The Jerusalem Post can finally appease its readers by writing of an "intifada" that has broken out between Palestinian factions in Gaza. Monday morning a second Hamas vehicle was blown up by unidentified Fatah members. As someone in Jerusalem once told me, the Israelis have never had it better, the Palestinians are attacking and killing each other and for the most part are leaving Israel alone. As I have been trying to point out for the past many months the story goes much deeper than Palestinian "Extremist Muslims" hate and kill "Secular Nationalists" and vice versa.
Division has very often been the strategy to control a people, especially when the occupied population is bigger than the occupying power. One has to look past what the media is telling in its most common platforms in order to see that this is also the case in the Gaza Strip. In no way does this excuse either members of Fatah or Hamas of the actions they are perpetrating, but one always must look beneath the surface for the root of disease. Violence is no natural state of being.
This is the Jerusalem Post's superficial perspective of what takes place in Gaza, by using the Palestinians' own language of "intifada' they are demonizing their Palestinian neighbors and solidifying their place in the annals if history as a self-destructive people that are not to be trusted, who are naturally inclined to such inter-fighting.
"There are increasing indications that Fatah is trying to organize an intifada against Hamas, as Fatah members in the Gaza Strip try to snap out of what one commander termed a state of "depression" following their defeat at the hands of Hamas in June...
Fatah officials expressed deep satisfaction with the anti-Hamas demonstrations...
Hamas leaders said they did not rule out the possibility that Fatah members would resort to an "armed struggle" against the Islamist movement.
They added that there was growing evidence that Fatah was preparing for armed attacks on Hamas figures and institutions. They also noted that over the weekend Hamas militiamen discovered a weapons factory inside the house of a former Fatah security commander in the Strip."
Aljazeera provided this report of a Hamas cartoon that is communicating to Gaza's children this deepest of divides between the two factions. A division driven by external forces and kindled by conditions that bring us back to a mentality of survival of the fittest.
The DPA and local news sources reported the first Fatah violent attack of revenge on Hamas since the Hamas takeover June 14,
"An explosion in southern Gaza city on Saturday ripped through the car of a member of the Gaza Strip's ruling Hamas movement, which has been running the enclave since June, Hamas sources said.
The sources said the blast has completely destroyed the vehicle which was parked in front of the home of the owner, whom the sources did not identify.
The incident took place following a day of clashes between the Hamas police force and supporters of rival Fatah movement whom Hamas drove from power on June 14.
Fatah, led by President Mahmoud Abbas, started to hold weekly Friday prayers outside mosques, protesting Hamas incitement against them."
Few journalists are able to film the events that are taking place in Gaza without permission from Hamas; here are some images that were captured. Depicted is Hamas security members detaining Fatah members who on Friday gathered to worship in a downtown square in Gaza City because they do not feel welcome within Hamas-run mosques.
On August 27th, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights provided the following report of Hamas detentions of Fatah members.
According to investigations conducted by PCHR, on Saturday morning, 25 August 2007, the Executive Force arrested 15 residents of al-Daraj neighborhood in the east of Gaza City to interrogate them about their participation in the prayer conducted in the Unknown Soldier Yard in Gaza City on the preceding day, and the demonstration that followed. Fatah movement had called for doing the Friday Prayer in the Unknown Solider Yard, in protest to what it described as “the incitement and politicization of religious preaches at mosques.” According to a number of released detainees, they were beaten and humiliated during their detention at al-Saraya security compound. They were also forced to sign a document pledging not to participate in any activities organized by Fatah movement and not to give any information to the media, and if they break this pledge, they must pay 3,000 JD (approximately US$ 4,285).
In the same context, the Executive Force arrested 3 residents of the same neighborhood on Sunday morning, 26 August 2007. They were also beaten, humiliated and forced to sign the same pledge.
In his testimony to PCHR, one of the released detainees stated:
“At approximately 04:15 on Saturday, 25 August 2007, many members of the Executive Force broke into the yard of our house and arrested my brother who got out to check what was going on. They then ordered me and my other brothers to get out. As soon as I got out, they handcuffed, blindfolded and violently beat me. They placed me in a jeep and then transported me to al-Saraya compound. During our way to al-Saraya compound, they continued to beat me. I sustained fractures to my left hand and upper jaw. In al-Saraya security compound, they interrogated me about my participation in the Friday prayer and the demonstration that followed. During the interrogation, they beat and insulted me. They then forced me to sign a document pledging not to participate in demonstrations and activities organized by Fatah movement and not to talk to the media, and if I violate this pledge, I must pay 3,000 JD. They released me and my brothers at approximately 09:00 on the same day.”
