Diplomatic negligence comes at a high price. Since October 7 and the bloody resurgence of the Palestinian question, countries long associated with the quest for a lasting peace between Israel and what could become a Palestinian state are measuring the cost of a decade of disengagement.
Nothing embodies this cost better than the weakening of the institution presided over by Mahmoud Abbas for the past 18 years. This "Palestinian Interim Self-Government Authority" was created in 1993, by the Declaration of Principles of the Oslo Accords, for a transitional period of five years, until the two parties could agree on the contours of a Palestinian state. The provisional period started to become lengthy, without anyone really caring.
Hamas's takeover of Gaza in 2007 came a year after the elections in which it had triumphed, benefiting from a vote of rejection by the Palestinian Authority. Their victory caught out the American and European sponsors of a peace process that was already in a very poor state. For a time, they had been banking on the "West Bank first" formula. In other words, the creation of a proto-state in this territory, pending the resumption of negotiations.
The governance embodied by Prime Minister Salam Fayyad (2007-2013), which was in many ways exemplary, to the point that Abbas came to resent him, came to an end for lack of any political horizon. Firmly entrenched in power in Israel at the time, Benjamin Netanyahu did everything in his power to bury the Olso process once and for all.
Many obstacles
In Ramallah, this vacuum paved the way for individual power with authoritarian tendencies. The vacuum was accompanied by the ossification of the Fatah party, once the backbone of the Palestine Liberation Organization. From the repression of opponents to the perpetual postponement of elections essential to giving Palestinians a voice, this disintegration was nevertheless tolerated as the lesser evil by Washington and European capitals.
For want of anything better, it is to this discredited Palestinian Authority, embodied by 87-year-old Abbas who, on August 24, repeated the worst anti-Semitic stereotypes, that the same world leaders are now turning. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken envisages the Palestinian Authority playing a central role in Gaza, once the ongoing Israeli offensive is over, leaving behind thousands of dead and a field of ruin on an unprecedented scale.
But the option of replacing Hamas with a "moderate," "capable" and "representative" Palestinian Authority, according to the preconditions regularly put forward, comes up against a large number of obstacles. One such example is the requirement for representativeness, which Abbas does not meet. A poll by the Palestinian PSR institute published to mark the 30th anniversary of the Oslo Accords, in September, showed that nearly 80% of those questioned wanted him to resign.
You have 50% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.