters hope Palestinian elections will move forward, amid reports saying the vote will be delayed due to disarray within the ruling Fatah party and a dispute with Israel around Jerusalem. “We are waiting for the elections to happen and want the local and international community to respect the results, to refute the argument of not having a unified Palestinian government,” Hind Judah tells Mondoweiss. The current division, she said, prevents “establishing the Palestinian state.”
The prospect of holding long awaited legislative elections in Palestine is quickly slipping away, as Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas is expected to announce that the elections, which have been 15 years in the making, will be delayed. The move comes as internal rifts continue to grow within Abbas’ Fatah party, with multiple contenders challenging the official slate presented by Abbas and his inner circle.
Mouin Rabbani interviews Wafa Abdel-Rahman on the upcoming Palestinians elections, which she argues “reveals Fatah’s internal divisions in all their glory.”