Crisis in Palestine The rise of Hamas over the past two decades is rooted in disillusion with the corruption and compromise of the Fatah leadership of the Palestinian movement. This has grown since the Olso 'peace process' of the 1990s, with the beefing up of settlements, the separation wall, military incursions and mass detentions. Piers Mostyn looks at recent events in Palestine. 1200 6
n January 2006 Hamas won elections to the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC). Increasing its share of the vote from 20% to 43%, Hamas took 60% of the seats. The election was pronounced fair by international monitors. But the US, motivated by strategic concerns arising from the Iraqi quagmire and a renewed targeting of 'Iranian influence', refused to accept the outcome. In a co-ordinated Israeli-US- EU response, an international blockade was imposed on the Occupied Territories of Palestine. There was a refusal to recognise the new Hamas-led government and Israel withheld hundreds of millions of pounds of Palestinian tax revenues. From the start Hamas called for a broad unity government. But under pressure from Bush, who threatened Abbas with political isolation, Fatah wouldn't agree. Hamas also indicated that it was willing to de facto recognise Israel's existence and offered a ten year truce if it moved back to pre-1967 borders. But in June Israel engaged in a five-month military assault on Gaza killing hundreds, injuring thousands and wrecking transport, medical, water and power facilities. A humanitarian crisis ensued with aid agencies warning that the majority of Gaza's 1.4 million inhabitants were at serious risk of malnutrition and disease. Through all this Britain remained a loyal exponent of the ongoing blockade. And the government turned a blind eye to the Israeli bombardment along with the quiet nod to its murderous war on Lebanon. The Israeli assault had barely finished when a different threat to the newly elected Palestinian Administration blew up. Palestinian 'security forces' under Fatah control - in particular Mohammed Dahlan's Gaza-based 'Preventative Security Forces' - had refused to co-operate with the PA interior ministry once Fatah lost power after the election. In November the US State Department organised tens of millions of dollars of military aid to Dahlan. And in December Blair visited Abbas in Ramallah with a follow up promise of £13 million to beef up his 'security forces'. Both continued to treat Fatah as if it had won the election rather than lost it - funding, arming and directly encouraging agents within it to reverse the outcome by force. They got what they wanted when factional divisions erupted into violence, leaving over a hundred dead. Saudi-sponsored agreement In February 2007 a Saudi-sponsored agreement in Mecca, for a unity government between Hamas and Fatah, stopped the fighting. Bush opposed this because it left Hamas in power. According to US government documents that then began circulating, at subsequent meetings with US and Israeli government officials, Abbas was told to scrap the deal. The US planned a further $1.27 billion military aid programme that would add seven battalions to the 15,000 Abbas already had under his control. Once again Dahlan was the main vehicle for organising it.' As Michel Warshawski has pointed out, the US appeared to have an 'Algerian solution' in mind.2 In 1991 the FIS, an Islamic party, won elections in Algeria and were about to form a government. Backed by France and other Western powers, the Algerian military seized power and followed this by years of fomenting a brutal civil war. Over 150,000 died. Finding out about the plot to bring down the unity government, in June Hamas took successful pre-emptive military action against Dahlan's militia. Although fairly bloody, this was a short-lived affair because Sixty-eight thousand have lost work as a result, contributing to 85% private sector unemployment: 825,000 refugees are completely dependent on UN emergency aid Hamas had mass support and Dahlan was widely discredited. Blair, Bush and Olmert orchestrated an international outcry against the Hamas 'coup'. The western media took up the theme of a Palestinian 'civil war. But this was a coup plot against the elected Palestinian Administration - organised, armed and financed by the imperialist states - that had been derailed. Less publicly-visible was the role of the reactionary western-aligned Arab states. Egypt delivered the arms to Dahlan (with Israeli assistance, as it controls the borders). And Jordan and Egypt were quick to lend support to Abbas in a summit with him and Israel at Sharm El-Sheik on the 25th June. At first this may seem difficult to reconcile with Saudi involvement in the Mecca agreement. But a likely scenario is what Alastair Crooke, a former Palestine-based M16 officer and now advisor to EU foreign policy boss Javier Solana, has described as a planned 'soft coup d'etat' in which Abbas would have dismissed the Hamas government in August.3 Hamas has since renewed calls to resume dialogue and for a new unity government. Abu Obieda, leader of its Izzidine Qassam Brigades, has said, 'The Fatah men we fought are not my enemy... the decisions they had to follow came from outside Gaza: from Ramallah, from the Israelis, from America ... I am not proud to have defeated and killed the men of Fatah. This is a shame on all Palestinians because we love each other' 4 Nonetheless there have been credible reports of Hamas repression n Gaza. For example, Fatah MP Ashraf Jum'a was detained leading to a protest demonstration which was attacked by the Hamas 'Executive Force' resulting in at least one detainee being allegedly tortured." It is yet to be seen whether Hamas is able to nourish democratic pluralism, even if it wants to. Prior to these events Gaza was already one of the densest and poorest communities on earth. Israel has now sealed all borders. Sixty-eight thousand have lost work as a result, contributing to 85% private sector unemployment: 825,000 refugees are completely dependent on UN emergency aid. ® The West Bank Meanwhile in the West Bank Abbas declared a 'state of emergency', replacing Hamas PM Ismail Haniyeh and his national unity government with former INF and World Bank official Salam Fayyad and an 'emergency cabinet' of western backed technocrats. Mirroring Washington's tactics in foisting unpopular stooges on the Iraqi population, Fayyad's party secured only 2% in the 2006 election. Abbas's actions are unconstitutional. He can sack the Prime Minister but any new government has to be confirmed by the PLC. In an emergency Abbas can rule by decree but the PLC has to approve all these decrees. He cannot suspend the PLC and has no power to call early elections. The basic law has no provision whatsoever for an 'emergency government'.' In an attempt to circumvent a thirty day limitation on any 'state of emergency' Fayyad 'resigned' on 13th July only to be immediately sworn back. But this too was unconstitutional as any extension requires approval from two-thirds of the PLC. Meanwhile, Fatah has boycotted two scheduled PLC meetings and Hamas has refused to attend a session called by Abbas. 