Fatah–Hamas reconciliation process December 2012, in the aftermath of the UN status upgrade of the State of Palestine and the conflict in Gaza, calls for a unified Palestinian front have increased and the political leaders of Hamas and Fatah took several steps to reconcile their differences. In a televised address, PA President Mahmoud Abbas stressed that talks with Hamas would immediately follow the Palestinians' bid to upgrade their status at the UN General Assembly—an effort that succeeded. On 13 December, Fatah allowed Hamas to hold its first rally in the West bank since 2007, and on 4 January 2013, Hamas reciprocated by allowing
Tarek Fatah from Mumbai to Karachi following the Partition of India in 1947. He was a leftist student leader in the 1960s and 1970s. Although he graduated with a degree in biochemistry from the University of Karachi, Fatah entered journalism as a reporter for the "Karachi Sun" in 1970, and was an investigative journalist for Pakistan Television. He was imprisoned twice by military regimes. In 1977, he was charged with sedition by the General Zia-ul Haq regime and barred from journalism in Pakistan. He left Pakistan and settled in Saudi Arabia, before emigrating to Canada in 1987. Of himself, Fatah asserts: On