By Sean Malloy
The vast majority of Palestinians in the occupied territories support the agreement between the Palestine Liberation Organisation and the Israeli government, says Palestinian journalist Daoud Kuttab. Green Left Weekly spoke to Kuttab, who lives in Jerusalem and writes for Middle East International, about Palestinian opinion within the occupied territories.
Kuttab explained the opinions of political activists and of the general population.
"On the political activist level, differences of opinion follow political factions. Supporters of Fatah, which is the biggest party, the Peoples Party of Palestine and the FIDA party support the talks", says Kuttab. FIDA was formerly a faction of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP).
"Supporters of Hamas, the Islamic movement, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the DFLP are against the accord."
These differences occur "on the activist level or the factional level", says Kuttab.
"On the popular level, the situation is very different. A vast majority of people support the agreement."
Kuttab said that the day-to-day situation of the occupied territories has not dramatically changed yet. However, the level of violence has been lowered.
Speculation that political differences over the agreement could lead to violence between Palestinian organisations have proven unfounded, says Kuttab.
"I don't think there is going to be internal violence over this agreement. The main parties opposed to this agreement have repeatedly insisted that they will not use violence to express their opinions. They have said they will oppose the agreement through political means. The opposition has, in fact, acted in a political fashion."
Kuttab adds that there are "differences within different groups as to how strongly they oppose the agreement. It is not clear how long they will stay united in their opposition. There is a possibility that once elections are announced ... some of the factions will change their position."
The attention received by Hamas is due to its ideology, argues Kuttab, rather than its weight in Palestinian society.
"The number of activists isn't so big. For a long time the majority was quiet, and therefore Hamas seemed much stronger than they appear today. The mass of people in the streets woke up and said, 'This is an agreement that we like and support'. Hamas has been reduced to a very weak position lately, because the PLO has been able to produce some results."
The accord and the reorientation of Palestinian politics also mean the end of the uprising, says Kuttab.
"Obviously you can't have an uprising against an occupation which is starting to end. There are those who think that the uprising should change in its style and those who want it to continue as is or even become more violent. I think that it is basically going to end with a few isolated cases of violence here and there.
"The uprising committees are also splitting up according to their political lines. The unified leadership is probably over, and each current is on its own."
The accord presents new challenges for the PLO. "There are a lot of problems for the PLO to work on. First there is the structural situation. You have a lot of changes that will occur in the PLO because, for the first time since the 1967 occupation, people from the territories will be allowed to join the PLO; a third of the Palestinian population now can be represented."
Kuttab added that "the fact the PLO will be allowed to set foot in the occupied territories, in Palestine, and the possibility that leaders will return and establish a council" would also have an impact on the PLO.
"Will the PLO be concentrating on the situation in Palestine and give up, or lessen, its interests in defending, safeguarding and fighting for the rights of Palestinians around the world?", asks Kuttab. "These are questions that have to be answered. I'm sure some kind of solution will be found that answers both these questions.
"On the day-to-day level, there are a lot decisions that have to be made regarding councils to be established, committees to be worked out and the real hard negotiations on the details absent in this agreement: the area of Jericho, the number of Palestinians allowed to return, transport of people and goods between Jericho and Gaza, security in the settlements and so on."
The difficulties experienced by the PLO after the Gulf War, played up by the Western press, were not a big factor in Israel's agreement to negotiate, says Kuttab.
The Israeli leaders are "trying to use this as reason for their agreement to negotiate. They argue that because the PLO had become so weak this was the best time to make a deal. Maybe there was a little bit of hype in making the PLO look weak, to let this agreement go through.
"Certainly the PLO has had problems, financially and so on, but I think there was a little bit of exaggeration from people who figured the PLO was about to die away."