Palestinian national factions call for consensus and unity

The following joint statement by Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and the Palestinian National Initiative Movement was posted by Resistance News Network on March 15, 2024.

In light of the decree issued by the President of the Palestinian Authority, appointing Dr. Mohammad Mustafa to form a new government, the Palestinian national factions affirm the following:

1. The highest national priority now is to confront the barbaric Zionist aggression and the genocide and starvation war waged by the occupation against our people in Gaza Strip, and to confront the crimes of its settlers in the West Bank and occupied Al-Quds — especially Al-Aqsa Mosque, and the significant risks facing our national cause — at the forefront of which is the ongoing risk of displacement.

2. Making individual decisions, and engaging in formal steps devoid of substance, such as forming a new government without national consensus, is a reinforcement of the policy of unilateralism and a deepening of division, at a historical moment when our people and national cause are most in need of consensus and unity, and the formation of a unified national leadership, preparing for free democratic elections with the participation of all components of the Palestinian people.

3. These steps indicate the depth of the crisis within the leadership of the [Palestinian] Authority, its detachment from reality, and the significant gap between it and our people, their concerns, and aspirations, which is confirmed by the opinions of the vast majority of our people that expressed their loss of trust in these policies and orientations.

4. It is our people’s right to question the utility of replacing one government with another and one prime minister with another, from the same political and partisan environment.

In the light of the Palestinian Authority insistence on continuing the policy of unilateralism, and disregarding all national efforts to unite the Palestinian front and unite in the face of aggression against our people, we express our rejection of the continuation of this approach that has harmed and continues to harm our people and our national cause.

We call upon our people and their living forces to raise their voices high, and to confront this folly with the present and future of our cause and the interests, rights, and national rights of our people. We also call on all national forces and factions, especially the brothers in Fatah movement, to take serious and effective action in order to reach consensus on managing this historic and pivotal stage, in a way that serves our national cause and fulfills our people’s aspirations to extract their legitimate rights, liberate their land and holy sites, and establish their independent state with full sovereignty and its capital as Al-Quds.

This statement was lightly edited.