GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — During a press conference concurrently held Dec. 23 in Gaza City and Ramallah, five left-wing Palestinian factions announced the formation of an alliance called the Palestinian Democratic Group, following consultations that had been ongoing since August 2016.
The group is to serve as a Palestinian political body capable of putting an end to both the Palestinian division and the political dominance of the two main political movements, Hamas and Fatah. It consists of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), the Palestinian People's Party (PPP), the Palestinian Democratic Party and the Palestinian National Initiative (PNI) among other independent community figures such as Mamdouh al-Akr and Omar Assaf.
Mariam Abu Daqqa, a member of the PFLP political bureau, told Al-Monitor that the alliance was announced at this specific time due to the declining international interest in the Palestinian cause amid the anti-Palestinian Israeli and US policies. It also came as a result of the internal Palestinian division between Fatah and Hamas.
She said that finding a third Palestinian force besides the Fatah and Hamas movements aims to promote the Palestinian cause and break the monopoly of both movements over the Palestinian political arena.
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