1. Jonathan Steele, The Guardian, 22/6/07 www.alternativenews.org 18/6/07 2. London Review of Books, 5/7/07 3. The Observer, 24/6/07 5. www.pchrgaza.org 24/7/07 6. The Guardian, 19/7/07, www.btselem.org 26/7/07
In this light, reported comments by Abbas aide Nabil Amr, that it was likely that the Fayyad government's term would be extended indefinitely despite 'legal reservations', need to be taken seriously.* In short, the Abbas government appears to be an illegal dictatorship arising from an attempted coup financed and organised from Washington. Ali Abunimah. co-founder of the Electronic Intifada. describes it as a, 'quisling' government like the collaborationist Vichy regime in France during the Second World War.' Anis al Qasem, one of the Palestinian lawyers who drafted the Basic Law of Palestine has accused Abbas of. 'destroying the foundation on which the Basic Law is laid'.": A!l this is in the context of over half of -amas MPs (as many as 50, over a third of ; he PLC) being detained by Israel forces without charge. In addition Fatah has been imprisoning Hamas activists, leaders and MPs in the West Bank and ransacking their offices. The pretext is to prevent a Hamas 'take-over'. But Abbas also summoned 800 preachers and Imams from across the West Bank to a meeting, to warn them against 'incitement' - perhaps indicating that his main fear isn't so much 'terrorism' as mass political opposition." The US, Britain and Israel have rushed to prop up the 'emergency government'. Bush announced $190m of new aid, in addition to $86m requested from congress to provide security for Abbas. And he announced an autumn "peace conference' which, it was said, would address all the outstanding issues in the conflict. But within a day Israel made clear it would not discuss the core issues of borders, refugees and Jerusalem and White House spin doctors started downplaying expectations. Blair - Washington's enforcer Tony Blair - fresh from a resignation fuelled by plummeting public support over his role in bringing carnage to the Middle East - has been forced on the people of the region as an 'envoy' of the UN/US/EU/Russia Quartet by Bush. He claims to be striving to, 'build government institutions and the rule of law, promote the economy and halt violence between Fatah and Hamas'. But the British government has been working for the polar opposite of all these and Blair is extremely unpopular among Palestinians. He will be Washington's enforcer, replete with guns and money, buying time and giving the Meanwhile Israel, in a bid to shore up Abbas's crumbling credibility, has lifted the blockade on the West Bank and agreed to release the stolen tax revenues. But so far only one sixth of the money ($120m) owed has been transferred. The rest will take six months in a test of Abbas's compliance. The cash will halt and the boycott restart the moment Abbas renews contact with Hamas. Hamas has accurately described this as, 'financial bribery (and) political blackmail'. Israel rounds up Hamas supporters Israel has also been rounding up an average of 15-20 Hamas supporters a day, often in apparent collusion with Fatah forces who target the same individuals. " And dozens have been killed in regular Israeli raids on Gaza. Israel has additionally released 255 Fatah prisoners and granted an 'amnesty' to 180 members of the Fatah-affiliated Al Aqsa brigades. But here there are also strings - they have to hand in their arms and renounce resistance to Israel. Smaller militant organisations, including the left wing PFLP have denounced this. In any event 10,000 detainees are still held without charge with a new daily tally. Hardly surprisingly there are reports of serious rifts within Fatah. An opposition group including Al-Aqsa Brigades leaders and the prisoner Marwan Al-Barghouti secured the 'resignation' of Dahlan and another Fatah security chief and others in late July. But it is far from clear that they have any broader agenda. " More credibly, the PFLP and the Palestinian National Initiative have launched the Joint Initiative for National Salvation. It denounces both sides for excesses and calls for dialogue, the setting up of an interim decision making body within the PLO, that should 8 ТУП HI D include, 'all Palestinian political forces without exceptions', the dissolution of both the 'emergency government' and the de facto Gaza government and the formation of a transitional administration based on reconciliation and consensus between all parties. " Some elements of this are positive. But the approach is abstract, failing to provide a critique of the powerplay driving these developments, wrongly stating that, 'the military takeover of the Gaza Strip by Hamas has thrown the Palestinian situation into danger and has diverted energy and attention away from the national struggle.' Hamas calls for unity Hamas has made exemplary statements in favour of unity. But it would be premature to hail its 'victory' in Gaza, given the very negative accompanying developments. A secularist, non-communal leadership - which Hamas, as the self-defined 'Islamic resistance', cannot deliver - is a prerequisite to unity, let alone any progress towards the necessary strategic goal of a unitary democratic and secular state. But equally those who argue that 'secularism' alone is sufficient will be woefully led astray. The Abbas-appointed cabinet, deeply ensconced in Bush's trouser pocket, is as secular as they come. Recent