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Israeli authorities agreed to begin easing the economic siege of Gaza as
part of a truce with Hamas that went into effect on June 19. However,
so far there has been very little loosening of the squeeze, although at
least the Israeli military assassinations have stopped.
The pretext given by the Zionist government for maintaining the
economic siege is that Hamas has been unable to stop the firing of
Qassam homemade rockets into Israel by other resistance groups, such as
Islamic Jihad.
The Hamas leaders have said that they are putting pressure on the other
groups to stop their provocative actions but that they will not use
force against resistance groups. Obviously, Hamas would risk
discrediting itself in Palestinian opinion if it tried to function as a
proxy police force for Israel, as in fact the defeated Fatah faction in
Gaza did. That, among other things, led to Fatah’s downfall.
However, the actions of the smaller groups have been putting Hamas in a
dilemma. It is responsible for the Gaza Strip, and is thus the main
recipient of Israeli pressure. The actions of the smaller groups make
it difficult for Hamas to make any deal with Israel to lessen the
pressure on the people of Gaza.
In fact, the bitterness of Palestinians against the ruthless oppression
of the Zionist forces is hardly controllable by any organization. A
recent example was the outburst of rage by a Palestinian building
worker in Jerusalem on July 3. A young man, apparently unconnected to
any group, drove a bulldozer into traffic on one of the main streets of
Jerusalem, killing three people and injuring dozens.
A video available on internet to the entire world showed him being shot
execution style by an off-duty Israeli policeman. The video originally
posted on the Haaretz website showed a smiling young man in shorts jump
on the fender of the cab of the bulldozer, which had already stopped,
reach into the cab, and fire several shots point blank into the head of
the driver, who had been wounded by an off-duty Israeli soldier. (The
close-up was later replaced by a more distant view that obscured the
act.)
A mob incited the murder. The British Guardian reported, July 3, citing
an eye-witness, Jossi Levi: "He saw a policeman appear to
overpower the driver and bring the bulldozer to a halt. 'The policeman
said he had the driver under control, but I told the policeman: 'Shoot
him. Shoot him.' Many people were screaming next to me: 'Shoot him.'
The policeman had his handgun out, but he didn't shoot.'" The
"anti-terror" policeman, Eli Mizrahi, however, then did the
deed.
Although the young Palestinian who carried out the attack had no
previous record of involvement with resistance groups, and therefore
his family had no reason to suspect that he would do such a thing, the
Israeli government has indicated that it intends to destroy the family
home in retaliation.
The Israeli authorities have pointed out that their law sanctions such
reprisals. But international law does not. Collective punishment is
banned under the international conventions adopted after World War II
in reaction to the atrocities carried out the Nazis in the countries
they occupied. Nonetheless, collective punishment, notably the economic
siege of Gaza, is the constant practice of the Zionist regime.
The rivalry of various Palestinian organizations, in particular Fatah
and Hamas, offers all sorts of openings for Israel to maintain and
increase its attacks on the resistance. The absence of a united
leadership with an authority respected by all Palestinians makes any
kind of negotiations with Israel difficult. In the past, the Palestinian
Liberation Organization (PLO) did have that sort of authority but it
lost it because of the disastrous effects of the Oslo Accords that it
accepted with Israel.
The PLO also abandoned its program of a democratic secular Palestine
(including all of Palestine from the Jordan to the sea), in which Jews
and Arabs could live together on the basis of equality. It dropped that
perspective in favor of the seemingly more attainable rump state in a
small part of Palestine.
But that concession has not gained any concrete advantage for any
section of the Palestinian people. It has served instead as an apple of
discord over which faction is going to get the spoils of the mini-state
or the pre-state formation. (Proportionately, the Palestinian Authority
has one of the largest bureaucracies in the world.)
The result of this experience is growing support among Palestinians for
a one-state solution. However remote this possibly may seem, it looms
as the only way of defusing the hatred and fear that the division of
Palestine has created and continues to create.
In the present circumstances, the Zionist rulers are moving
increasingly to intervene in the conflict between Hamas and Fatah. The
latest move in that regard is the closing down of charitable
institutions allegedly linked to Hamas on the West Bank, which
continues to be ruled by Fatah.
Haaretz reported July 7: "Israeli troops in jeeps swooped down on
the West Bank town of Nablus early Monday, shutting down a girls'
school, a medical center and two other facilities of a Hamas-affiliated
charity, witnesses said. … Computers, documents, cash and furniture
were seized, the witnesses said.
"The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the Palestinian
reports. But the raid appears to have been part of an intensified crackdown
on Hamas in the West Bank by Israel and Palestinian President Mahmoud
Abbas."
This de facto collaboration between Fatah (the dominant force in the
PLO) and Israel not only exposes Hamas and all those linked in any way
to it to repressive blows, it threatens to definitely discredit Fatah
and demoralize its supporters and all those who look to it as a
Palestinian leadership.
The dangers of the division in the Palestinian movement are
evident. The movement needs reorganization. A key element would be
a program to unite the movement, including the PLO's former position of
calling for a democratic secular Palestine.
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