Fatah, Hamas, Agree To Paper Over Differences With Better Paper

Among the factors complicating this treatment of the Fatah-Hamas rift was an intense quarrel between the parties over what kind of paper to use and how it should be procured.

Gaza City, May 14 – The ailing Palestinian unity government between Fatah and Hamas received another chance to function today, as leaders of the two factions achieved consensus on using a thicker, higher grade of paper with which to paper over the disagreements that doomed the arrangement from the start.

Fatah and Hamas entered into a power-sharing agreement a year ago, with Palestinian political unity a key factor in any possible comprehensive solution to the conflict with Israel. The unity government represented the first such attempt to forge a joint administration in the Palestinian territories since Hamas had routed Fatah and ousted its officials from the Gaza Strip in 2007. Simmering rivalries and resentments prevented any reconciliation in the intervening years, as Hamas tightened its control over the Gaza Strip and Fatah worked to retain its hold on Areas A and B of the West Bank.

Those tensions caused the unity government to collapse almost immediately. This time around, said a Fatah spokesman, the two sides came better prepared to reconciliation talks. “Last time everyone thought signing an agreement would be enough to demonstrate a strong commitment to a shared agenda, even with important differences remaining over strategy and methods,” said Yasser Abed Rabbo. “But our entrenched loyalties and rivalries made that a joke,” and a dispute over the payment of salaries for Hamas workers almost immediately scuttled the agreement.

“My exact words were, ‘Were going to need better paper,'” recalled Abed Rabbo. “It’s about time, too.”

Among the factors complicating this treatment of the Fatah-Hamas rift was an intense quarrel between the parties over what kind of paper to use and how it should be procured. “Several of the bombings and beatings targeting Hamas or Fatah officials over the last year were when emotions were running high over the use of foil-backed wallpaper, versus the easier to hang, but nevertheless more durable, cloth-backed variety,” explained defense analyst Vertiga Trim. “Essentially, even once Fatah and Hamas agreed on the general approach to papering over their differences, the fundamental gaps between the two organizations’ outlooks colored every detail of their continuing interactions.”

Eventually, reported Abed Rabbo, a compromise settlement was drafted, under which both kinds of paper would be used. The Fatah and Hamas representatives each pledged to cover half the cost of the purchase and delivery. “We will have to see whether it works out, because our brothers in Hamas, unfortunately, do not have a reputation for keeping their word in this kind of agreement,” he warned.

Hamas delegate Fawzi Barhoum responded with a litany of Fatah offenses, and other reasons to suspect that adherence to the agreement would be violated by Mahmoud Abbas’s loyalists, not Hamas. “In all likelihood the delivery van carrying the wallpaper will be stopped by Fatah policemen and forced to dump the paper that Hamas ordered,” he said. “That is, if they even ‘remember’ to bribe the right customs officials to let the shipment though in the first place, those corrupt Fatah dogs.”

At press time, the opposing delegations were shooting at each other from opposite sides of the negotiating room.