DFLP blames Fatah, Hamas for dropping unity government clause from reconciliation deal

Middle East Monitor  /  October 14, 2022

The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) says it holds the Fatah and Hamas movements responsible for removing a clause that stipulates forming a national unity government from the reconciliation deal signed yesterday.

Forteen Palestinian factions, including Fatah and Hamas, signed a reconciliation deal yesterday, formally known as Algiers Declaration,  that aims to end 15 years of division.

After the deal was signed, the DFLP said Fatah and Hamas’ narrow factional vision of the conditions for forming a national unity government had driven the dialogue to a dead end and almost caused its complete failure at the last moment. Algeria, it added, intervened and tried to reach a consensus that preserves the reputation of the delegations before the Palestinian people and the Arab public.

The front explained that the seventh clause in the declaration stipulated forming a national unity government, responsible for reunifying Palestinian institutions and adopting a combative strategy to support the steadfastness and resistance of the Palestinian people in the face of the Israeli occupation and tackling settler violence.

The statement added that dropping the national unity government clause from the declaration will lead the Palestinian people to miss a “valuable opportunity” that might not recur in the near future, given Algeria’s insistence to provide Arab support for the declaration.

It called on all parties to put pressure on Fatah and Hamas to re-examine the need to form a national unity government, whose main function is to unify the Palestinian institutions and end their fragmentation, and adopt program that support Palestinians in their battle against the Israeli occupation and settlements.