Beijing Declaration: Agreement to End Division & Strengthen Palestinian Unity


https://www.saba.ye/en/news3353088.htm

Yemen News Agency SABA
Beijing Declaration: Agreement to End Division & Strengthen Palestinian Unity
[27/ July/2024]
SANA'A July 27. 2024 (Saba) - After serious talks in China since last Sunday, about 14 Palestinian factions signed the "Beijing Declaration" on lsat Tuesday, which is an agreement to end the division , estrangement, and enhance Palestinian unity by forming an "interim national reconciliation government" to manage Gaza after the war.

The Chinese Global Television Network (CGTN) reported in a post on social media that 14 Palestinian factions in total, including leaders of the Fatah and Hamas movements, also met with media representatives in the presence of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, which was confirmed by the Chinese Foreign Minister and reported by official Chinese media.

The agreement was signed at the closing ceremony of the reconciliation dialogue between Palestinian factions hosted by Beijing from Sunday to Tuesday, after representatives of Fatah and Hamas met in Beijing last April to discuss reconciliation efforts to end about 17 years of disputes. The Palestinian factions said in a joint statement that they agreed to "reach comprehensive Palestinian national unity, including all Palestinian forces and factions within the framework of the Palestine Liberation Organization, and to commit to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with Al-Quds as its capital, in accordance with UN resolutions, and to guarantee the right of return in accordance with Resolution 194."

The factions' statement stressed "the right of the Palestinian people to resist and end the occupation in accordance with international laws , the United Nations Charter, and the right of peoples to self-determination and struggle to achieve this in all available ways."

It pointed to "the formation of a temporary national unity government with the agreement of the Palestinian factions and by a decision of the president based on the Palestinian Basic Law in force, for the formed government to exercise its powers and authorities over all Palestinian territories in a manner that confirms the unity of the West Bank, Al-Quds and Gaza Strip."

The statement said: The desired government "will begin by unifying all institutions in the territories of the Palestinian state and begin the reconstruction of the sector, and prepare for holding general elections under the supervision of the Palestinian Central Elections Commission as soon as possible in accordance with the approved elections law."

The factions also agreed to "resist and thwart attempts to displace Palestinians from their land, and to emphasize the settlements illegitimacy and expansion, in accordance with the resolutions of the UN Security Council and General Assembly and the opinion of the Justice International Court ," and agreed to "work to lift the brutal siege on Gaza , the West Bank, and the importance of delivering humanitarian and medical aid without restrictions or conditions," in addition to "supporting the martyrs families , the wounded and all those who lost their houses and properties," according to the statement.

Beijing meeting came at the invitation of the Chinese government, which is playing an increasing role in the Middle East region. However, the declaration, in essence, did not differ from previous declarations sponsored by countries such as Egypt, Algeria, Russia, Qatar and Turkey.

This meeting coincides with the Zionist war on Gaza Strip since October 7, which resulted in the martyrdom and injury of about 129 thousand Palestinians, most of them children , women, more than ten thousand missing amid massive destruction and famine that claimed the lives of dozens of children. The enemy continues the war, ignoring the UN Security Council resolutions to stop it immediately, and the orders of the International Court of Justice to take measures to prevent acts of genocide and improve the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza.

In this context, the leader of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), Musa Abu Marzouq, announced that the movement signed a "national unity" agreement with Fatah and other Palestinian factions during a meeting in China.

Abu Marzouq said in a statement today: "Today we sign a national unity agreement. We say that the way to complete this journey is national unity. We adhere to national unity and call for it."

He also stressed that "this creates a solid barrier against all regional and international interventions that seek to impose facts against the interests of the Palestinian people in managing Palestinian affairs after the war."

It is noteworthy that last April, the Hamas and Fatah movements met for the first time in Beijing to discuss reconciliation efforts to end about 17 years of disagreements. This was the first time it was announced that a Hamas delegation visited China since the start of the war in Gaza.

