Did Abbas ask for siege of Gaza to be kept in place?

As Haaretz newspaper claims that Fatah wants the blockade to stay in place, Hamas cannot resist a chance to kick its rival.

RAMALLAH // As Israel promises to ease its blockade on Gaza, intra-Palestinian rivalry again came to the fore on Sunday with a report in an Israeli daily that the Fatah leader, Mahmoud Abbas, had asked the US to ensure that there be no end to the maritime blockade on Gaza lest such a move boost Hamas, Fatah's Islamist rivals. Mr Abbas is supposed to have made the comments during his meeting with Barack Obama, the US president, last week.

The Haaretz newspaper report, however, only cited unnamed European officials who had reportedly been briefed by White House officials, and Palestinian officials around Mr Abbas were quick to label the article part of an Israeli "disinformation" campaign. "The report is yet another disinformation attempt aimed at distorting facts and deflecting Israel's responsibility to end the illegal and inhuman siege on Gaza," Saeb Erekat, the PLO's chief negotiator, said in a statement released Sunday.

"President Abbas had raised the issue of the necessity of lifting the blockade as a matter on a par with the fate of the peace process," Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a senior aide to Mr Abbas, told the Palestinian Authority-run WAFA news agency. Nevertheless, some did take the report seriously. Oraib Rantawi, a Jordanian columnist, wrote yesterday that, "we now have the very odd situation whereby most of the world believes that the siege on Gaza is 'unsustainable', except the Palestinian Authority and the Egyptian government".

The latter was mentioned in the Haaretz report as being supportive of Mr Abbas's position. Hamas officials said the report did not come as a surprise. Mahmoud Ramahi, a Hamas legislator from the West Bank, said he did not know if the report was accurate, but said the PA and Mr Abbas had proven over time that they are "participating" in the blockade. "Amr Musa [the Arab League general secretary] had to ask permission from Mr Abbas to come to Gaza. This shows that the PA is participating in the siege because it doesn't want the world to deal with the government there and grant legitimacy to Hamas."

Mahmoud Zahar, a senior Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip, meanwhile said the report only underlined "what we have been saying all along: Abbas and Ramallah are part of the siege." Fatah and Hamas have for years been locked in a rivalry for political primacy among Palestinians that came to a head after Hamas won parliamentary elections in 2006. The international community, which had supported those elections, refused to engage the new Hamas-led government until the latter accepted to abide by certain conditions, including recognising Israel, ending the armed resistance and honouring previously signed agreements between the PLO and Israel.

Hamas rejected, and continues to reject, those stipulations, countering that they are weighted against Palestinians because no similar recognition is sought from Israel for a Palestinian state, Israel does not abide by previous agreements and that resistance is an internationally accepted right for a people under occupation. Clashes between Hamas and Fatah supporters, meanwhile, grew increasingly violent until Hamas ousted Fatah-affiliated security forces in Gaza in June 2007, but Israel's war on Gaza in 2008-2009 gave new impetus to reconciliation talks.

These talks have so far proven fruitless and most analysts believe the real sticking point is international unwillingness - both Arab and western - to engage any unity government that includes Hamas, which would almost certainly be the outcome of Palestinian reconciliation. Mr Abbas is in turn unwilling to risk the foreign funding that keeps the PA afloat and secures the salaries of some 150,000 public sector employees.

This impasse and the struggle for political supremacy partly explains why Palestinians might believe the Haaretz report, said Diana Buttu, aRamallah-based analyst and former legal advisor to the PLO. Mr Abbas' failure to clearly denounce the blockade in 2007 and his performance since indicate that there is some "indirect support" for the blockade, according to Ms Buttu. "It's easy for people to believe the report with that in mind," she said.

Ultimately, with Hamas and Fatah failing to recognize that on fundamental issues they are closer than they realize, Ms Buttu said the two factions' positions on the blockade remain caught up in their battle for power. In the Palestinian context, she added, that amounted to "two bald men fighting over a comb". [e-mail]