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Israel’s war against the Palestinian population of
Gaza has been escalating. It reached a terrible high point on Nov. 7 with
the massacre of at least 19 Palestinians, who were killed in their sleep
near the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanun. They were victims of an
allegedly misdirected artillery barrage that the Israel military claimed
had been fired in response to the launching of Qassam rockets from a
nearby site into Israel.
The Israeli army had taken Beit Hanun and
held it in an iron grip for several days. Some commentors in the liberal
Israeli press described the occupation as “collective punishment.”
But the killing continued after the Israeli army left.
On the same day as the massacre near Beit Hanun, two alleged Palestinian
fighters were killed by an airstrike in southern Gaza, and four alleged
fighters were killed in the West Bank.
The Israeli press reported that the Palestinian
death toll on Nov. 7 was 28. That brought the number of Palestinians
killed in the last week to well over 70, a total on a scale similar to
that of the Israeli killing in the recent Lebanon war.
On Nov. 2, the Arab news service Al
Jazeera reported that the Israeli military had killed 16 Palestinians in
the first two days of November. Eleven were killed on Nov. 1, including a
75-year-old man who was shot dead by Israeli troops as he went to try to
take his disabled son from the balcony of their home.
On Nov. 3, another 16 Palestinians were
killed, including two middle-aged women. The two women were among a crowd
of women demonstrating at a mosque on the outskirts of the town where a
group of Palestinian fighters had sheltered. Their action enabled most of
the trapped fighters to escape, but at a high cost.
Al Jazeera reported that the Israeli army
had ordered all males over the age of 16 to assemble at a school to be
“questioned.” Dozens of those interrogated were arrested and taken away
by the Israeli soldiers. The dispatch continued: “‘Residents are in panic
as the sound of gunfire and explosions never stops. The curfew is very,
very tight,’ Yamen Hamad, a local journalist, told Reuters [news agency]
by telephone.”
Although the Israeli incursion was
launched ostensibly to stop the firing of homemade Qassam missiles, in
that it failed totally. Four Qassams fell in the Israeli border town of
Sderot on Nov. 2, more than the previous day. The Qassams are continuing
to fall.
In general, the Qassams pose a negligible
threat to the Israeli population. They are primarily an expression of the
Palestinians’ desperation, one of the only ways available of striking
back at Israel’s relentless attacks.
Low-level civil war
This festering desperation is now being disastrously
turned inward. And this poses the gravest threat to the will of the
Palestinian people to resist. It has led to a low-level civil war between
the governing party in the Palestinian territories, Hamas, and the former
governing party, Fatah.
Since Hamas has refused to formally
recognize the state of Israel, the Zionist rulers and their imperialist
allies cut off almost all funding to the Palestinian Authority (PA). Its
employees have not received their full salaries since March, when Hamas
took office. Most of the PA employees are members of Fatah, and therefore
their frustration is turned against Hamas.
The government is divided between Hamas and the
president, Mahmoud Abbas, who was elected by popular vote before the
Hamas victory in the parliamentary elections in January.
There are two rival security forces, one
under the command of Abbas, and a parallel security force formed by Hamas.
Abbas has been threatening to dissolve
the Hamas-dominated parliament and government—an act that Hamas says it
would consider as a “coup d’etat.” Abbas’ threats reached a high point
with his statement in the third week of October, cited in the Oct. 23
issue of the liberal Israeli daily Haaretz: “In the middle of last week,
for example, Abu Mazen [Mahmoud Abbas] declared: ‘Bread is more important
than democracy.’
“This sentence was quoted in all the
Palestinian media. The significance of this statement is clear to all:
True, the Hamas government rose to power through democratic elections,
but it is not able to function, it does not pay salaries, it does not
provide bread, and it cannot continue to rule.
“By the end of the week, Abu Mazen was
already speaking explicitly: ‘There is a responsibility on our
shoulders,’ he said, ‘and we have to take decisions about setting up a
loyal Palestinian government that will enjoy international recognition,
will enable the embargo against our people to be lifted and will
concentrate on the central objective, which is an end to the occupation
and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem
as its capital, a state that will live in peace and security alongside
Israel.’”
Abbas undoubtedly knows that removal of
the Hamas government would threaten a full-scale civil war among
Palestinians. And in Gaza, Hamas is stronger, and its role in leading the
Beit Hanun resistance has undoubtedly strengthened its support. But his
remark about “bread” indicates that he thinks that within the framework
of the material interests he represents he may have no alternative.
The dilemma that the two big Palestinian
organizations face has led to a mind-boggling round of off-again,
on-again negotiations to try to find some sort of compromise. Haaretz
reported Nov. 2 that Abbas and the Hamas leadership had come to an agreement
on a government of national unity made up of technocrats, not
politicians, who would be representative of the two parties. It remains
to be seen whether this agreement will hold, or break down like the
previous agreements.
But at the same time as material
pressures are dividing the Palestinians, the sentiment for unity among
the besieged people is very strong. It is possible that new strategies
and new leadership can emerge from this cauldron.
Despite their pretences that they are
seeking a compromise solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the
Zionists are still pursuing their historic objective of driving out the
Arab population to the greatest possible extent. And they are still
having some success.
Haaretz reported Oct. 24 that the number
of Zionist settlers in the Palestinian territories has increased by 5.3
over the past year and is continuing to grow. It detailed the Israeli
government’s attempts to cover up the expansion of the settlement.
Moreover, despite Palestinians’ often
desperate determination to hold onto their land, a growing number of them
are considering leaving. The Christian Science Monitor reported Oct. 24:
“The sentiment [for leaving], which flouts the long-held Palestinian
belief that Israeli occupation can only be resisted by staying put, is
yet another indication of the deepening despair since Hamas was elected
to run the government.
“This desire to flee also comes amid
ongoing violence in the Gaza Strip. On Monday, Israeli troops killed at
least seven Palestinians in one of the deadliest days of fighting
following the June 25 capture of an Israeli soldier.
“Birzeit University pollster Nader Said,
who has monitored emigration attitudes for 12 years, says the percentage
of Palestinians willing to relocate once hovered just below 20 percent.
When that figure jumped to 32 percent in a September survey, Mr. Said
says he was shocked.
“The catalyst, the pollster says, has
been Palestinian disillusionment following Hamas's half-year in
government. ‘What the Israelis were unable to do—try to push the
Palestinians out of the country—the internal strife is achieving,’ he
says.
“Even more telling, adds Said, is that
the percentage surges to 44 percent among Palestinians in their 20s and
30s. Among young men, it surges beyond 50 percent.”
One of the columnists for Haaretz
remarked when the fighting developed between Fatah and Hamas that the
Israeli rulers had finally achieved their objective. It is clear that
their pressure has provoked and fueled this conflict and it is the Zionists
who benefit from it.
Such internecine warfare is the index of
the desperation of a people goaded beyond endurance by state terror and
economic deprivation. Rather than discouraging international solidarity
with the Palestinian people, it should give a greater sense of urgency to
it.
This destruction of a people is one of
the great scandals of our time and one of the greatest threats to world
civilization.
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