Chinese officials have intensified their efforts to defend the Palestinians in international forums in recent months, calling for the largest-scale Palestinian-Zionist peace conference and setting a specific timetable for implementing the two-state solution. This new agreement represents a diplomatic coup for Beijing and its growing influence in the Middle East, after it brokered a historic agreement between Saudi Arabia and Iran last year.

In the same context, the head of the Arab and International Relations Department in the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine, Ihsan Ataya, said in a statement: What was included in the final statement of the Palestinian dialogue in China that was leaked to the media is "inaccurate."

He explained that the Islamic Jihad Movement rejected any formula that includes recognition of "Israel" explicitly or implicitly, and it did not agree to include a formula that stipulates international resolutions that lead to recognition of the legitimacy of the usurping occupation entity.

Jihad Movement demanded the withdrawal of the Palestine Liberation Organization's recognition of "Israel," and demanded "the formation of an emergency committee or government to manage the battle in the genocide face and plans to liquidate the Palestinian cause," according to Ataya's statement.

For his part, Secretary-General of the Palestinian National Initiative Mustafa Barghouti stated that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will begin consultations with all factions to form an interim national unity government in accordance with the Beijing Declaration.

The "Beijing Declaration" included a set of general political understandings, but did not set executive mechanisms or timetables, which led many observers and officials to see it as one of the previous understandings that were reached through the mediation of external parties without the political will to implement it.

One of the participants in the Beijing meetings told Al-Sharq newspaper: "The meeting in China was stormy, and fundamental differences emerged, but it was not appropriate to return from that distant country without a general statement that would satisfy the Chinese host and not anger the Palestinian street."

He added: "Fundamental differences have emerged between the two movements regarding ending the division, related to authority, law, a single legitimate weapon, and methods of struggle."

He continued, "Fatah believes that authority should be unified, and weapons should be unified in the hands of security personnel only, while Hamas believes that we are in a phase of national liberation that requires factions to carry weapons and resist."

He explained that "there are also fundamental political differences related to the agreements signed by the Palestine Liberation Organization with "Israel," which Fatah adheres to, while Hamas demands that they be abandoned after it has been proven that they have failed to achieve Palestinian national goals, especially the establishment of an independent state with Al-Quds as its capital."

The National Liberation Movement (Fatah) and the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) had reached a set of agreements since 2007 aimed at achieving Palestinian reconciliation and ending the internal division, but these agreements did not find their way to implementation due to various obstacles. The most prominent of these agreements are: the Mecca Agreement of 2007, the Egyptian Paper of 2009, the Cairo Agreement of 2011, the Doha Agreement of 2012, and the Beach Agreement of 2014. The Beach Agreement is considered one of the most important reconciliation agreements between the Fatah and Hamas movements, and it was given this name because the dialogue sessions were held in the home of Ismail Haniyeh in the Beach refugee camp west of Gaza City. This was followed by the Cairo Agreement of 2017, the Turkey Agreement of 2020, the Algeria Meeting of 2022, the Moscow Meeting for Palestinian Reconciliation of 2024, and the Beijing Meeting in April 2024.

In contrast, in the first Zionist reaction, the Zionist enemy saw the agreement concluded by the Palestinian factions in China to form a temporary national unity government that unifies Palestinian institutions as "something that will not happen."

The so-called Zionist Foreign Minister, "Israel Katz," said that the "Beijing Declaration" signed by the "Fatah" and "Hamas" movements for reconciliation, ending the division and strengthening Palestinian unity, will remain ink on paper.. vowing to destroy Hamas movement's rule in Gaza Strip, according to his claim.

Meanwhile, the Zionist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that his goal is to "destroy Hamas movement"... and opposes it having any role in managing Gaza after the war.

It is worth noting that the Palestinian arena has been suffering from political and geographical division since 2007, as the Hamas movement and a government it formed control Gaza Strip, while the occupied West Bank is run by a government formed by Fatah movement led by President Mahmoud Abbas. Over many years, several meetings have been held between the Palestinian factions in order to end the division and restore national unity, the most recent of which were the Algiers meetings in October 2022, and a meeting in the Egyptian city of El Alamein on June 30, 2023, without resulting in serious practical steps to achieve their goal.

J.A

resource : SABA