The Prisoners' Document, officially the National Conciliation Document of the Prisoners was written in May 2006 by Palestinian prisoners, who were being held in an Israeli jail. The five prisoners who took part in writing the Document were respectively affiliated with Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP).
The Document called for Palestinians to have an "independent state, with al-Quds al-Shareef (east Jerusalem) as its capital, on all territories occupied in 1967". Hamas accepted this document, and thus the idea of a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders. The document also upheld the Palestinian right of return, based on the UN Charter and international law, called for a reform of the PLO to enhance its representation through the participation of all forces and factions, and for the election of a new Palestinian National Council before the end of 2006.
President Mahmoud Abbas presented an ultimatum to Hamas to endorse the Document, which some (like the BBC) consider to "implicitly recognize Israel ... or at least [imply] acceptance of Israel if it withdraws to its 1967 borders", such recognition of "Israel's right to exist in peace and security" being one of the key demands of the road map for peace. He threatened to call a national referendum on the Prisoner's Document if Hamas would refuse. Abbas issued the referendum after Hamas had rejected his demands. A revised "National Conciliation Document" was negotiated and signed by all factions in June 2006 without being made essential changes to the text. The referendum did not take place.
Israel denounced the Prisoners' Document, stating that it did not meet the requirements of the Roadmap, most notably that it did not explicitly recognize Israel. Israel also took issue with the document's insistence on the right of return and the right to resist the occupation ″by various means″.
Background
The Prisoners' Document was written by leaders of the most important Palestinian factions imprisoned in Israel. Prisoners of Israel have a high status within the Palestinian society. The Document was written in the context of a looming Palestinian civil war, amidst increasing factional fighting following Hamas' electoral victory and its entry into Parliament and Government.
In the meantime, Israel's recently elected Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was seriously preparing his own "Convergence Plan", which envisioned a withdrawal of the occupation forces from some 90% of the West Bank, while annexing substantial parts including the large and expanded settlement blocs and East Jerusalem, with preservation of Israeli military control over the border zone at the Jordan River.
After all, the civil war the prisoners wanted to prevent broke out a year later in the Fatah–Hamas conflict.
Power struggle in Gaza
Tensions between Fatah and Hamas had been rising since Hamas won the Palestinian elections in January 2006.A vote for Palestinian unity. John K. Cooley, Christian Science Monitor, 7 June 2006 Both parties mobilized armed militias and frequent violent confrontations took place.Monthly media monitoring review, May 2006, day 3, 4, 10-11, 17-20, 25, 31. UN Division for Palestinian RightsMonthly media monitoring review, June 2006, day 24-30 (capture); 4, 6-8, 12, 14, 19-20 (Fatah-Hamas). UN Division for Palestinian RightsAbbas to call for referendum on statehood, see last section. Joel Greenberg, Chicago Tribune, 6 June 2006
Right after the formation of the Hamas-led PNA Government on 29 March 2006, President Abbas started the building of a third security force under his own control to counter the various Hamas and Fatah militias. Around March/April 2006, Abbas, backed by the US, dispatched a unit of 150 members of his Presidential Guard to take over the control of the Rafah Border Crossing in southern Gaza. End May 2006, he aimed, with the support of US representative General Keith Dayton, to expand the Guard to 10,000 men in order to create an independent security force in Gaza under his full control as a counter to the various militias under Hamas and Fatah control. Also in May, a Fatah security official in the London Sunday Times accused Hamas of plotting to remove Abbas from power and told Palestinian security forces loyal to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas were planning an anti-Hamas push. He predicted that "Civil war is inevitable".
In May 2006, indeed civil war-like armed clashes emerged. It was in this period that the Prisoners presented their paper.
Origin and naming
The Prisoners' Document was signed by five leaders of different Palestinian factions, imprisoned at the Hadarim prison, near Tel Aviv in Israel.Poll: 77 percent of Palestinians support the prisoners' document. Avi Issacharoff, Haaretz, 7 June 2006 There are two subsequent versions, the first one signed on 10 MayMonthly media monitoring review, May 2006, day 10, 23, 25, 27, 29, 31. UN Division for Palestinian Rights and the revised one on 27 June 2006.Monthly media monitoring review, June 2006, day 6, 27. UN Division for Palestinian RightsSecond version 'Prisoners' Document', titled "National Conciliation Document". 27 June 2006
The signatories of the original version were:First version Prisoners' Document, 10 May 2006 Marwan Barghouthi, Fatah Secretary General and PLC member Abdel khaleq al-Natsh (Shaikh Abd-al-Khaliq Natshe), Hamas senior leader Abdel raheem Malluh (Abd-al-Rahim Malluh), Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) Deputy Secretary General and member of the PLO Executive Committee Bassam al-Saadi (Shaikh Bassam Saadi), Islamic Jihad (PIJ) leader Mustafa Badarneh (Mustafa Badarna), Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) leader
As mentioned in the document itself (second paragraph), its describing name is "the National Conciliation Document". The document is usually referred to as "The National Conciliation Document of the Prisoners" or shortly "The Prisoners' Document".Letter dated 7 July 2006 from the Permanent Observer of Palestine to the United Nations. United Nations, A/ES-10/345 d.d. 10 July 2006 The last two names refer to the prisoners who wrote and signed the document.
