By Randa Darwish
Palestinians have been split between demanding the Palestine Authority (PA) President, Mahmoud Abbas to resign and leave while others reaffirmed support and loyalty to him.
It all started after thousands of Palestinians gathered in the Gaza Strip and called on Abbas to resign amid his latest attempts to pressure Hamas, the de-facto power in Gaza, with financial cuts in addition to adopting moves that actually assist the blockade on the Strip where Palestinians have been living one of the worst humanitarian crisis for a year now.
On hashtag #ارحل [Leave], Palestinians went to social media to support protesters and put more pressure on Abbas and his government to leave and allow the Palestinian people to choose their upcoming president, who might help to fix the current deteriorating political and social situation in the West Bank and Gaza.
Translation: “Palestinian crowds rally at the Saraya Square in Gaza to demand the resignation of Abbas.”
The protests were reportedly called for by Hamas and the Popular Movement for National Salvation, the party formed by Mohammed Dahlan, a powerful friend of UAE Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed of a Palestinian origin, former security chief of Palestine Preventive Security in Gaza and a dismissed member from Fatah.
Read More: The Elusive Mohammed Dahlan and a Possible Connection to Khashoggi
In response, counter-protests were sparked off in the West Bank city of Hebron, where thousands of people confirmed support of Abbas, the 83-year-old president whose term expired in 2009, but he was elected indefinitely by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the Executive Committee of the PA.
According to the PA-run news agency, Maan News Agency, protesters condemned the Gaza protests against the PA’s representation of the Palestinian people and Abbas as the elected president.
On Twitter as well, hashtag #اخترناك [We Chose You] was used to reaffirm support with Abbas and the PA.
It did not take both Hamas and the PA to start trading accusations of rallying protesters against each other.
Translation: “Regardless of all parties, we got bored. Leave, Abbas.”
An ongoing rift between Hamas and Fatah parties has begun in 2007 after Hamas violently seized control of Gaza. Since then, both parties who failed in protecting the rights of Palestinian people and prioritized the ruling of their strips instead. Reconciliation attempts and talks have failed many times.
