The warning came as leaders of several Palestinian factions, including Fatah and Hamas, were expected to arrive in the Egyptian capital of Cairo to discuss preparations for holding new general elections.
The two-day talks, which begin on Monday, will be held under the auspices of Egypt’s General Intelligence Service.
Nayef Rajoub, who served as Religious Affairs Minister in the Hamas-led cabinet between 2006 and 2007, said that the differences between Fatah and Hamas remain huge and deep.
In 2006, he was elected as a Hamas member of the parliament, known as the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC). His brother, Jibril Rajoub, is the secretary-general of the Fatah Central Committee.
“The Fatah-Hamas dispute cannot be solved through presidential decrees,” Rajoub told the pan-Arab media outlet Al-Araby Al-Jadeed.
He was referring to the recent decrees issued by Abbas, setting dates for parliamentary, presidential and Palestinian National Council (PNC) elections.
Rajoub mentioned two contentious issues that could lead to the failure of discussions.
First, the issue of forming a joint Fatah-Hamas list for the parliamentary election.
According to Rajoub, Fatah’s insistence on having 51% representation in the list is unacceptable to Hamas, which is demanding that its candidates make up more than half of the list.
Second, the controversy surrounding the status of the Supreme Constitutional Court, established through a presidential decree issued by Abbas in 2016.
The Hamas official pointed out that in 2018 the court issued a decree dissolving the PLC. In 2006, Hamas won the election for the PLC, a move that triggered a bitter power struggle with Fatah.
“This court will be ready to again dissolve the new parliament if the Fatah leadership does not like the results,” Rajoub said. “There’s nothing that could prevent the court from ruling that the results of the upcoming elections are illegal and illegitimate.”
According to Rajoub, the PA security forces’ ongoing crackdown on Hamas supporters and political opponents means that the atmosphere in the West Bank is still inappropriate for holding free elections.
Palestinian sources said they do not rule out the possibility that the elections would be postponed if the factions fail to reach agreement during their meeting in Cairo.
The sources told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that some Arab parties were trying to persuade the Fatah leadership to coordinate with supporters of deposed Fatah leader Mohammed Dahlan, an archrival of Abbas, to undermine Hamas’s chances of winning the parliamentary vote.
According to the sources, some Arab countries are worried that Israel would refuse to deal with a Hamas-dominated government should the movement score a victory in the parliamentary vote.
The Egyptians have, on the other hand, warned Dahlan, who is based in the United Arab Emirates, against forming a joint list with Hamas on the pretext that such a move would undermine his group and Fatah and play into the hands of Hamas, the sources said.
The Egyptians, they added, urged Dahlan to form his own bloc if Fatah refuses to include his supporters in its list for the parliamentary election.