Our Palestinian Future, Lost Between Fatah And Hamas

-Analysis-

BEIRUT — Since its founding as a political party in 1965, the Palestinian National Liberation Movement (Fatah) has been characterized by a narrative of desire and sloganeering. The words and culture of armed struggle dominated its leaders’ speeches, despite the exaggerations they entailed — and the disconnect between capabilities and slogans, reality and aspiration.

This is the driving force of a national liberation movement, which was characterized by spontaneity and experimentation, and which continued to lack a clear and sustainable political or combat strategy.

Fatah has long preferred to rely on outside resources rather than its people, and those external factors are subject to the dominance of different authorities and political and legal systems, which greatly affected its capabilities in the face of a militarily superior enemy that enjoyed the benefit of international circumstances.

A history of slogans

Thus we had such Fatah slogans in the ears of Palestinian people:

“To Jerusalem, we are going, martyrs in the millions”

“Oh mountain, no wind can shake you”

“The people of the mighty”

“Theory emerges from the barrel of a gun”

“All power to the resistance.”

The eras of the Palestinian armed struggle in Jordan and Lebanon were famous for the enthusiastic songs that were broadcast on the “Sound of the Storm” radio station, helping to lift morale and recruit men for the armed struggle. Still, in the beginning most words did not match the reality of the weak and restricted Palestinian people, nor the reality of their national movement, with its fragile and scattered structures.

Where does that leave us today? It’s a reminder that the speeches of the Hamas, since it became the dominant Palestinian movement, are a natural extension of the spirit of Fatah since its earliest days. It too had proposed armed struggle as a path to liberate Palestine, made possible with the backing of Arab regimes.

Hamas also responsible

So the critical discussion of Hamas’ statements or slogans, which are similar to that of Fatah in its early years, stems from Israel’s responsibility for the ongoing war. Thus Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7 is put into perspective by Israel’s subsequent war of extermination, aimed at crushing Palestinian resistance in all its forms, from the river to the sea, and to turn Gaza into a place unfit for living.

Fight and the angels will fight with you.

However, Israel’s crimes, resulting from its nature as a colonial settler and racist state, cannot absolve Hamas of responsibility for what happened — nor for the exaggeration of its capabilities to be able to use Gaza as a base for liberating Palestine, nor for the self-delusion of its ability to mobilize the Arab and Islamic nations, according to Muhammad al-Deif’s speech at the moment of the attack.

“Fight and the angels will fight with you … Start marching today, not tomorrow, towards Palestine, and do not let borders, regulations, or restrictions deprive you of the honor of jihad… Whoever has a gun, let him take it up … And whoever does not, let him take out his machete, axe, or molotov cocktail, [attack by] his truck, his bulldozer or his car, today,” al-Deif said in his speech soon after the Oct. 7 attack.

Once again, these calls were not answered, neither within the borders of post-1948 Israel, nor the West Bank and Jerusalem, nor in Arab or Islamic countries. Most of the popular movement energy against the war in Gaza came from citizens of Western countries.

All of this means that the Hamas leadership’s reading of the Palestinian situation and the reaction in the region was inadequate, subjective, and really just wishful thinking.

The groups of fighters that stormed the Israeli settlements returned to their bases inside Gaza on the same day, contrary to what Deif suggested in his speech — and then Israel took the initiative by launching a brutal attack that spread into a genocidal war.

A new Nakba

The Palestinian people are thus pushed toward a new Nakba, (“catastrophe,” expulsion from their land) which the heroism and steadfastness of fighters cannot overcome. Added to that is that the current Arab and international conditions do not enable, or do not allow, the Palestinians, with their weakness, differences, and circumstances, to reap political returns, no matter how great the sacrifices and heroism of its people.

Hamas leaders continued to affirm daily that “the resistance is fine.”

Also it’s notable that Hamas’s demand to stop Israel’s aggression against Gaza (which is true, of course) contradicted the spirit of al-Deif’s speech.

In the same context, Hamas leaders continued to affirm daily that “the resistance is fine,” while all Gazans were out in the open; without a drop of water, a piece of bread, or a pill of medicine; and without electricity, with most of the homes completely and partially destroyed.

Others declare that: “Israel did not achieve its goals in the war.” This is all true, but what about the uprooting of nearly two million Palestinians from their homes, and the destruction of most of Gaza’s homes, buildings and infrastructure? What about more than 100,000 victims of dead, wounded, detained and missing under the rubble?

Faction leaders and the Palestinian people

All of the above mirror the indifference of the leaders of the Palestinian National Liberation Movement to the sacrifices and suffering endured by the Palestinian people in Gaza. Unfortunately, this is an old tradition, from the time of Fatah to the time of Hamas.

While it is assumed that these movements were established for the sake of the people, they themselves become the (Palestinian) cause and the people, without review or accountability for their choices.

Perhaps Musa Abu Marzouk, the first head of Hamas’s political bureau expressed this in his response to a question (on Russia Today and the BBC) about his movement’s success in building tunnels in Gaza, while it did not think about what could protect the people of Gaza.

“This is not the mission of Hamas, whose mission is to protect its fighters, because the Palestinians of Gaza are mostly refugees, and their responsibility falls on the United Nations and the occupying state,” he said.

The question now is: So, what happened to the Palestinian division and infighting? Is it only for power? Who is responsible?