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Conflict between the two major Palestinian factions,
Hamas and al Fatah, escalated to the brink of civil war on the last
weekend in September. The Palestinian Authority (PA) president, Mahmud Abbas,
said in fact that the “red line” had been crossed. By “red line” he meant
civil war, which he said Palestinians had avoided for 40 years.
By Oct. 2, at least 12
Palestinians had died in the fighting in the last two days. This brought
the total number of the dead in inter-Palestinian fighting over the past
year reportedly to almost 200. (Le Monde of Oct. 4 reported from that
from Sept. 12, 2005, to Sept. 12, 2006, 181 Palestinians were killed in
inter-Palestinian fighting and more than 1300 wounded.)
On Oct. 2, the Reuters news
agency reported that Fatah militants had issued a statement threatening
to assassinate Hamas leaders, including Khaled Meshal, head of the Hamas
office in Damascus, who has been a prime target of assassination attempts
by the Israeli secret service. The Israeli daily Haaretz quoted the
alleged statement in its Oct. 3 issue: “We in al-Aqsa [an armed group
linked to Fatah] announce, with all might and frankness, the ruling of
the people in the homeland and in the diaspora, to execute the head of
the sedition, Khaled Meshaal, Saeed Seyam and Youssef al-Zahar, and we
will execute this ruling so those filthy people can be made an example.”
This alleged statement, of
course, could be a provocation concocted by the Israeli secret service.
It would hardly better suit their needs. Hopefully, it will be disavowed
by al Aksa. But the appearance of such a statement is an indication of
how dangerous the present conflict is.
This internecine carnage
comes on top of the war of attrition waged by Israel. Since June 25, when
Palestinian militants kidnapped an Israeli soldier on the border between
Gaza and Egypt, the Al Mezan Human Rights Center estimates that 230
people in Gaza, including 39 children, have been killed by Israeli
attacks.
What is driving the
inter-Palestinian conflict is the inability of the Palestinian Authority
to pay the wages of its employees because of the financial siege that
Israel and the imperialist governments have imposed in retaliation
against Hamas, an Islamist party with a verbally more intransigent line
toward the Zionist state than Fatah.
The PA is by far the biggest
employer in the territories nominally under its aegis, and most of its
employees are loyal to Fatah, which controlled the Authority since its
founding, until it lost the Palestinian parliament elections to Hamas in
January. The great majority of the PA employees have been paid only a
tiny part of their salaries since Hamas took control of the government at
the end of March.
The Hamas government had promised
that the salaries due would be paid for the holiday month of Ramadan,
which began Sept. 23. But the money did not arrive. Since Sept. 2, PA
employees have been striking and demonstrating in protest continually.
The stage for armed conflict
was set a few months ago by the Hamas government’s forming its own
security force, parallel to the PA security forces still loyal to Fatah.
According to an AP dispatch of Oct. 1, the entire Hamas security force of
about 3000 men was deployed throughout Gaza on Saturday, Sept. 30, to
control or suppress the protest demonstrations.
The attempt by the Hamas
security force to break up an Oct. 1 protest march in the Gazan city of
Khan Younis, which included Palestinian police supporters of Fatah, led
to shooting and violent demonstrations throughout the Gaza Strip, which
is Hamas’ greatest stronghold.
According to the AP dispatch
cited above, the Hamas security force ordered the protesters in Khan
Yunis to disperse, and when they did not, it fired on them. Palestinian police
among the demonstrators reportedly fired back. The fighting quickly
spread. In the subsequent shooting, nine Palestinians were killed,
including two teenagers, and dozens were wounded.
The clashes reached their high
point at the Palestinian government buildings in Gaza City, where Hamas
security forces opened fire on Abbas’ presidential guard, killing
one. According to the Oct. 1 AP
dispatch, they fired anti-tank rockets and hurled grenades into the
pro-Fatah crowd.
The violence extended to the
West Bank, where Fatah is stronger. Pro-Fatah protesters stormed an empty
Palestinian government building in Ramallah, set fire to some rooms, and
kidnapped an official of the Hamas government. The car of the deputy
premier in the Hamas government was fired on. He was not in the vehicle
but two of his bodyguards were wounded.
