The Second Partition of Palestine

Hamas–Fatah Struggle for Power

Subhash Singh

• Publisher: Routledge India
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000411423
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: International Relations
• Index: Politics & International Relations

This book examines the factors and issues responsible for the intra-Palestinian conflict that has undermined the strength and vitality of the struggle for liberation against the state of Israel. It explores how the ideological incompatibility and competition for political primacy account for the Hamas–Fatah conflict, entailing the risk of partition of Palestine even before it takes shape as an independent, sovereign entity. It analyzes the developments since the signing of the September 1993 Oslo Accord and discusses themes such as the background of Palestinian politics; the role of Fatah; the rise of Hamas as Fatah's political rival; the Hamas–Fatah struggle for power; and the role played by the international community, including by the US and the European Union. The study deals with the various facets of territorial and political challenges faced by the rival Palestinian actions; the failure of the reconciliation efforts by Egypt and Yemen; the stalled peace process in the West Bank and Gaza Strip; the emergence of the Islamic resistance movement and secular nationalist party; and the political and ideological shifts in Palestinian politics.

Comprehensive and topical, this book will be useful to scholars and researchers of West Asian studies, peace and conflict studies, politics and international relations, foreign policy, political studies, area studies and strategic and defence studies.

1
Fatah in Palestinian politics

The roots of the Palestine-Israeli conflict can be traced to the 1917 Balfour Declaration that formally paved the way for the establishment of the Jewish State of Israel in May 1948. Since the creation of Israel, Palestinians have been without a state, but not without much of the apparatus that makes up a state, viz. political parties, movements, and militant organizations. The earliest and most enduring of post-1948 Palestinian political parties is Fatah, the Palestinian National Liberation Organization. Since the 1970s it has been the dominant faction of the PLO, the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. Indeed, the Palestinian liberation movement was closely identified with Fatah for decades until the emergence of Islamic Resistance Movement, popularly known as Hamas in the latter half of the 1980s. In the following two decades, especially since the signing of the Oslo Accords with Israel in September 1993, Fatah began to lose ground to its Islamist rival, so much so that the latter’s electoral victory in the 2006 Palestinian general elections marked the end of Fatah’s political primacy. This chapter presents a brief account of the rise and growth of Fatah in the backdrop of the end of Pan-Arabism in the wake of the June 1967 Arab-Israel War creating conditions conducive to the spread of Palestinian particularist assertions.

First partition of Palestine

After World War II, thousands of Holocaust survivors flooded into Palestine. Insurgent operations took place, as fighting and terrorism increased. In such an atmosphere of suspicion, allegation, sabotage, and murder, it had become clear that the British were not able to solve the problem.¹ Due to bloodshed between Arabs and Jews, Britain decided to refer the issue to the United Nations. On 18 February 1947, then British Foreign Secretary Bevin announced the decision of the British government to submit the Palestinian problem to the United Nations (UN).² The United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) was established to examine the entire situation and all the factors involved.³ The UNSCOP was composed of representatives of eleven states: Austria, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Guatemala, India, Iran, the Netherlands, Peru, Sweden, Uruguay, and Yugoslavia.⁴ UNSCOP was not able to present a unanimous report. Three countries—India, Iran, and Yugoslavia—presented a minority report. They proposed a federal Palestinian state. The Arab Higher Committee boycotted UNSCOP on the basis that it was confusing the Jewish refugee crisis with the Palestine question, and that the continual flow of committees of inquiry was a violation of the Palestinians’ rights as the indigenous population of the land.⁵ The UNSCOP recommended the following:

• That the British Mandate should be terminated and Palestine given independence.
• That in the interregnum Palestine should be put under UN supervision.
• That the European refugee problem should be connected with the Palestine issues, in as much as the resolution of the latter would make resolution of the former easier.
• That the religious significance of all the Holy Place should be preserved.⁶

The United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine was a resolution adopted on 29 November 1947 by the UN General Assembly. Its title was United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181,Future Government of Palestine. Following the formation of the British Mandate, Palestine was partitioned into two states: one a Jewish state and the other an Arab state.⁷ The Zionists favored partition, while Arabs rejected it. Consequently, the political committee of the United Nations considered the partition plan. The committee divided Palestine into six parts: three for Arabs and three for Jews. Even though the division was made according to the concentration of each group in a given area, there were 10,000 Jews in the Arab state and nearly 500,000 Arabs (48%) in the Jewish state. Fifty-six percent of the area of Palestine was given to the Jews, who constituted about 30% of the whole population, and 43% was given to the Arabs. The remaining 1% area of Jerusalem and Bethlehem was to be under international control.⁸

The UN resolution included a highly detailed description of the recommended boundaries for each proposed state. It also contained a plan for an economic union between the proposed states, and a plan for the protection of religious and minority rights. The resolution sought to address the conflicting objectives and claims to the Mandate territory of the two competing movements, Jewish nationalism (Zionism) and Arab nationalism, as well as to resolve the plight of Jews displaced as a result of the Holocaust. The Jews welcomed the partition plan and the Arabs strongly opposed it. Despite the Arabs’ opposition and intense diplomatic bargaining and lobbying at the United Nations, the Partition Plan (Resolution 181) was approved by the required two-thirds vote on 2 November1947.⁹ But, it soon became clear that partition would not be gifted by diplomacy.

Birth of Israel and the first Arab–Israeli war of 1948

The first partition of Palestine not only led to the Arab-Israeli War in 1948 but also laid the foundation of a new Palestinian movement, based primarily upon the use of violence as a political weapon.¹⁰ In secret understanding with the Jews and the US, the British withdrew from Palestine on 14 May 1948, without transferring power to any administration for the first time in their colonial history.¹¹ On 15 May 1948 the British forces withdrew their last detachment and the mandate came to an end. One day before, on 14 May 1948, the Palestinian Jewish community had declared the establishment of Israel as an independent state.

On 17 May 1948, the Soviet Union, which favored the Partition Plan, recognized Israel as an independent state. The United States and most other states also immediately recognized Israel and stimulated the Arabs.¹²

At this critical juncture, the regular Arab armies of Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and Jordan crossed into Palestine to rescue their Arab borders. The initial localized fighting took a new dimension and erupted into a full-fledged war¹³ in which joint Arab armies were involved: 6,000 Jordanians, 9,000 Iraqis, 5,000 Egyptians, 1,000 Syrians, 3,000 Saudis, and some 3,000 volunteers from other Ar...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• List of tables
• Abbreviations
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Fatah in Palestinian politics
• Chapter 2: The rise of Hamas as Fatah’s political rival
• Chapter 3: Ideological roots of the Hamas–Fatah conflict
• Chapter 4: Hamas–Fatah: The struggle for power
• Chapter 5: The second partition of Palestine
• Chapter 6: The political landscape of Palestine: Aftermath of Arab spring
• Conclusion
• Index