Fatah-Hamas reconciliation efforts irk Netanyahu
Reconciliation efforts of the Palestinian Authority (PA), led by the Fatah movement, and the Hamas resistance movement have angered Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The Israeli prime minister said at a meeting of his right-wing Likud party in the occupied West Bank settlement of Ma'aleh Adumim on Tuesday that the Tel Aviv regime would not accept "imaginary appeasement where the Palestinian side is reconciling at the expense of our existence."
Netanyahu said any move toward reconciliation must take into account recognition of Israel as a Jewish state, dismantlement of the Hamas military wing and a severance of diplomatic relations with Iran.
Hard-line Israeli Education Minister Naftali Bennet had earlier called for Israel to halt the transfer of tax revenue to Palestinians.
Netanyahu has used the reconciliation efforts as a pretext to suspend the so-called peace talks with Palestinians and expand the Israeli settlement building in the occupied territory.
In a move toward reconciliation, the Palestinian Authority, led by Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah, held its meeting in the besieged Gaza Strip for the first time in three years. Gaza is administered by Hamas.
Hamdallah on Tuesday described the meeting as a major step in reconciliation efforts. “Today, we stand before an important, historical moment as we begin to get over our wounds, put our differences aside and place the higher national interest above all else.”
Fatah and Hamas have been at odds ever since the latter scored a landslide victory in Palestinian parliamentary elections in 2006. Fatah has set up offices in the occupied West Bank. The two rival Palestinian factions finally agreed on a unity government in April 2014, but it fell apart months later.
Last month, Hamas announced that it had agreed to dissolve its administrative committee in Gaza, handing over administrative responsibilities to the unity government. It also invited the Palestinian Authority, led by President Mahmoud Abbas, to return to the territory and hold new elections in the West Bank and Gaza.
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