Disband the Palestinian Authority

Dear friends,
a very insightful article by Lamis Andoni on the call for the disbanding of the Palestinian Authority.

The article was first publish on Al Jazeera and reprinted by Maan News Agency.

in solidarity, Kim

***

Disband the PA - Lamis Andoni
Published Wednesday 08/12/2010 (updated) 08/12/2010 19:15
Maan News Agency
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=339985



In interviews and statements, as well as in private meetings, Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, has said that he is presiding over an authority without any authority and that the very existence of the Palestinian Authority has made Israel's occupation "the cheapest ever".

Abbas is simply reaching the same conclusion that many Palestinians have long understood: negotiations, under the prevailing conditions, will not lead to the end of the Israeli occupation, let alone the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.

In a recent interview with Palestinian state television, Abbas warned that if all efforts to establish a Palestinian state fail he will dissolve the PA and ask Israel to assume responsibility for the occupation. His threats are neither a manoeuvre nor a clearly planned strategy. They are rather an expression of despair and a reflection of the mood of the Palestinian people - who see the PA as merely facilitating the continuation of the Israeli occupation while removing the need for it to pay for its actions.

Disbanding the PA would mean a return to direct Israeli occupation and could be used by Israel as a pretext for escalating its aggression against the Palestinian people. But the Palestinians have reached breaking point. Seventeen years of talks have stopped neither Israeli land theft nor the displacement of Palestinians.

The idea of dissolving the PA has many supporters - both inside the Palestinian territories and among the Palestinian diaspora. But this must not be a leap in the dark: the Palestinians must be prepared for the consequences of such a move and it must be undertaken as part of a clearly defined resistance strategy.

Neither Abbas nor his opponents, however, have indicated that they are developing any such strategy - for just as Abbas was expressing his despair, Hamas was indicating a greater degree of flexibility towards any possible outcome of, the currently stalled, Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. In a speech last week, Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas prime minister, said his movement was prepared to accept the results of a referendum if negotiations reach an historic compromise that includes the establishment of a Palestinian state on the territories occupied during the 1967 war.

It is not the first time that Hamas has signalled its willingness to accept a two-state solution, but its timing - when the talks are effectively frozen and there is no prospect for progress should they resume - is surprising. Haniyeh's statement suggests that the two leaderships, in Ramallah and Gaza, have no idea how to recapture the initiative required to lead the Palestinian people out of the stagnant situation they are in.

Abbas has raised a couple of prospects. Firstly, he has suggested looking to the UN Security Council for recognition of a Palestinian state. This is mainly intended to affirm the 'occupied' status of the Palestinian territories and to thus block Israel from annexing Jewish settlements. Secondly, he has discussed handing responsibility for the Palestinian territories over to the UN. Both of these options would likely be obstructed by a US veto at the UN Security Council.

But any alternative option the Palestinians choose cannot succeed without first establishing national unity and mobilising popular resistance. A serious battle of wills will ensue, and the Palestinians must be prepared.

An international battle for recognition of a Palestinian state must be based on a clear vision and preparedness to confront Israeli actions. For international support alone will not lead to the creation of a Palestinian state. Regardless of whether Palestinians opt for a one- or two-state solution, they cannot avoid a battle to end the occupation under which they currently live.

The options Abbas speaks of would place the PA face-to-face with the Israeli occupation, so the question remains: is the PA ready for this? The answer would appear to be no.

The PA cannot be taken seriously as long as it accommodates Israeli terms and demands. Israel continues to prevent the movement of goods and people, to conduct raids and arrests in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and to strike at the Gaza Strip. Thus a prerequisite for any significant Palestinian move must be an immediate halt to security coordination between Israel and the PA.

Abbas' justification for such coordination is that if Palestinians "behave" Israel can make no case for postponing ending the occupation. But the only outcome thus far has been the weakening of Palestinian resistance, while Israel has had a free hand to launch military forays into the Palestinian territories, to confiscate more land and to kill more people.

The next step for Hamas and the PA must be genuine unification - without this, disbanding the PA could result in a highly destructive power struggle - based on a joint agreement over an alternative to the now defunct talks. Dissolving the PA should be a significant consideration within this plan, but only once a political and economic strategy has been formulated.

The PA currently pays the salaries of 150,000 people, so disbanding it would have a huge impact on the economy. Before the PA was created, the Palestine Liberation Organization contributed funds to help Palestinians stay steadfast in the face of the economic strains of occupation. A similar plan, involving all Palestinians, must now be devised - assuming that Arab states, as should be expected, will fail to offer the Palestinians financial support.

It is, of course, easy for those Palestinians in exile, with comfortable jobs, to call for an immediate dissolution of the PA - it is also very understandable as Israel will be under no pressure to end its occupation as long as it pays little or no cost for it. But, should the Palestinian leadership formulate a new resistance strategy, all Palestinians must be prepared to shoulder the responsibility for it. The onus is now on the PA to start this process and the only way to do that is to end all coordination and cooperation with Israel.


