Rising tension in Palestine between Hamas, the ruling party in Gaza, and their political opponents - the Western-backed Fatah - has led to the possible postponement of an Egyptian-brokered reconciliation pact between the two parties.

By Karl Dowling
 

The recent escalation in tension surrounds a decision by the United Nations Human Rights Council’ to postpone voting on a report into the Gaza conflict earlier this year. South African judge Richard Goldstone led the UN fact-finding mission to Gaza and presented the team’s final report to the Human Rights Council last month. The report concluded that , both Israel and Palestinian groups committed war crimes and recommended that both parties should launch investigations into the allegations, under the supervision of independent international experts.
 

The Rights Council was expected to vote on the report last week, but postponed the vote under pressure from the US. Ian Kelly, US State Department spokesman, said such a delay could help contribute to creating an atmosphere favourable to the ongoing peace talks between Israel and Palestine. "All of our energies right now are being employed to move this process forward, and we want to clear the decks of any issues that might impede our progress towards this", he said.
 

In a surprise move, the Fatah led Palestinian Authority (PA) supported the call for deferral.
Hamas has spearheaded the pronouncements of consternation and betrayal at the PA’s decision to delay the vote. The feeling among the Palestinian people of Gaza was evident on Wednesday when crowds gathered to throw shoes at a defaced picture of PA leader, President Mahmoud Abbas.
 

Abbas defended his decision to back the deferral of the vote on Sunday, saying he wanted to secure broad support for the document.

“Shocked”
Speaking to RNW’s Karl Dowling, Dr. Haytham Manna, spokesperson for the Arab Commission for Human Rights, said that the Palestinian people were shocked by the PA’s actions and that many Palestinians were calling the move a “crime against victims”.
 

Abbas, however, has denied issuing instructions to the Palestinian delegation at the Human Rights Council that allowed for the deferral of the vote. Media reports claim that Abbas plans to establish a commission of inquiry into what led the PA to request the deferral. According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, the decision was made during a telephone call between Abbas and Yasser Abed Rabbo, who serves as secretary of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Executive Committee.
 

Asked whether recent events surrounding the Goldstone report have derailed the Palestinian reconciliation deal, Dr. Manna said the deal could survive if the PA had “the intention to make a real investigation into what happened in Geneva […] If not, there is a real crisis.”
 

Reconciliation talks
Hostilities grew between the rival Palestinian factions following parliamentary elections in 2006. Hamas won the election and tensions reached fever pitch in 2007 when they drove Fatah out of Gaza in bloody scenes that threatened to ignite a full-blown civil war. Two years later, remaining points of contention between the parties centre on the issue of establishing a unity government, security responsibilities and how to deal with Israel. A meeting between rival Palestinian groups, scheduled to take place in Cairo later this month was expected to result in the signing of a reconciliation pact.
 

Egyptian mediators have been working closely with the Palestinian national movement in a yearlong diplomatic process. However, recent developments appear to have postponed the process. Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri declared "The problem is not in the Egyptian paper (for reconciliation), the problem is in the shameful Fatah position over the Goldstone report”.
 

"Hamas told Egypt that the popular shock caused by the Palestinian Authority's delaying of the vote on the Goldstone report was a blow to their efforts and sabotaged the atmosphere for such an event," a Palestinian official close to the talks told Reuters in Gaza.
 

Fatah have hit back at these claims by accusing Hamas of using the Gaza report as an excuse to torpedo a unity deal.