ISRAEL-PALESTINE

Amanda Roraback's

World in a Nutshell


Articles Palestinian Coalition Government Saudi Peace Treaty Hamas Covenant Nuclear Weapons Gaza Strip pull-out US Support for Israel Roadblocks Glossaries Middle East Terms Mid-East Geography Documents Sykes-Picot, UN Resolution 242, 1988 Hamas Covenant etc. (From the Avalon Project at Yale Law School) Road Map Archives Sheikh Ahmed Yassin Arafat GO TO ISRAEL HOME PAGE	Palestinian Coalition Government This page was last updated on 03/19/2007	Israel-Palestine in a Nutshell 160 pages $9.95
	In March, 2007, the Palestinian Parliament agreed to end Hamas's monopoly on power by approving a coalition cabinet in order to put an stop to fighting between Hamas and the more moderate Fatah party and to end the government's political isolation. WHO'S WHO? Mahmoud Abbas -- Head of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Fatah party. Ismail Haniyeh -- The Palestinian Authority's prime minister and head of Hamas. Ehud Olmert -- Israel's Prime Minister BACKGROUND International embargo The US, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations (called the "quartet" of Middle East mediators) imposed an economic embargo on the Palestinian government after Hamas won the majority of seats in the Palestinian parliament in January 2006. According to quartet members, the embargo would continue until Hamas renounced the use of violence, accepted Israel's right to exist and accepted previous Arab-Israeli peace agreements. Differences between Hamas and Fatah According to Hamas' 1988 charter, the group rejects Israel's right to exist and calls on Muslims to liberate the land in order to bring peace: *Hamas Charter Article 7 --* The prophet, prayer and peace be upon him, said: The Day of Judgment will not come until Muslims will fight the Jews (and kill them); until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees, which will cry: O Muslim! there is a Jew hiding behind me, come on and kill him! The secular Fatah party, by comparison, endorses peaceful coexistence with Israel. IN A NUTSHELL New government The new Palestinian Cabinet has 10 ministers from Hamas, 6 from Fatah and 9 from other parties. The coalition government agreed to extend a 4 month-old truce with Israel in Gaza and the West Bank and called for a Palestinian state on lands the Israelis captured in 1967. Hamas also declared that it would respect the peace accords and add the words "nonviolent resistance" in its charter. Article 13 of the Hamas Charter: "There is no solution to the Palestinian problem except by Jihad. The initiatives, proposals and International Conferences are but a waste of time, an exercise in futility." Norway Norway (which is not a member of the EU) was the first country to recognize the coalition government and restore political and economic ties to the Palestinian Authority. Representatives from the European Union and the United Nations also welcomed the new government but held that the restoration of diplomatic relations would depend on a full assessment of its actions. Supporters claim that the government's call for a Palestinian state implies recognition of Israel. Hamas' Charter, by contrast, says the renunciation of any part of Palestine is the same as renouncing Islam. International opposition Opponents to conciliation with the new coalition Palestinian government argue that the declarations do not fully satisfy the conditions for lifting the embargo. According to Israeli Vice Premier Shimon Peres, for instance, the Palestinian government has not fully renounced terror and the United States opposes the government's platform that maintains the Palestinians' right of resistance. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and his cabinet refused to engage in peace talks with the new government as long as it refused to renounce violence and recognize Israel's right to exist. Consequences of US condemnation If the U.S. does not support reconciliation with the Palestinian government, it could impose restrictions on banks to stop countries from sending funds to the new Palestinain government. Without international aid, the government couldn't function.

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