A joint statement of the Palestinian National Liberation Movement (Fatah) and the Islamic Resistance (Hamas) announced the maturing of an agreed vision that would be presented to the Palestinian factions within days.

Al-Jazeera Net learned that this vision is linked to calling for Palestinian legislative elections in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Jerusalem.

The Secretary of the Fatah Revolutionary Council, Majed Al-Fetyani, told Al-Jazeera Net that the meeting of the Fatah and Hamas movements in the Turkish capital Istanbul actually presented a vision about holding legislative elections in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Jerusalem, provided that the timetable and details of their conduct would be determined during a meeting of the Palestinian factions within days. Saying.

The two movements issued a joint statement under the title "The Partnership Meeting between Fatah and Hamas in Istanbul" (Al-Jazeera)

Joint statement


According to Al-Fityani, it is expected that President Mahmoud Abbas, in agreement with the factions, will issue a decision in early October next to hold legislative and presidential elections, and another for the Palestinian National Council, "sequentially and not once."

Both Fatah and Hamas issued a joint statement Thursday afternoon, entitled "The Partnership Meeting between Fatah and Hamas in Istanbul," and it came after two days of meetings at the headquarters of the Consulate General of the State of Palestine in the Turkish capital.

The statement said that the research focused on the tracks that were agreed upon at the General Secretaries General Conference of the Palestinian factions that was held in early September in Ramallah and Beirut.

According to the two movements, an "agreed vision has matured" and the final and official announcement of the national consensus will take place at the meeting of the General Secretaries under the auspices of President Abbas, provided that it does not exceed the first of October / October 1, so that its implementation will start immediately after.

Al-Fityani - who represents the parliament of the Fatah movement - said that the Istanbul meeting came as a continuation of the bilateral dialogue that began two months ago between Fatah and Hamas, indicating that the meeting culminated in "a joint understanding to protect the rights of our people in the face of the Zionist and American attack and the rush of some towards a useless normalization."

Analysts: Abbas has a vision of forming a government supported by Hamas without direct participation in it (Al-Jazeera)

Reconciliation and Partnership


The Secretary of the Fatah Revolutionary Council said that the decision will include legislative elections in the West Bank, Gaza and the occupied city of Jerusalem (which is under full Israeli control), while finding ways to preserve the privacy of Jerusalem.

Regarding the timetable for holding the elections, Al-Fityani said, "The date will be determined by the next meeting of secretaries-general, which will represent all factions."

He added that President Abbas asked everyone - at the end of the last meeting of secretaries general - to form the necessary committees, and gave full authorization to all factions to work for the completion of the elections with the participation of all and without a "veto" on anyone.

The Palestinian Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh asked - during his meeting with the British Consul in the Occupied Territories, Philip Hall, on Thursday afternoon - Britain's support for holding elections in Jerusalem, and discussed with him the Palestinian leadership's approach to holding general elections in Palestine.

Shtayyeh said that the Palestinian government "is ready to provide all means for the success of holding the elections after the positive dialogue between Fatah and Hamas, restoring the democratic glow to Palestine, ending the division and restoring national unity."

A member of the Fatah Central Committee, Hussein Al-Sheikh, said Thursday that the Istanbul meeting "constitutes an important step on the road to reconciliation and partnership, and the unity of the Palestinian position in light of the consensus on rejecting all liquidation projects for our national cause."

Leaders of Fatah and Hamas delegations during a meeting at the Palestinian embassy in Istanbul on Wednesday (Al-Jazeera)

After creating the atmosphere,


on the other hand, the leader of the Hamas movement in Ramallah, Sheikh Hassan Yusuf, confirmed the two factions ’recommendations to go to legislative elections after what he described as“ preparing the atmosphere for their success, ”and said that this includes“ stopping the prosecutions and arrests of Hamas cadres in the West Bank, as has happened since the Palestinian split. 2007 ".

Youssef revealed to Al-Jazeera Net that the authority - after numerous meetings between Fatah and Hamas discussed the file of prosecutions and preparations for the elections - "has actually stopped the arrests of Hamas cadres recently as part of confidence-building steps towards preparing the atmosphere for legislative elections in which all participate."

According to the spokesman, "some summons are still going on, but we are following the matter to stop it completely." He added that "a member of the Fatah Central Committee, Jibril Rajoub, expressed his rejection of the continuation of the prosecutions, and supported stopping them for the success of the reconciliation process between the two sides."

While Fatah and Hamas meetings continue in the two capitals, Doha and Istanbul, over the next two days, Youssef said that Arab, regional and international powers, including Turkey and Qatar, are playing a vigorous role in supporting Palestinian reconciliation and making the elections soon successful.

Questioning its conduct


, however, the atmosphere of skepticism still prevails in the Palestinian street after the failure of reconciliation attempts since the Palestinian split that followed the fighting between Fatah and Hamas in the summer of 2007, in which hundreds of Palestinians were killed.

Analysts base this skepticism on the fragility of the Palestinian political situation, in light of the continued US and Israeli pressure on the Palestinian Authority to accept the "deal of the century."

The Authority is suffering from a financial crisis that has not been able to pay its employees' salaries in full for 4 months, against the background of its refusal to receive the clearance funds that Israel collects on its behalf, in rejection of the plans to annex the West Bank that were approved by the government of Benjamin Netanyahu at the beginning of its formation in early July.

In addition, Palestinian political analyst and researcher Khalil Shaheen told Al-Jazeera Net that President Mahmoud Abbas and the Fatah movement currently want a commitment from Hamas to the PLO's political program, and to adopt the president's vision of forming a government supported by Hamas without direct participation in it, so President Abbas wanted a Turkish intervention to convince Excited by his vision.

According to Shaheen, Fatah wants the decision to escalate and use the resistance’s weapons in Gaza in coordination with it, and for Hamas to stop its monopoly in ruling the Strip, in exchange for integrating Hamas into the institutions of the Liberation Organization and the authority and the government whose task will be to prepare for the elections.

He added that everyone understands that holding elections is not subject to a presidential decision only, because differences still exist, ruling out that elections will be held soon for several reasons, the most important of which is that the Israeli occupation will not allow a procedure that expresses Palestinian consensus and unity.

Moreover, the two movements - according to the analyst - are not ready, not only in their ability to run in the elections on a joint list, as previously announced, but also because of the weakness of the Fatah movement currently in consensus on the elections.