In March 2011, the United States vetoed a UN Security Council resolution that cautiously criticized Israel for its continued expansion into the Occupied West Bank. The veto removed the last legitimation for Fatah of its continued confidence that the United States could play a constructive role in the – non-existent – peace process. The veto triggered demonstrations in the occupied territories and reinforced the popular demand for reconciliation. The political divide in Palestine had been prompted by the US and the EU, which in 2006-07 wanted to sabotage the country’s democratically elected government. Fatah had not recovered from this split because the promised political support from the EU and the US had failed. The consequence was that Fatah and Hamas were negotiating reconciliation in Cairo with the new Egyptian regime as a mediator. Egypt had already announced at this time,
In April, they succeeded in negotiating a reconciliation agreement in place to pave the way for a unifying government and for parliamentary elections in 2012. Israel immediately sought to sabotage the Palestinian reconciliation when the country’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that Fatah “had to choose between peace and Hamas.” The election did not seem difficult, since Israel has offered the Palestinians nothing but war since 1948. The United States failed to comment on the reconciliation, so as not to further inflame hatred against the superpower in the region while the EU was divided. Some EU countries with the Netherlands, the Czech Republic and Germany lead Israeli policy in the EU, while others looked more favorably at the reconciliation. In any case, more and more countries are recognizing Palestine as an independent state,
However, the reconciliation process is complicated, as the two main trends in Palestinian politics have fought each other fiercely ideologically and militarily for 5 years. The first challenge will be the amalgamation of the security forces of the fighting factions.
In September, according to 800zipcodes, Palestine expressed a desire to join the UN. The proposal received an overwhelmingly positive reception in the General Assembly, despite efforts by the US, Israel and the EU to sabotage the application. The request for admission was sent in accordance with UN guidelines from the General Assembly to the Security Council, where the United States had declared in advance that it would veto. Nevertheless, Palestine clearly succeeded in highlighting the support of the state from almost the entire world, while only Israel, the United States and parts of the EU are opponents – both of admission and of peace.
In October a comprehensive prisoner exchange was carried out, with approx. 1,000 Palestinian political prisoners were exchanged with an Israeli soldier. Hamas had initially demanded the release of a number of prominent political prisoners such as Fatah’s Marwan Barghouti and PFLP’s Ahmad Sa’adat, but it was rejected by the Israeli side. About half of the released prisoners were from Hamas. The other half from Fatah and the other organizations. As part of the agreement, Israel was to abolish detention and torture of the prisoners, as well as facilitate family visitation. However, those parts of the agreement ran from the Israeli authorities a few days later when they declared that they would continue the detention of prominent prisoners.
At the end of October, Palestine was accepted as a full member of the UN educational organization UNESCO. In a desperate attempt to curb this process, Israeli aircraft attacked Gaza two days before, killing 9. Israel thus broke several months of de-facto ceasefire. Islamic Jihad responded to the Israeli attack by sending rockets into Israel. Early the following day, Egyptian brokers managed to get a ceasefire in place, but Israel still continued its terrorist attacks into Gaza, which was answered by new Palestinian rocket attacks against Israel. Despite the Israeli attempt to clamp down on the UNESCO process, Palestine was admitted by 107 votes to 14. The “Western world”, along with Israel, was completely isolated to the rest of the world, and the US responded again by declaring that the superpower would suspend its contributions to UNESCO ‘ s work. Against the democratic rights of the Palestinians voted: Israel, the United States, Canada, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Sweden, Lithaun, Australia, Colombia, Panama and 4 small states in the Pacific. The EU was deeply divided on the issue. While 4 voted against admission, 9 voted in favor of: Belgium, France, Spain, Finland, Austria, Slovenia, Greece, Cyprus and Ireland. The rest failed. Including Denmark.
In June 2013, Abbas appointed Rami Hamdallah as Prime Minister. He replaced Fayyad, who was in political conflict with Abbas. Hamdallah was not recognized by Hamas, which had actually won the parliamentary elections in 2006. But after several months of negotiations, on June 2, 2014, it succeeded in forming a unifying government made up of both Hamas and Fatah members. All countries in the world recognized the government (even the United States) – except Israel, which designated it as a terrorist government because of Hamas’ participation. In an attempt to destroy the unit, Israel began a war against Gaza 4 weeks later. So far, the best marriage in Israel’s 66-year existence. Apart from nuclear weapons, the rogue state used all its weapons and killed 2,200 Palestinians – 80% of them civilians.