In recent weeks the Jordanian Option has been floated in the media as a viable way forward in negotiations to resolve the current Palestinian statelessness. Haaretz ran the initial large piece explaining that Jordanian officials, supposedly with king Abdullah’s blessing, had been in Israel recently as well as Washington in order to float Jordan’s ideas of a confederation.
"According to the plans of the king's assistants, the Hashemite monarch - as the direct descendant of the prophet Mohammed - will serve as the president of the confederation, in addition to his position as the monarch of the Jordanian kingdom; and a federal government will be set up together with an elected parliament that will be composed of both Jordanian and Palestinian representatives.
The security forces will come under the control of the federal government, and this will supposedly allay the fears of Israel about the activities of independent Palestinian military forces. The condition for the establishment of the federation, Abdullah's aides say, is an Israeli-Palestinian agreement over the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. Only after that will the independent state be invited to join the proposed confederation."
An unrelated article on the Israeli secret service operated site Debkafiles concerning the release of 250 Fatah prisoners in a deal doctored by Israel in order to “boost” Abu Mazen’s support in the West Bank after the Hamas takeover in Gaza, mentions this account from July 15,
"According to our sources, Gen. Dayton has promised these apparently reformed 178 terrorists - not smart suits and ties, but advanced military hardware, armored vehicles and 4x4s equipped with state of the art communications gear for them to lord it over the West Bank.
Sunday night, July 15, there were reports that Israel was now being asked to give Palestinian security forces the freedom to range over the West Bank. In other words, the IDF is under pressure to abandon its highly-successful system of manned military roadblocks and checkpoints and counter-terror arrest raids, which reduced almost to zero the years of Palestinian suicide attacks in which Fatah played a leading part.
The elements are therefore in place for beginning to ease Israeli troops out of the West Bank and requiring them to hand over the responsibility for fighting terror to the Palestinians."
It is curious just how the pieces have been falling into place for such a plan to be carried out. The Haaretz article provides some historical background to the two solutions considered by Israel, the Palestinian Option and the Jordanian Option, in the past 20 years the latter seems to have hardly been taken into consideration, but is this really the case?
The Palestinian Option refers to a Palestinian state made up of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. By dividing these two entities the project fails. Recent events in Gaza saw democratically elected Hamas claiming its rights to govern by rejecting the plans of Western backed coup-plotters within Fatah and single handedly removing the party leadership from Gaza.
With Gaza’s Fatah leadership seeking refuge in the West Bank, this move made for the decisive division creating two de facto areas of governance, the Gaza Strip under Hamas and the West bank for Fatah. Unless the two governing entities, one elected by the people and not recognized by the world and the other self-imposed and recognized by the international community, can reconcile and find an agreement to share rule over the two areas the Palestinian Option goes up in smoke. Palestinian leaders are digging the graves of their national aspirations. Many international voices are calling for vital talks between the two parties, yet Israel is contently opposing any such action, they want to see that grave dug.
Prior to the events that led to the collapse of the Palestinian Option Israel ascertained two steps to address a demographic threat they face by the Palestinians. Step number one was Sharon’s “disengagement plan” from Gaza. This allowed for an alleged washing of hands on Israel’s part of any responsibility for the Gaza Strip, despite the fact that the state of Israel created the overpopulated enclave in 1948 and the foundation of its contemporary social ills. Step number two was Israel’s covert role in the Hamas takeover in Gaza. Israel acted as midwife to the US plan to strengthen Fatah security forces, which ought to have been under Hamas control, in order to oppose Hamas’ strength.
In an interview, recently elected Israeli president Shimon Peres refers to the London Agreement of 1987, in which secret negotiations were held to start a dialog between Israel, Jordan and a Palestinian delegation excluding the PLO.
“So let’s make a troika, an economic troika. Economics is about relations. Politics is about borders. We have to start with the relations. And here I worked out a plan, which is called the “Valley of Peace,” beginning at the Red Sea and winding up at the Syrian border. And all the three agree. And if there will be a new economy, there will be a new situation, including work for people of the West Bank. And by the way, we cannot postpone this because nature is impatient. We have to solve the problem of the Dead Sea. It may become a catastrophe. So it’s all of this combined. It’s a new world.”
