The terrorists of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) met with the relatively “moderate” Palestinian faction of Fatah in Beijing on Tuesday and issued a statement pledging “national unity.” Hamas pledged “national unity” three times in a single sentence.
“Today we sign an agreement for national unity and we say that the path to completing this journey is national unity. We are committed to national unity and we call for it,” Hamas politburo member Mousa Abu Marzook said after emerging from a meeting with other Palestinian factional leaders, chaired by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
Wang said envoys from Hamas, Fatah, PIJ, and a dozen other Palestinian factions agreed at the meeting to create an “interim national reconciliation government around the governance of post-war Gaza.”
“Reconciliation is an internal matter for the Palestinian factions, but at the same time, it cannot be achieved without the support of the international community,” Wang intoned.
Reconciliation with the people Hamas and PIJ raped, murdered, and kidnapped on October 7 does not seem to have been on the agenda at the Beijing meeting. Hamas trumpeted an International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling that called for Israel’s military operation in Gaza to end “as rapidly as possible,” while seeming blissfully unconcerned that the ICJ would ever hold Hamas leaders responsible for their crimes against humanity.
Hamas and PIJ’s Chinese hosts cared little for their misdeeds of their guests, instead collecting the desired prize of a “Beijing declaration” that copiously thanked China for its “sincere efforts to support Palestinian rights, ending division, and unifying Palestinian positions.”
“The dialogue in Beijing also demonstrated a positive and constructive spirit, agreeing to achieve comprehensive national unity under the framework of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people,” China’s state-run Global Times said on Tuesday.
The Chinese foreign minister strove to put a bland “three-step” bureaucratic spin on the same maximalist demands that Palestinian terrorist organizations have been making since Israel began responding to the October 7 attack:
The first step is to achieve a comprehensive, lasting, and sustainable cease-fire in Gaza as soon as possible, ensuring smooth access to humanitarian aid and relief.
The second step is to jointly promote post-war governance in Gaza, adhering to the principle of “Palestinians governing Palestinians.”
The third step is to push for Palestine to become a full member of the United Nations and begin implementing the “two-state solution.” These three steps are interlinked and indispensable.
The most important news out of the Beijing meeting appears to be a rapprochement between Fatah and Hamas, who have not been getting along well since Hamas violently ejected Fatah from Gaza in 2007.
Fatah has criticized the actions of Hamas, during and after the October 7 attack, but also seems resigned to Hamas growing more powerful and prestigious among Palestinians. Fatah appears willing to play along with a unity government plan for the time being, although most observers doubted it would hold together for very long.
“Palestinian political experts generally dismissed the agreement as a rehash of several previous statements of reconciliation, including a 2022 accord signed by 14 Palestinian factions in Algeria. To date, none of those efforts has produced any lasting changes in the Hamas-Fatah rift,” the Washington Post noted on Tuesday.
Even as China was patting itself on the back for arranging the big unity meeting, representatives of the many Palestinian factions were scurrying to the nearest friendly Arab-language media to gossip that nothing was actually resolved during the heated exchanges in Beijing – and not even their mutual hatred of Israel would hold the Palestinians together for very long.
“Fundamental differences emerged between the two movements regarding ending the division, relating to authority, law, the possession of legitimate weapons, and methods of struggle,” one of the participants told a Saudi media outlet, referring to Hamas and Fatah.
“While it is unclear whether the deal announced in Beijing on Tuesday can hold, it does indicate that the only world power that can engineer a rapprochement between the Palestinian rivals is China,” said France24, delivering the only news that China really cares about.
As many outside observers pointed out, Israel and the United States will never accept any postwar Gaza government that includes Hamas, so almost everything in the “Beijing declaration” was a nonstarter.
The most salient point to emerge from the meeting might be that Hamas and PIJ adamantly refuse to relinquish their grip on power, even if doing so could help the Palestinians take a leadership role in Gaza after the Israeli military operation ends.
Indeed, a source “familiar with the conversations within Hamas” told Reuters that the terrorist gang is feeling more ambitious than ever and wants Fatah to play second fiddle in a “partnership” that would give Hamas power in the West Bank as well as Gaza.
Reuters quoted some Biden administration officials who doubted Israel could achieve the “total victory” of destroying Hamas, so the odds of keeping Hamas completely away from postwar Gaza government are slim.
China’s touting of the PLO as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinians is important because the PLO recognized Israel’s right to exist in the 1993 Oslo Accords. Hamas remains constitutionally committed to the complete destruction of Israel and views Palestinian self-government as a means to that end.
PIJ likewise issued a statement on Tuesday saying it continues to reject “any formula that includes recognition of Israel explicitly or implicitly.” The statement called on the PLO to retract the recognition of Israel’s right to exist conferred in the Oslo Accords.
The Israeli government on Tuesday excoriated Fatah and its leader Mahmoud Abbas for attending China’s unity talks with Hamas and signing the Beijing Declaration.
“Hamas and Fatah signed an agreement in China for joint control of Gaza after the war. Instead of rejecting terrorism, Mahmoud Abbas embraces the murderers and rapists of Hamas, revealing his true face. In reality, this won’t happen because Hamas’s rule will be crushed, and Abbas will be watching Gaza from afar,” said Foreign Minister Israel Katz.
“Israel’s security will remain solely in Israel’s hands,” Katz declared.