Several top Fatah officials have asked Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to resign, dissolve the PA and return responsibility for the occupied territories to Israel in protest of unilateral Israeli moves.
Senior Fatah officials said on Friday the idea of scrapping the Authority was debated for the first time on Thursday night by the Fatah Central Committee, which controls Abbas' faction.
Analysts and Fatah officials said the demands - raised both in a letter to Abbas signed by five midlevel Fatah activists and at Thursday's meeting by a senior party official - are not serious at the moment.
However, the idea could gain momentum if a resumption of peace talks becomes increasingly unlikely and the economic situation deteriorates further, said Ghassan Khatib, the outgoing Palestinian planning minister.
Taysir Nasrallah, a Fatah official from the West Bank city of Nablus who signed the letter, said Israel's prison raid proved there was no need for the Palestinian Authority.
‘The Palestinian Authority is a big lie,’ Nasrallah told The Associated Press. ‘Israel should pay a heavy price for occupying the Palestinian Authority.’
The discussion highlighted frustrations within Fatah, beaten by Hamas in January elections, following Israel's seizure of a radical Palestinian leader in a West Bank prison raid this week.
A senior Fatah official said Abbas' top aide, Tayeb Abdel-Rahim, had sparked the debate in the Central Committee, winning support from several members. Others were opposed.
‘Abdel-Rahim said at the meeting Abbas must consider resigning and dissolving the Palestinian Authority if Israel continues with its attacks and unilateral measures,’ said the official, who asked not to be named.
‘Why should we accept blow after blow to President Abbas whom the world claims to support?’ the official quoted Abdel-Rahim as saying.
Abbas, who resigned once when he was prime minister and has threatened to quit since becoming president, told the Central Committee he would consider the proposal, the official said.
Analysts and intellectuals have been calling for the dissolution of the Palestinian Authority for some time, arguing that the Palestinian leadership is covering up for the Israeli occupation, Khatib said.
‘Now the responsibility for the population is divided between the Palestinian Authority and the international community. Israel, the occupying power, the real power in charge, is not worried about the situation because it's someone else's worry and responsibility,’ Khatib said.
Hamas, which is about to form a government that Fatah and other factions have refused to join, said it opposed dissolving the PA.
‘This is not the right national position to take,’ said Hamas lawmaker Khaled Suleiman.
Aid groups and an international envoy have warned of the risk of chaos and violence if the PA collapsed amid moves to isolate a Hamas-led government.
The senior Fatah officials said winding up the authority would be a protest at what they saw as efforts by Israel and the United States to sideline Abbas as a negotiating partner.
Fatah decides not to join Hamas-led Palestinian gov't
Fatah faction has decided not to join a government being formed by Hamas, party officials said on Friday.
The decision was made by Fatah's ruling Central Committee late on Thursday, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because a formal announcement has yet to be made.
Hamas officials in Gaza said the decision was regrettable.
Hamas is slated to present its cabinet to Abbas on Saturday and bring it to the Palestinian parliament for approval Monday, Hamas representatives in Gaza said Thursday.
Hamas's choice for foreign minister will be Mahmoud Al-Zahar, a top leader in Gaza whom Israel has tried to assassinate, Hamas sources said.
Another Hamas leader, Saeed Seyam, would become interior minister, giving him control over three Palestinian security agencies, the sources added.
Hamas held talks on Thursday with small parliamentary factions, including the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Third Way (headed by former finance minister Salam Fayad), the Alternative List (Badil, a combination of three small left-wing parties) and Independent Palestine (headed by Mustafa Barghouti). The Hamas officials said they were still hoping the factions would agree to join the government.
The factions' apparent refusal to join a Hamas-led government indicates that the changes Hamas has made to its proposed basic principles of government are insufficient. Hamas has already submitted three draft proposals to the factions.
The first draft proposal discussed considering negotiations with Israel only if the latter first recognizes the rights of the Palestinian people and guarantees a full withdrawal to 1967 lines.
Fatah has said it cannot join a government that does not accept the ‘strategic’ principle of negotiating with Israel, and Fayad has said he will not join a government without Fatah.
Other factions did not insist on negotiations, but wanted the basic principles to mention the Palestine Liberation Organization and its status as the representative of the Palestinian people, as well as the international decisions regarding a resolution of the conflict and a Palestinian state.
Fatah and Independent Palestine also want a mention of the 1988 PLO's declaration of independence, which, like the international decisions, imply recognition of Israel.