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Fata and Hamas: since 2005-07
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After 2005 a rift develops between the two major groups representing the interests of Palestinians. Fatah, in its early years justifiably regarded as a terrorist organization, is now a political party. Hamas by contrast remains true to its paramilitary origins and regards sudden attacks on Israeli not as acts of terrorism (the definition of them by most other nations) but as tactics in a war of liberation against an occupying force. Hamas, therefore, cannot be controlled by Fatah or forced to end its policy of aggression.
Since the formation of the Palestinian National Authority in 1994 Fatah has governed the whole of Gaza and the West Bank, within the practical limits imposed by Israel. But in 2006 this changes dramatically. In the election of that year Hamas wins 76 of the 132 seats in the parliament, including an even larger proportion in Palestine's largest city, Gaza, with a population of nearly half a million.
In 2006 and 2007 there are efforts to achieve a national government as a coalition between Fatah and Hamas, but hostilities between them are too great for this to become a practical reality. In June 2007 fighting breaks out between the two sides in what is now known as the Battle of Gaza. Within a week, and after more than 100 deaths, Hamas are the clear winners. They remove all Fatah officials from the Gaza Strip and take control of the city, leaving Fatah and its leader Mahmoud Abbas with power only in the West Bank.
Hamas is extremely popular in Gaza, partly for its hard-line policy in relation to Israel but more so because it provides a much valued welfare service, using much of its large budget (mainly from Muslim countries and organizations sharing its religious fundamentalism) to support schools, orphanages, health clinics, food kitchens and sports clubs.
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Politics and peace: since 2005
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Along the Gaza border in recent years a mood of confrontation and unease on both sides is a constant factor, on the Israeli side because settlements and towns in the south are regularly the targets of rockets launched by Hamas and by a few smaller terrorist groups, and on the Palestinian side because of the danger of reprisals when Israeli patience is stretched too far.
Every two or three years Israel launches military interventions into Gaza. The longest and most violent is the three-week Operation Cast Lead (more commonly known as the Gaza War) in the winter of 2008-2009. This follows a dramatic increase in the number of rocket attacks during the previous months on Israeli settlements and towns in the south, and it does major damage within Gaza. Because of Israel's vastly greater military power the different level of casualties for the two sides is striking – about 1200 Palestinian deaths and 13 Israeli, four of them from friendly fire.
In all this there is no change, although gestures of peace are regularly made. In 2009 Hamas, for example, breaks with its founding principle of total opposition to the existence of Israel in any form. It offers to recognize the state of Israel on various conditions – that Palestinians have a right of return to Israel, that Israel withdraws to its pre-1967 borders and that all settlements in the West Bank are removed, enabling a cohesive Palestinian state to exist with East Jerusalem as its capital. Hamas can confidently make such an offer knowing that Israel will reject it.
The life of more than a million Palestinians in the refugee camps (both within and outside Palestine, in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria) is a major welfare catastrophe, with by now two or three generations born in the camps and still living there. Their condition is the result of past war and conflict and their relative well-being is the responsibility of the UN agency UNWRA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East).
By contrast the life of half a million Palestinians in Gaza, severely restricted in their own territory in terms of movement and supplies and with a resultingly low standard of living , is the result of Israeli policies (albeit in response to frequent threats) and is regarded by many around the world as a major stain on Israel's reputation. It is widely agreed internationally that the only solution is two separate states.
However much diplomatic compromises may seem to move the peace process in that direction, there is a profound obstacle. A Palestinian state is not viable if it has to make its way round enclaves belonging to Israel, yet the removal of 300,000 settlers from the West Bank seems a practical impossibility. The relationship between Israel and the Palestinians remains the world's most intractable political problem.
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Towards statehood?: since 1988
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There is a long-running political campaign by Palestine to be accepted as an internationally recognized independent state. It dates from 1988, when Yasser Arafat announces a Palestinian Declaration of Independence. This in effect finally accepts the UN plan of 1947, recognizing Israel as existing legitimately within the region allocated to the Jews in that document and similarly proclaiming the new state within the related Palestinian borders. The UN in principle accepts this concept and soon nearly 100 nations have recognized Palestine.
In 1998 the PLO is accorded the status of a UN observer with its own seat within the wider chamber of the General Assembly, and in 2012 the General Assembly replaces the PLO with the State of Palestine in the position of a 'non-member observer state'. As yet this is but a name since it does not in fact recognize Palestine as a state (all existing states are automatically full members of the UN). It is a compromise during a larger debate concerning a much more significant demand.
Mahmoud Abbas receives a standing ovation in November 2012 when he addresses the General Assembly and presents Palestine's application to be accepted as a full member of the United Nations. He fails on this occasion but he has announced that he will apply again in an on-going process.
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