As Gaza war rages, West Bank officials see a path toward peace
By Taylor Luck and Fatima AbdulKarim
RAMALLAH, WEST BANK- Amid calls for a cease-fire in the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, an energized Palestinian Authority is preparing for the day after.
With the United States and Europe giving the Palestinians the most diplomatic attention in a decade, officials in Ramallah see a rare opportunity to revive a moribund peace process, reverse the fortunes of an unpopular and distrusted Authority (PA), and bring Palestinians closer to statehood.
“Despite all the difficulties, this horrendous war offers a promising opening,” says Mohammed Hourani, a former Palestinian diplomat and a member of the revolutionary council for Fatah, the dominant faction in the PA. “We can turn this opening into a historic opportunity for our people if we act wisely and act fast.”
Breaking weeks of silence, PA President Mahmoud Abbas spelled out the Authority’s vision to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Ramallah Saturday. The West Bank-based government would only “fully assume our responsibilities within the framework of a comprehensive political solution that includes all of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip,” said Mr. Abbas, according to the Palestinian news agency, Wafa.
The PA’s priorities: a Gaza cease-fire, opening of humanitarian corridors, and a wider political settlement under which the Authority would return to Gaza, which it governed from 1995 to 2007.
PA officials are holding up the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas as proof that attempts at regional peace through Arab-Israeli normalization agreements that circumvented the Palestinians have failed, and that only Palestinian statehood could ensure “stability, security, and peace for Israel and the region.”
But they say they are not willing to come in immediately and “clean up Israel’s mess.”
“We call for a tangible mechanism with a set time frame that leads to an end to the occupation and the establishment of a Palestinian state,” says Social Development Minister Ahmed Majdalani, a PLO Executive Committee member. “But no Palestinian organization or faction will return to Gaza on the back of an Israeli tank.”
A deal the PA can sell
The PA, working alongside Jordan and Egypt, envisions an international peace conference held by the United Nations, not under the U.S., which officials say the Authority has lost trust in as a mediator.
Negotiations are even underway with Saudi Arabia to offer normalized ties to Israel as part of a wider deal that would strengthen this local initiative. Disrupting the U.S.-backed Saudi-Israel normalization talks is thought to have been one target of the Oct. 7 attack.
Talks are gaining traction among the U.S., European Union, and U.N. over a post-Hamas governing body with proposals for a Palestinian authority – Palestinian civil society representatives, not necessarily the Palestinian Authority based in Ramallah. And that is jolting Palestinian diplomats into overdrive to ensure the Authority is not replaced by a new entity in Gaza.
Analysts say the PA is pushing for Israeli concessions in the West Bank and Jerusalem, and for commitments to statehood that it can legitimately sell to a suspicious public.
“The Authority needs something to show to the people that they are not agents of Israel and that all these martyrs and lives lost in Gaza were not in vain,” says analyst Ibrahim Masri. “Otherwise they will be risking their lives, not just their political career.”