Fatah supporters staged a
general strike in Ramallah, shutting down all the shops and schools. In
the city of Jericho, a shopkeeper was shot by Fatah fighters when he
refused to close.
The fighting continued on
Oct. 2, claiming another three Palestinian lives, despite Hamas’
withdrawing its security force from the streets and Abbas’ ordering the
Palestinian security forces not to participate in any more protests.
Ten days earlier, the British
Guardian correspondent pointed out Oct. 2, gunmen in Gaza shot down Jad
Tayah, a senior Fatah intelligence official and five of his collegues.
And a few days before that, gunmen hijacked a car belonging to Nabil
Shaath, a close adviser to Abbas.
The Hamas leaders seem to have
interpreted the protests and strikes by PA employees loyal to Fatah as a
struggle for power. In an Oct. 1 article, the website of the Arab
nationalist al Jazeera TV channel reported: “Iam Shawhan, a
spokesman for the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas's armed wing,
said: ‘We are going to beat with iron fists all those elements who are
trying to sabotage the election process of our people, those who are
trying to destroy our public properties and close the streets.’”
In the face of the escalating
conflict, Abbas appealed for Palestinian unity, in particular since the
Zionist rulers are threatening a major invasion of Gaza. And on Oct. 2,
Hamas pulled its security forces off the street. However, for the moment,
the attempt to form a united government between Hamas and Fatah has
clearly been blown out of the water.
The scheme of a unity
government had been designed to try to get around the blockage of funds
and aid the Palestinian Authority as long as it is presided over by
Hamas. The pretext of the Zionists and the imperialists is that Hamas is
a terrorist organization. Ultimately, this argument is based on
Hamas’ refusal to recognize the Zionists’ dispossession of the
Palestinians from the territories on which Israel has been built.
In fact, this is a purely
verbal position. Organizations linked to Fatah have been as
active in guerilla attacks on Israel as Hamas, and have used the
same methods. But this demand on Hamas that it formally recognize
Israel’s right to exist on land that previously belonged to the
Palestinian people has become the focus of a test of will between the
Palestinian masses and their Zionist and imperialist enemies.
The liberal Zionist daily
Haaretz has reported a poll showing that 66 percent of Palestinians are
opposed to Hamas’ recognizing Israel. In order to force Hamas, and by
extension the Palestinian people, to make a humiliating symbolic retreat,
Israel and its allies have imposed a punishing siege on the territories
nominally under the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority. The squeeze has
reached the point in which United Nations and international aid officials
are raising warnings about an impending catastrophe.
Le Monde reported Oct. 4: “Two-thirds of
Palestinians live under the poverty line. … This percentage has increased
3 percent a month, going from 50 percent in March, when the Hamas
government took office, to 65 percent in August. The United Nations
Conference for Trade and Development has warned that per capita income
for Palestinians may fall to its lowest level in 25 years.
“The World Bank has also
raised a cry of alarm, indicating that if the situation persists, 47
percent of the economically active population will be unemployed in 2008.
In that case, the poverty rate will reach 74 percent.”
The worst situation is in
Gaza, which in addition to being frequently bombed by the Israeli air
force and assaulted by Israeli troops, is totally shut off in a tiny
area. The precarious local economy has been virtually destroyed. Israeli
bombing even demolished the one local electricity plant.
The BBC website reported
Sept. 20: “Mr. Dugard, UN special rapporteur on Palestinian human rights,
said three-quarters of Palestinians in Gaza now depended on food aid—a
result, he added, of Israeli military raids, blockades and demolitions.
‘I hope that my portrayal ... will trouble the consciences of those
accustomed to turning a blind eye and a deaf ear to the suffering of the
Palestinian people,’ Mr. Dugard told the UN Human Rights Council in
Geneva.”
Dugard said that Israel had
turned Gaza into a prison and thrown the key away. This is the sort of
pressure that turns people desperate, and a common byproduct is that
desperation and frustration turn them against each other. But this is
obviously what the Zionists and their backers are counting on. They bear
the primary responsibility for it.
The Palestinian fighters
have the task of achieving unity in the face of the Zionist and imperialist
pressures. But democratic and humanitarian world public opinion has the
responsibility to condemn the brutal squeeze that is being put on the
Palestinian people.
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