Abbas Hosts Hamas Delegation for Reconciliation Talks

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas hosted a Hamas delegation this week for a meeting to discuss Palestinian reconciliation.

Abbas quickly sent Hamas an invitation just one week after his main political rival in the Fatah party, Mohammed Dahlan, participated via satellite in a special meeting of Palestinian parliament members in the Gaza Strip attended only by Hamas representatives.

Abbas hosted Hamas members of parliament, including the first deputy prime minister of Hamas, Nasser Aldin Shaer, and other officials at his office in Ramallah.

According to Palestinian media reports, the meeting dealt with efforts to achieve Palestinian reconciliation and end the division between the Fatah movement and the Palestinian Authority on one hand and the Hamas terrorist group on the other. It was also reported that the Hamas delegation praised Abbas “for the successful efforts of the Palestinian people in occupied Jerusalem to defend the Al Aqsa Mosque.”

At the end of the meeting, Shaer said, “The meeting was warm and we hope that it has a positive effect on the national reconciliation efforts.” Shaer also noted that delegation members asked about Abbas’ health after he was hospitalized at the beginning of the week, causing worry among Israelis about the current situation in the West Bank.

“We spoke about all national issues and recent events in Jerusalem and we concluded that the efforts in Jerusalem received a positive evaluation and could represent a model for unifying actions,” said Shaer. “We agreed that we need to learn from what happened in Jerusalem and build on it as a model to strengthen unity. It was a positive meeting, though I don’t want to make any promises (on putting an end to the division).”

As previously stated, the meeting between Abbas and the Hamas delegation came after a recent increase in pressure on the Palestinian president due to the growing relationship between Hamas and his rival Dahlan, who reached an agreement with Hamas, with the support of Egypt, for joint management of the Gaza Strip.

This also explains why the Palestinian Reconciliation Committee approached Egypt on Tuesday, requesting that they increase their efforts to bring about reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas.

In a message sent to the Egyptians, the Palestinians wrote, “After the heroic achievement of the resistance in protecting the holy places and the failure of the occupation’s initiatives to Judaize the Al Aqsa Mosque, the insistence on uprooting the metal detectors and cameras from the gates of the Al Aqsa Mosque and the entrance of our people to the mosque as liberators, we want to remove the cloud of division that disrupts the happiness of our peoples.”

The reconciliation committee, composed of independent individuals, also wrote, “Egypt is the big sister. She is the source of hope and she gives support to the national reconciliation and unification of the Palestinians. We want to use these historic moments in which our nation is celebrating its magnificent victory against the cruel occupation and we call on our brothers in Egypt to use this positive atmosphere in which our people stood together above any divisions to defend Al Aqsa, to call Fatah and Hamas to an urgent meeting in Cairo in the name of applying the understandings of the reconciliation and a solution to the dispute and the creation of a national unity government and the end of the era of division.”