ABSTRACT
Fatah’s hostile reactions to Hamas’s electoral victory means that any agreement reached between Hamas and Fatah is more than just an arrangement to share power. Any agreement would be a symbol of political and ideological reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah, because it would legitimise Hamas’s election victory, regulate and formalise the limited transfer of institutional power from Fatah to Hamas, and recognise Hamas’s right to participate in governing the OPT. Therefore, this chapter investigates the extent and effect of the efforts to negotiate power-sharing agreements between Hamas and Fatah. It begins by providing a theoretical framework within which to understand the machinations concerning these types of agreements, before proceeding to analyse the 2007, 2011, and 2014 unity government agreements entered into by Hamas and Fatah. In doing so, it aims to highlight, and account for, the oscillating centripetal and centrifugal forces that shape the scope, limits, and causation of shifts in Hamas’s political behaviour concerning power-sharing.
