AMMAN: A popular movement to unite Palestinians “using creative ideas” was launched on July 27 in Gaza with the hope that it would lift the blockade on the strip.

The team behind Qadreen (“We Are Able To”) said they were following the vision of former Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, who is a visiting professor at Princeton University. He told Arab News he was “very happy” that people had responded positively to his recent articles in the media calling for unity, rebuilding and convergence.

At the launch a group of men and women stood in front of a large backdrop that read: “Popular movement for unity and restoring hope.”  

Ismael Hussein, from Qadreen, said there was an urgent need for unity. “We need for this unity to take place immediately, not with lip service or a public activity, but it must be applied on the ground and end forever this unacceptable split,” he told Arab News, referring to deep divisions between Hamas and Fatah. Hussein, quoting Fayyad, said: “If our rights are stolen our will is not lost.” 

Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip by force from the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority in 2007, with the takeover leaving Palestinians divided between two governments. Hamas controls Gaza and the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority governs autonomous areas of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The two sides remain bitter enemies. An Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip has devastated life in the territory.

Qadreen called for a “serious effective” partnership decision to bring an end to the chronic problems facing Palestinians. “This can be done quickly through the PLO as the unifying house for all Palestinians irrespective of where they are.”

Palestinian unity could “not only succeed in lifting the siege on Gaza but can lift the Palestinian peoples’ ability to be steadfast and to face the dangers facing our national rights,” it said.

Fayyad’s articles, which were published in the Arabic daily Asharq Al-Awsat and Time magazine, called on the Palestinian leadership to “absolve itself” of its earlier declarations and said that Palestinians “should spare no effort to begin the process of reunifying our polity and rebuilding and strengthening our institutions — an especially demanding undertaking after 13 years of fracture and separation.” 

He wrote: “We need an agenda that empowers us to become the masters of our own destiny. Once we converge on a policy statement built on the options above, we can begin piecing together that agenda.”