The Agreement was negotiated by non other than Peres himself and today, 20 years later the situation is not all that different. Peres still considers himself at some sort of auction where he can bid for his favorite “partner for peace.” 20 years ago the PLO, the popular representative of the Palestinians was not to his liking and thus he held a secret meeting in order to hold talks without them. Today, Peres seeks to negotiate the regional troika with a new government brokered by Mahmoud Abbas, lead by 2.4% vote receiving Salam Fayyad. Shimon Peres can talk about a valley of peace, while Gaza goes the way of sheol, not unlike Gaza’s Hebrew phonetic resemblance “Aza’el”.
Peres has this ambiguous statement to make about Gaza,
“Let the Gazans do whatever they want. I don’t suggest that we go to Las Vegas for a divorce, or go to the rabbinate for a marriage. Let them do whatever they want.”
The bottom line is, Gaza is out of the plan, out of Israel’s (or is it the US’s?) vision for their proposed “valley” in the Middle East. Gaza will remain a zoo, with humanitarian aid going in and rare visitors granted Israeli permission to enter to discover the devastation within, Gazans in a cage, living off of donated staples without access to the world and no opportunities for self-improvement.
Israeli MK Arieh Eldad wrote in a recent article what many Israeli politicians seem to think but few dare to put into words, “Jordan is Palestine.” She writes off Peres and Netenyahu as naïve and believes the truth needs to be told. Israel desires no other state between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River. A Rabin quote, reveals her cards early on, "a Palestinian state will rise only on the ruins of Israel." This smokescreen myth, a fallacious either/or logic allows for an Israeli carte blanche in its political maneuverings. Many may consider Arieh extreme and yet is she not speaking the words that most Israelis are thinking, and confessing the idea that Israeli politicians have been acting out since the Israeli state came into existence? Has there ever been any actual implementation of facts-on-the-ground towards a two-sate solution?
The bottom line is this, no matter what comes from the horse’s mouth, history reveals Israel’s continued construction of one state between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean. One Jewish majority state, converse to Rabin’s statement, built on the destruction of a Palestinian state. If one looks a little closer at the recent events in Gaza, an invisible hand is distinguishable. Dahlan’s words come to mind made in an interview shortly after his men were exiled from Gaza in which he points out that Hamas fell for a “trap.” Dahlan may very well have been just a pawn, who was used and then brushed aside, but who knows, maybe just for the time being. If the international community and Israel squeeze the Gazans hard enough and long enough they might one day be ready to cheer the toppled warlord Dahlan back into power. Anything, to replace a Hamas leadership that may have been popularly elected and is able to provide security but economically cannot do more than hold open the door for international aid to pour in, as the world allows them to strangle on the noose of international boycott.
Ultimately, Israel seeks to rid itself of responsibility for the “Palestinian Problem.” Sharon’s genius in the disengagement from the Gaza Strip has not yet been fully recognized. The Haaretz article explains the original concept behind the Jordanian option,
“Instead of wrestling with the complex issue of implementing autonomy, the territory would be handed over to Jordan, and in this way Israel would be freed of the need to deal with the Palestinian problem.”
With the end of the disengagement, Ariel Sharon defiant of international law declared Gaza autonomous, clearing Israel’s responsibility over that territory and thereby delaying the demographic threat facing Israeli society. Although this is far from the reality on the ground as Israel continues to control most dimensions of Gaza’s daily life, the political reality was established. With the Jordanian Option Israel will be able to do the same for the West Bank by negotiating away its responsibility of finding a just solution for the blood of the past. One big question remains, without the Jordan River being reached will Israel be able to settle on a compromise between its political and religious ambitions in order to set its own final borders?
How long will the UN have to go on making statements of this kind and the world sits idly by?
"The Gaza Strip is in danger of a general economic collapse, unless Karni crossing, the main point of entry for commercial goods into the territory, is reopened soon."
The assistant deputy commissioner general of the UNRWA went on,
“Gaza risks becoming a virtually 100 percent aid-dependent, closed-down and isolated community within a matter of months or even weeks,” said Filippo Grandi. “The window of opportunity in which we can address this most urgent situation is small and fast closing.”
1.49 million Palestinians in Gaza. 100 percent aid-dependent. Is anyone reading this?
Filmmaker Olly Lambert's documentary "The Tea Boy of Gaza" hits the U.S. as "Gaza E.R." on PBS's Wide Angle. If the "Gaza" bit of the title does not grab viewer's attention, maybe "ER" will at least sound more familiar and exciting.
Those of you who have not seen this, it is very much worth 30 minutes of your time, so I am adding the link for a second time on Tabula Gaza.
Haaretz reports on arms transfer between Israel and the PA, "This is the largest arms transfer authorized in recent years, and it is meant to aid forces loyal to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in preventing the possibility of a Hamas challenge and possible takeover similar to that of the Gaza Strip.
