As Israel sets to dismantle age-old landmarks in the holy site of Al-Aqsa, Khaled Amayreh gauges Muslim and Arab reactions, and, as well, the apparent cohesion on the Fatah-Hamas Palestinian front

Life-saving accord

The Mecca Agreement between Fatah and Hamas has been greeted with celebration and it appears workable

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Gauging forbearance Catalogue of provocations

The landmark national reconciliation agreement between Fatah and Hamas, reached in Mecca under Saudi auspices on 8 February, seems to have brought back a semblance of sanity to the embattled Palestinian arena.

Virtually all Palestinians hailed the Mecca Agreement, which the Saudis reportedly employed a combination of bullying and inducement to get both groups to sign, because it carried the promise of preventing further infighting between Fatah and Hamas.

Indeed, as soon as the agreement was signed in an impressive ceremony, transmitted live from Mecca, Palestinians spontaneously took to the streets in many localities to celebrate the happy outcome of the "last chance talks". Instead of shooting at each other as they had been doing for weeks, some Fatah and Hamas militiamen were seen hugging each other while others were shooting into the air in an expression of joy over the good news from Mecca.

"People are in disbelief. Today is a feast. It is the first happy protest I have seen in Gaza," said Maysra Balawi, 24, as celebratory gunfire crackled in several parts of Gaza City. "This is certainly a gift from heaven," remarked a taxi driver from Hebron. "God knows what would have happened if the talks in Mecca had failed."

Unlike past agreements between Fatah and Hamas that didn't hold, the Mecca Agreement seems to have a real chance of surviving. The Saudi government, with its religious and political weight, seemed determined to make it a success despite American consternation. There is also no doubt that Saudi financial influence had a certain effect on the two sides. Both Fatah and Hamas knew that upsetting the Saudis was a red line that shouldn't be crossed under any circumstances.

The Mecca Agreement has the look of a balanced document. It stipulates fair power-sharing arrangements whereby Hamas will retain the first rank while Fatah is treated very much as a second amongst equals. In this arrangement, the current Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh will retain his job. A Fatah deputy prime minister will be helping him, however, which will give substance to "national unity".

On the other hand, Fatah and independents will be in control of the three most important portfolios, including the ministries of interior, finance and foreign affairs. It is hoped that this change of faces will prompt the international community to rethink its draconian approach towards the Palestinians, as Russia has started to do.

More significantly, the Mecca Agreement's letter of designation that contains the political guidelines for the next government stipulates that the government will "respect and honour" outstanding agreements between the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and Israel, as well as resolutions and declarations of Arab summit conferences, particularly the Beirut Conference of 2002.

Reading between the lines, it is clear that Hamas's willingness to "respect and honour" previous agreements, a key Quartet demand for lifting crippling sanctions on the Palestinian government, represents a significant evolution in the movement's political posture. In the past, Hamas employed epithets such as "treacherous" and "treasonous" when referring to these agreements.

Furthermore, the Mecca Agreement should open the way for Hamas to join the PLO, which would revitalise and reinvigorate the near-moribund organisation that became increasingly irrelevant following the establishment of the Palestinian Authority (PA) 12 years ago.

Not all Quartet demands are met in the Mecca Agreement. The agreement doesn't include an explicit recognition of Israel. However, Hamas seems to have given Abbas and the PLO carte blanche to negotiate peace with Israel in any manner deemed fit to serve the paramount interests of the Palestinian people.

Hamas is not going to hasten to recognise Israel, especially as long as Israel shows no willingness to end its occupation of Palestinian land. Nonetheless, the increasingly resilient movement is no longer telling the Palestinian masses to wait for the appearance of another Salaheddin to liberate Palestine from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean.

In other words, Hamas is getting more political and less ideological, not only in order to impress an international community that rewarded Palestinian democracy with sanctions, but also to thwart obvious efforts by the Bush administration to "Iraqify" or "Somalise" the Palestinian arena by backing and arming one side against another, all in order to stoke civil war in the service of Israel's goals, including killing the Palestinian dream of a viable Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.

This week, both PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Haniyeh called on the international community to recognise and accept the upcoming national unity government and lift the financial sanctions on the Palestinian people. "I say to the Quartet and to the European Union that this is the will of the Palestinian people, and they should respect it and end the siege," said Haniyeh.

Haniyeh said he would present the formal resignation of his government to Abbas in a few days and that he would begin forming the next government after he received the letter of designation from Abbas. Haniyeh has five weeks to put together a unity government.

On the Israeli front, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert appears to understand that the Mecca Agreement is a blow to Israel. Statements made by Olmert, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and other officials in the Israeli government, make clear that Israel is worried that a Palestinian national unity government that speaks an internationally acceptable language of moderation would prompt the international community to pressure Israel to be more forthcoming in peace negotiations.

One Israeli newspaper reported Tuesday that Olmert is refusing to discuss the three main elements of the Palestinian issue: the fate of Palestinian refugees, the status of Jerusalem, and Israeli withdrawal to pre-1967 borders. Olmert reportedly went as far as threatening to brand Abbas as "thinking like Hamas" if he insisted on total Israeli withdrawal from the occupied territories. Meanwhile, Olmert decided to refrain from dismantling dozens of such illegal settler outposts in the West Bank, arguing that the timing for such a step was not appropriate.

Abbas and the PLO insist it is necessary to directly discuss final status issues, demarcating borders pursuant to UN resolutions that establish the occupied territories as "occupied" and not "disputed" as Israel has been claiming.