According to the PLC secretary-general Mahmoud Ramahi, the Document was drafted only in one prison by 20 percent of all the inmates in Israeli jails and did not represent the views of all the Hamas prisoners.Hamas dismisses referendum ′threat′. Khaled Abu Toameh, Jerusalem Post, 28 May 2006
After Abbas had announced a referendum over the Prisoners‘ Document, the prisoner representatives of Hamas and Islamic Jihad retracted their support to protest.Hamas-led PA Parliament Defers Decision on Abbas' Referendum. Avi Issacharof, Associated Press, 1 June 2006 The factions then negotiated over the Document and on 27 June 2006, a revised version was signed. The most radical faction, Islamic Jihad, expressed reservations on the clause pertaining to the negotiations.
The Prisoners' Document
The first version of the Prisoners' Document was written when the first Hamas-led PA Government, a government boycotted by Fatah, had been in power for 6 weeks and tensions between Fatah and Hamas were very high under pressure of international sanctions. The Document consists of 18 points. It calls for conciliation between the Palestinian factions, and development and reactivation of the PLO, based on the Cairo Declaration of March 2005. The Cairo Declaration sought reinforcement of the status of the PLO as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people through the participation of all forces and factions to it according to democratic principles.Text of the 2005 Cairo Declaration, 19 March 2005. Palestine Media Center It implied a reform of the PLO,PFLP and DFLP urge Abbas to preserve the Cairo declaration, honour the call for PLO reform . Maan News Agency, 20 July 2007 which would mean the inclusion of Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
The Prisoners' Document recalls the struggle to liberate their land.
Point 1 of the first version reads: ″The Palestinian people in the homeland and in the Diaspora seek to liberate their land and to achieve their right in freedom, return and independence and to exercise their right in self-determination, including the right to establish their independent state with al-Quds al-Shareef as its capital on all territories occupied in 1967 and to secure the right of return for Palestinian refugees and to liberate all prisoners and detainees based on the historical right of our people on the land of the fathers and grandfathers and based on the UN Charter and the international law and international legitimacy.″
Point 2 recalls the 2005 Cairo Declaration about reform and reinforcement of the PLO as representative of "the Palestinian people wherever they are located". In order to achieve "development and activation of the PLO", Hamas and Islamic Jihad are explicitly mentioned to join the PLO. Point 2 also calls for a new Palestinian National Council through elections before the end of 2006 to represent "all Palestinian national and Islamic forces, factions and parties and all concentrations of our people everywhere".
Point 3 states "the right of the Palestinian people in resistance and clinging to the option of resistance with the various means and focusing the resistance in the occupied territories of 1967 along with the political action and negotiations and diplomatic action and continuation of popular and mass resistance against the occupation in its various forms and policies...".
Point 5 declares the Palestinian Authority ″the nucleus of the future state″ and stresses on respecting the laws and the responsibilities and authorities of the president and the government.
Point 6 calls for "a national unity government on a basis that secures the participation of all parliament blocs, especially Fatah and Hamas ...".
Point 7 recognizes negotiations adhering to national goals as mentioned in the document, and falling within the jurisdiction of the PLO and the President of the Palestinian Authority. Any agreement needs ratification by the newly elected National Council, or subjected to a general referendum to be held in the homeland and the Diaspora.
Point 8 calls the liberation of the prisoners and detainees a sacred national duty.
Point 9 demands the implementation of UN Resolution 194.
Point 16 calls for a restructure of the security system, and organize its tasks towards both defending the homeland and confronting the aggression and the occupation and to maintain law and order within the Palestinian society. Weapons that harm the resistance and distort its image should be confiscated.
Abbas' call for a referendum
On 11 May 2006, the Prisoners' Document was presented to the executive committee of the PLO. President Mahmoud Abbas immediately endorsed the document.Palestinian prisoners urge unity. BBC, 11 May 2006
On 25 May, the Document was discussed at a ″Palestinian National Dialogue Conference″, which was held by live video between Ramallah and the parliament building in Gaza City, because Hamas representatives based in Gaza were prohibited by Israel from traveling to the West Bank. At the Conference, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who had committed himself to the Road map for peace, tried to press Hamas to endorse within 10 days the Prisoners' Document with its implicit recognition of Israel by calling for the establishment of a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders with al-Quds al-Shareef (East Jerusalem) as its capital. Otherwise, Abbas would in 40 days call a national referendum on the Prisoners' Document.Abbas risks all with vote strategy. Roger Hardy, BBC, 8 June 2006Abbas Calls for a Referendum on Statehood. Laura King, Los Angeles Times, 26 May 2006