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Palestine: Not yet a civil war
With each passing day, there are increased signs that the general elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council - the parliament of the Palestinian Authority - will not be held on schedule. The election was set for the end of January, three and a half months from now, and the Palestinian government is currently in great tumult. If the election is put off yet again (the latest postponement was this past July), the current council, elected nearly 10 years ago, will continue to serve. It fails to reflect the considerable political changes that have taken place since then. This means the functioning of the Palestinian Authority will continue to deteriorate, and there will be fewer chances to renew the diplomatic process. The alternative of holding the elections on schedule is liable to be no less terrible, because Hamas has a good chance of emerging victorious. What's to be done?
The Palestinian political discourse has in recent days become especially violent. It is not yet a civil war, but the two sides - the Palestinian Authority (and the governing party, the Fatah movement) and, opposite it, Hamas - have stepped up their interfactional conflict, both in words and in deeds. In spite of their declarations that the violence between them has been halted, it may be assumed that the violent incidents will continue. They reached a peak in Gaza last weekend when Hamas operatives kidnapped the high-ranking officer Sami Ajur, deputy commander of the general intelligence service, shot him in the legs and threw him into the street. In response, general intelligence members (who masqueraded as an organization called "The Farouk Omar Ibn al-Khattab Brigades") in the West Bank kidnapped Dr. Riad Abdel Karim al-Raz, head of the engineering department at A-Najah University. They fired their way into his home in Tul Karm and forced him to go with them. Using the same method, and on the same day, Hassan al-Saffi, a member of the Bethlehem city council, and clergyman Abdel-Nasser Abu-Hamis of Jenin, were also kidnapped. An attempt was made to kidnap a Hebron resident as well. All four are known to be Hamas activists, and the kidnappers held the three men for several hours before releasing them. In a press release, the kidnappers reported that this was a warning to the Hamas movement that its members were doing harm to the rule of law and causing damage to the Palestinian national interest.
These kidnappings followed exchanges of gunfire last week between Hamas and Palestinian policemen in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza, in which three policemen were killed. The Follow-Up Committee of Palestinian National and Islamic Factions, which investigated the exchanges of gunfire in Gaza, blames Hamas, and in response the movement's spokesmen announced that they reject the results of the investigation and threatened to withdraw from the follow-up committee. Leaders of the two sides are now using sharp words like "irresponsible" and "degenerate," and each side is accusing the other of serving Israeli interests.
Read More
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/633541.html
These kidnappings followed exchanges of gunfire last week between Hamas and Palestinian policemen in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza, in which three policemen were killed. The Follow-Up Committee of Palestinian National and Islamic Factions, which investigated the exchanges of gunfire in Gaza, blames Hamas, and in response the movement's spokesmen announced that they reject the results of the investigation and threatened to withdraw from the follow-up committee. Leaders of the two sides are now using sharp words like "irresponsible" and "degenerate," and each side is accusing the other of serving Israeli interests.
Read More
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/633541.html
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"The Islamic Resistance Movement believes that the land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf consecrated for future Moslem generations until Judgement Day. It, or any part of it, should not be squandered: it, or any part of it, should not be given up. "
"There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors."
"After Palestine, the Zionists aspire to expand from the Nile to the Euphrates. When they will have digested the region they overtook, they will aspire to further expansion, and so on. Their plan is embodied in the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion", and their present conduct is the best proof of what we are saying."
Mahmoud A-Zahhar, the leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, said last week in an interview:
Q: If Israel withdraws from all the areas occupied after 1967, will this be the end of the resistance?
A-Z: First of all we already agreed with the Palestinian factions on this plan. On the basis of this plan we can establish a state, after which we would engage in a long hudna (calm agreement), which would last for years.
Q: What is the final goal of Hamas?
A-Z: If you ask any Palestinian or Muslim, wherever he lives - in America or in Britain or in Indonesia - he would tell you that according to the religious point of view, this land is part of the Arab and Muslim nations. This means that there is no other option but to reunify this land once again.
Q: What is 'this land' that you are talking about? Are you talking about the whole of Israel?
A-Z: First of all this Palestinian land, and all the Arabic nation, is all part of the same area. In the past, there was no independent Palestinian state; there was no independent Jordanian state; and so on. There were regions called Iraq or Egypt, but they were all part of one country....Our main goal is to establish a great Islamic state, be it pan-Arabic or pan-Islamic.
The following are excerpts from an interview with Yasser Arafat`s political advisor, Mamdouh Noufal which was aired on Al-Jazeera TV on September 28, 2005:
I think that (Arafat) planned an armed Intifada. He nurtured its militarization right from the start, because he thought that through militarization he could pressure Barak and later Sharon and force them to make concessions. He thought that there might be international intervention like in the Battle of the Tunnel, in the days of Netanyahu.
http://www.memritv.org/Transcript.asp?P1=877
The Beddawi Palestinian refugee camp in Tripoli, Lebanon, 80 km north of Beirut, has seen 150 Lebanese families move into its crowded confines in recent years and more are still coming, said Khalil al-Jindawi, an official of the Fatah movement which helps to run the camp. Housing is cheaper there. They can also piggy-back off free education, healthcare, and drinking water provided by the UN for the camps' residents. Clandestinely connected electricity wires give them free power and lighting, and local pharmacies sell cheap black market medicine. (Reuters)
Anyone see the KQED Special on the Middle East two days ago?
They talked about "refugee camps", yet showed photos of cities- 5 story apartment buildings, stores, business districts. Seems like the media is using a certain language to evoke a certain mood- calling Ramalllah a "refugee camp" rather than a city provides immediate sympathy for the cause. Another example of media manipulation.