Sabella: beyond the truce, time for 'reconciliation' with Israel and in Palestinian society
The Palestinian Catholic leader calls the ceasefire agreed upon after tensions in the Israeli government and with Hamas a "good development". For him, children cannot be “killed because of the (alleged) crime of the father or the mother.” Rehauling the Palestinian system of government will be a challenge, one that will not see Hamas play any leading role.
Milano (AsiaNews) – The truce in Gaza between Hamas and Israel is a "good development", this according to Bernard Sabella, former representative of Fatah and executive secretary of the Department of Service to Palestinian Refugees of the Middle East Council of Churches, speaking to AsiaNews.
Hopefully, he believes “Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners will be freed", while “Gaza will have a rest from the ongoing war” which “will stop for some time and I hope it will become permanent,” because “the absolute suffering and destruction of the Gaza Strip is hitting everybody emotionally, spiritually and physically.”
“The tragedy is that the majority of those killed are really innocent," starting with women and children. Indeed, No one “say that the child can be killed because of the (alleged) crime of the father or the mother.”
Time for reconciliation
People “are hoping that this will introduce a time of reconciliation within Palestinian society and politics, on the one hand, and will start, eventually, the rehabilitation of the Gaza Strip.”
President-elect Donald Trump “played a key role" in getting Netanyahu to accept a deal with Hamas “before he is inaugurated”. However, it is not known “what kind of trade Mr Trump offered Mr Netanyahu, whether it is expanding the settlements in the West Bank,” or “a joint strike on Iran” or “having diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel.”
"Even though we are overjoyed with the ceasefire at this present time, this points to the need of finding a permanent, peaceful resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”
He warns that, “Unless this happens, all these intermittent wars, confrontations, with ceasefires now, ceasefires then, and so on, will not really amount to peace and security and stability for anybody in the Holy Land.”
In Doha (Qatar), representatives of Israel, Hamas, the United States and Qatar have agreed on a deal for the hostages, a day late and after overcoming the last obstacles including mutual accusations of reneging on parts of the document.
In Israel, a key factor was the decision by the leader of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, Aryeh Deri, to get on board; on the other hand, the ultra-radical right-wing National Security Minister of Itamar Ben-Gvir remains firmly opposed to the agreement and threatens to resign.
Some sources note that a complicating factor was Hamas’s insistence on having certain Palestinian prisoners released, which Israel vetoed because they are purging multiple life sentences for planning and orchestrating attacks.
Brett McGurk, outgoing US President Joe Biden's envoy for the Middle East, and Steve Witkoff, Trump's envoy, together with mediators from Qatar and Egypt worked several hours to overcome the last resistance.
Beyond the truce, a meeting point
Following this, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called a meeting of Israel’s security cabinet for Friday to ratify the agreement, which will have to be approved by the cabinet.
The opposition in the Knesset (Israeli parliament) has already said it is ready to help the government, should there be defections from Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, Minister of Finance, who are fanning the flames of war even at the expense of the hostages.
The deal, which is expected to start this Sunday (19 January), is divided into three phases.
In the first, a six-week ceasefire goes into effect with the gradual withdrawal of Israeli troops from central Gaza, and the return of displaced Palestinians to the north of the Strip.
This includes the arrival of at least 600 lories of humanitarian aid a day, another 50 with fuel, and the release of 33 hostages by Hamas; for each hostage, the Jewish state will release at least 30 Palestinian prisoners (50 if female soldiers).
The second will begin on the 16th day and provides for the release of the remaining hostages, including men, a permanent ceasefire and the complete withdrawal of Israeli soldiers.
The third and final stage will see the return of all remaining bodies and the start of Gaza’s reconstruction under the supervision of Egypt, Qatar and the United Nations.
For Prof Sabella, while a truce is good, permanent solutions are needed, like “establishing a [Palestinian] state” and the “rehauling, remodelling” of the Palestinian Authority.
Ultimately, “Israel and Palestine will only have peace if we can sit together and work out a political deal acceptable to the two peoples, to the leaders”. And “I am convinced most people in the Holy Land would say the same thing.”
In a future perspective of dialogue, a crucial role belongs to "incoming President Trump. [. . .] This is a big if. If the new administration of President Trump worked for permanent peace, not simply peace between Saudi Arabia and Israel [. . .] resolving the Israeli-Palestinian issue, for securing the Palestinian state with whatever territory for Palestinians.” Certainly not historic Palestine.
He reiterates that "peace cannot come, like Oslo taught us; peace cannot come with signing a document between two leaders.”
With respect to “the present Israeli leadership, unfortunately they are manipulated by the extreme right in Israel, which hasn’t even accepted the ceasefire.
“On the Palestinian side, we need to have unification, we need to have a new government, we need to work giving our people what they deserve, what our people deserve in terms of stability, good governance, and eventual initiating a peace process, a genuine peace process that will see stability and neighbourliness, hopefully, between Palestinians and all the neighbours in the region."
This requires overcome opposing visions (Zionist Jewish vs Palestinian Arab), hitherto unable to find a common ground, a meeting point.
New Palestinian model
“Trump is trying to bring in Saudi Arabia as a moderating influence,” but also “as an Arab Islamic state of major importance that is insisting on the right of the Palestinians to their own state.”
In the end, to arrive to a solution, “you have to recognise the other side with all the pain that this entails.”
Within the Palestinian camp, in addition to securing the release of Palestinian prisoners, whose names have not yet been made public, the goal is reconciliation.
“I don’t know if in this ceasefire deal, Marwan Barghouti will be released, I am not sure,” Prof Sabella said.
Recently, Mahmoud Abbas, the 89-year-old president of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) designated the speaker of the Palestinian National Council, Rawhi Fattouh, as his interim successor in the event of a vacant presidency.
"I know for sure that Mr Fattouh has insisted that, upon his taking over the position, he will make elections an important step for Palestinians.”
“He does not intend to run himself, he does not want to take over; he wants to be a transitory leader that will oversee the elections, and that will secure a new personnel to run the Palestinian authority.”
It is possible that the latter will be “a tripartite kind of system, whereby you have the president, the vice-president and a prime minister, together providing leadership for the Palestinians.”
Asked to summarise in three points how to achieve the goals of peace and coexistence, as well as rebuilding Palestinian society, Prof Sabella said:
"First of all, I think that Hamas will not be in the forefront of Palestinian political future; it will remain an influence, an important influence, but Hamas, I have heard, will remain on the side(line) for the moment.”
Another point “will be to rehaul and remodel the Palestinian governmental system. [. . . ] “I think that the current Prime Minister, Mr Mohammad Mustafa, has been trying to do that, but I think that we will need to work on a new government that is acceptable to all sides within Palestine and certainly that will be acceptable to the international community.”
“The third one would have to do with how we are going internally to redirect our priorities, so that we can reconstruct the Gaza Strip, and in the process of reconstructing the Gaza Strip, how we could foresee a kind of future away from armed struggle and away from this, ongoing [. . .] factional power basis, so that we have one government that is strong enough to impose law and order across the territories, both in the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip.”
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11/10/2023 21:17
21/05/2021 18:39
