Writers Milton-Edwards and Farrell have recalled how before 7 October, the Palestinian national project was listing and in a state of peril. Given that a number of Arab countries had signed US-sponsored deals to recognise Israel, with Saudi Arabia expected to be next – thereby dashing all hope of any comprehensive Palestinian peace agreement. Palestinian officials in the West Bank were seen as venal, at best, collaborators at worst, authorities whose security forces were working in lockstep with the Israeli military to enforce the occupation.
The rise and rise of Hamas has been aided by Israeli complacency, if not complicity. In the late 80s and early 90s, a blind eye was turned to inflows of cash from supporters abroad, and Hamas’s social projects operated undisturbed. Israel regarded Hamas as a convenient foil to the PLO – hoping the newcomers could chip away at support for Arafat. Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reportedly boasted that allowing Qatar to fund Hamas helped undermine the Palestinian national project by stoking divisions and separating authorities in the West Bank from Gaza.
The October 2023 Hamas attacks shattered this status quo and the myth that scaffolded the PLO’s political existence since Oslo. Inertia and relations with intransigent Israeli governments yielded no progress to “independence” for decades. Whereas today notwithstanding the subsequently-intensified war in which Israel has killed more than 37,000 Palestinians: some opinion polls suggest enduring Palestinian support for Hamas. For as Palestine burns, her levels of support appear to increase.
[ A more comprehensive account of the views of Milton-Edwards and Farrell, are to found on Guardian Media’s 9th June 2024 pages. ]