The weapons were delivered to the PA security forces three weeks ago following Israeli authorization.
The transfer of the M-16s was kept under strict confidence on both sides, in an effort to prevent any possible leak that could undermine Abbas' standing."
"Israeli premier Ehud Olmert is currently studying Abbas's request to allow entry of armored vehicles, bullet-proof vests and other military equipment in addition to the Badr forces stationed in Jordan to boost his power against Hamas."
Tuesday night I attended a huge party in central Gaza. Somewhere around 1000 men and boys (women met elsewhere separately) gathered in a square in Deir Al-Balach to celebrate Hamza's wedding the following day. The party was a hardcore Fatah celebration and seemed to be almost overshadowed by the constant mention of the groom's political affiliation. The stage was covered in Fatah paraphernalia, most central a picture of a "martyred" friend.
In recent days Gaza has internally become more and more organized, laws are upheld. At the Deer Al-Balach party no gun was fired because Hamas has outlawed it, in the past a party this size would have witnessed an array of gunfire. Thankfully there was no sign of Hamas forces either. I have been told unconfirmed stories ofHamasbreaking up Fatah parties in Rafah. The newfound law and order has been enforced with the fist in Gaza. I appreciate the fact that such a party can go on without a Hamas crackdown, and yet lately there have been reports of an increase lacking of freedom of expression and breaking of human rights. With one party in power and no real opposition there are few checks and balances to what Hamas can and cannot do. The Palestinian Center for Human Rights in Gaza had this report,
Detention and Torture of a Police Officer
On Sunday evening, 15 July 2007, the Executive Force arrested Isma’il ‘Ezzat Sha’ban, 32, a police officer from Jabalya town. Sha’ban was detained until Monday morning. During his detention and interrogation, he was beaten and tortured. As a result, he was injured to the head. PCHR has photographs showing signs of torture on his head, back and left hand. Sha’ban stated to PCHR that at approximately 17:30 on Sunday, 15 July 2007, a number of members of the Executive Force came to his house and demanded him to accompany them to an outpost of the Force. They agreed to allow him to change his clothes and then follow them to their outpost. He actually went to the outpost. There, he was violently beaten throughout his body and was verbally insulted by members of the Executive Force. He was then transferred to the headquarters of the Executive Force in Jabalya refugee camp. There, he was violently beaten again. Members of the Executive Force asked him about the reasons of his absence from his work, and he told them that he would not attend his work and that “his legitimate command is in Ramallah”, in reference to an order issued by the chief of police to all police officers to abstain from attending their jobs in the Gaza Strip following Hamas’ takeover. At approximately 01:00 on Monday, Sha’ban was blindfolded and a person stitched his injury in the head without anesthesia. His request to be seen by a doctor or transferred to a hospital was refused. He was then transported in a jeep and was dumped nearly 100 meters away. In the morning, he went to a hospital in Beit Lahia to receive medical treatment.
One cannot forget that in the very building that these men are being tortured in, the perpetrators may well have been tortured themselves by those who today are the victims. Under no circumstances does this justify their actions today. The tables of injustice have turned. Nothing is black and white.
On Monday the Arab League, imprisoned Fatah Tanzim leader Marwan AlBarghouthi, Hamas hardliner Dr Mahmoud A-Zahar and Hamas' political bureau chief Khaled Misha'l all called for dialogue between the two factions. This came after Micha'l admitted to mistakes undertaken by Hamas during their military takeover of the Gaza Strip a month ago. Yet, the actions taken by the two groups in the past days seem ever further from these spoken words.
Monday Hamas replaced the Fatah city countil of Rafah, promising to do the same in other Fatah lead cities across the Gaza Strip. Abbas' new caretakever government promptly rejected any contact with the new council. Meanwhile in the West Bank Mahmoud Abbas recently blamed Hamas for allowing Alqaeda to take root in Gaza while backing Israel in calling for the opening of the Israeli-run Karm Abu Salim border crossing which would successfully seal the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza and completely sever Hamas contact with the outside world. Dialog does not seem to be on the horizon.
During his first appearance in Haifa after 35 years of exile Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish declared sarcastically, "We became independent, Gaza became independent of the West Bank... for one people, two countries, two prisons." The poet labeled the infighting a "public attempt at suicide."
For his part George Bush called for a new peace conference which he says will be "a moment of choice" for Palestinians to choose between Islamist Hamas and Abbas' moderate leadership. Hamas spokesman Ismail Rodwan responded saying, "such a summit will lead to increased pressure on Abbas, and will tear a deeper rift between Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank."
