Qatar and Egypt ‘will help form new Palestinian technocratic government’
The formation of a new Palestinian technocratic government would be aided by both Qatar and Egypt and involves consultations with all Palestinian political factions – including Hamas, the Palestinian ambassador to the UK, Husam Zomlot, has said.
The move appears to be part of an attempt to show that a reformed interim Palestinian government that has roots in the entire Palestinian movement is ready to take over the governance of both Gaza and the West Bank soon after any ceasefire.
Zomlot stressed Hamas would have no members in the new technocratic government, but the fact that it would be consulted showed efforts were under way to see if Palestinian unity between Hamas and Fatah was achievable.
The Palestinian prime minister, Mohammad Shtayyeh, and his government resigned en masse on Monday, confirming that its recent attempts at internal reform had not been extensive enough.
The two factions have been divided since Hamas threw the Fatah movement out of Gaza in 2007. Zomlot stressed this would be a purely technocratic government without factions, saying: “It is designed to unify the Palestinians, their geography and polity.”
“The political landscape has changed. This is the time to hear our people, and not the time for political factions. We have a responsibility to provide a government that can provide for its people, unite our people, and political system. The twin tasks of the government was to provide humanitarian support and prepare for elections, as well as economic reforms.”
Talks on relations between the factions are due to start this week in Moscow.
Zomlot said he hoped the technocratic government would be followed by both Palestinian parliamentary and presidential elections, once wounds had healed. He did not set a precise timeline for this ambition, but said it would be a matter of months not years. Palestine has not held elections since January 2006, and the US has been insisting that as part of a revitalised Palestinian government fresh elections must be held in which the current president, Mahmoud Abbas, would stand aside.
At present, polls suggest Hamas rather than Fatah, the party with which Zomlot is associated, would win, but gauging opinion at present is hard, and may depend on how the ceasefire is reached.
Zomlot said progress may depend on the degree to which Israeli government rightwingers allow the technocratic government to govern by no longer depriving them of revenue and restricting movement on the West Bank.
Zomlot, who has been mentioned as a future president or prime minister, framed the formation of the Palestinian technocratic government for the entire occupied territories as part of a wider agreed strategy including an immediate and permanent ceasefire that allows for a “hostage swap”, removal of Israel from every inch of Palestinian territory, the launch of a reconstruction program in Gaza, a vote at the UN security council backing full UN recognition of Palestine, an international peace conference to agree short timetables for formation of two states including security arrangements, accountability for war crimes against Palestinians.
These extensive demands are unlikely to be met in full and are anyway predicated on a permanent ceasefire involving a swap of hostages and prisoners.
Zomlot sounded doubtful that Hamas and the Israeli government would agree to a ceasefire on the kind of swift timetable set out by the US president, Joe Biden, on Monday night.
He said: “Benjamin Netanyahu so far sees the end of this aggression as the end of his political career. He is bragging and gaslighting all of us. He talks about possible agreements and he is just buying time. He knows how to play the game of deceit, and words, and then is good at the game of blame. Elements of his government are interested in ethnic cleansing, and they make no secret of it. They have a plan and have been waiting for the right moment to implement the plan.”
Zomlot said that due to the level of destruction and state of famine, ”it is likely that another 10,000 Palestinians will die even if a ceasefire was achieved now”.
He said an Israeli ground attack in Rafah “will bring untold casualties and despair. There are 6,000 people per kilometre. If Israel went about this the way it did in the North of Gaza, Israel will kill tens of thousands, and we think Rafah is the final push for mass expulsion. That is why it must be prevented and here the US must not mince its words.”
He said the only way to stop Netanyahu was for the US and the UK to stop supplying arms to Israel.
His aides fear that some of the phraseology coming from the US security officials suggest Washington, despite its warnings, is going to greenlight the land offensive in Rafah on the basis that Israel has constructed a credible plan that will shift the refugees within Gaza once again, leaving Hamas exposed to a final Israeli attack.