Lamis Andoni is an analyst and commentator on Middle Eastern and Palestinian affairs. This article originally appeared on Al-Jazeera International and is republished here with permission from the author.

PA capitulation clears way for 'proximity talks'

Direct Action www.directaction.org.au
Home » Issue 23: June 2010
PA capitulation clears way for 'proximity talks'

By Kim Bullimore

On May 7, US-backed “proximity talks” began two months after US special Mideast envoy George Mitchel, announced that the Fatah-led Palestine Authority (PA) and Israel had agreed to resume “indirect” negotiations. The “proximity talks” have been hailed by the Obama administration as a way of supposedly kick-starting the failed Arab-Israeli “peace process”. The talks have commenced despite the fact that Israel has not adhered to the 10-month “settlement freeze” demanded by the Obama administration.

Under the 1949 Geneva Convention on the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, also known as the “Fourth Geneva Convention”, an occupying power may not transfer parts of its own civilian population into occupied territory. All of the Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territories militarily occupied by Israel since June 1967 are therefore illegal under international law. This has been repeatedly acknowledged by the UN Security Council and reaffirmed by the UN’s International Court of Justice in its December 2003 advisory opinion on Israel’s apartheid wall.

In May 2009, US President Barack Obama told Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas, whose electoral mandate as PA president expired in January 2009, that Washington would press Israel to meet its obligations under a 2003 “road map for peace” endorsed by the UN, the US, the European Union and Russia, which included stopping the construction of new Israeli settlements and the expansion of existing settlements. By that time these settlements housed close to 500,000 Israeli citizens in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem.

However, according to an Israeli Peace Now NGO Settlement Watch project report published in February 2010 there have been repeated violations of the supposed settlement freeze announced by Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu last November. The report noted that in response to a parliamentary question, “Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai admitted that 29 settlements [had] breached the settlement freeze order”.

PA capitulation

Relying on Washington’s support, Abbas had previously stated that the PA would not engage in negotiations with Israel until the Netanyahu government froze settlement building and expansion. On May 2, however, Abbas sought Arab League approval for the PA’s capitulation to US and Israeli pressure to accept indirect negotiations without an Israeli settlement freeze. At a Cairo meeting of the Arab Peace Initiative Committee, only Syria and Lebanon, both of which have been the victims of Israeli military aggression, opposed giving the green light to the US brokered “proximity” talks.

At a press conference after the meeting, Syrian representative Yousef al-Ahmed said: “This committee has exceeded its authority and given the Palestinians the green light to start indirect talks without the Israelis taking steps on the ground … It was clear that the meeting ... was aimed at providing an Arab cover for an already-taken Palestinian decision to hold indirect negotiations with Israel with no guarantees”.

Nabil Abu Rudeina, a PA spokesperson said: “There is currently no idea to hold direct negotiations. The Palestinian and Arab positions on this matter are clear — there must be a clear reference for negotiations and the complete halt of settlements.” The PA’s engagement in the proximity talks confirms that it has opted to continue to pursue its failed strategy of diplomatic reliance on Washington, while informally abandoning its demand that Israel freeze settlement expansion as a precondition for negotiations.

On May 8, Yasser Abed Rabbo, Abbas’ chief adviser, told Israel’s YNet news website, that the decision to engage in the proximity talks was “mostly premised on pledges and guarantees made by the Americans to the Palestinian side in respect to the issues of settlements and the basis of negotiations — Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338, the Road Map, and the Arab peace initiative”. Rabbo stated that Washington had pledged to ensure all core issues of the conflict would be discussed and that it would supposedly “adopt a very determined stance” against any Israeli provocations to disrupt the talks.

This confirms that the PA leadership continues to view Washington as supposedly a “neutral broker” in the Arab-Israeli conflict. However, Washington is an active participant in the Israeli colonisation of the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). As British freelance journalist Jonathan Cook reported in a May 15 article in the Abu Dhabi newspaper, The National, that the US government’s US Agency for International Development (USAID) has “helped to build 114 kilometers of Israeli-proposed roads [in the West Bank], despite a pledge from Washington six years ago that it would not assist in implementing what has been widely described as Israel’s ‘apartheid road’ plan”. Cook noted that USAID had “paid for the construction of nearly a quarter of the segregated road network put forward by Israel in 2004”.

These roads are designed to provide alternative routes to connect Palestinian communities, often by upgrading circuitous dirt tracks or by building tunnels under existing routes, while Israeli-only roads are maintained in order to facilitate Israel’s illegal settlements in the West Bank. Cook correctly pointed out that USAID’s “involvement in building a segregated West Bank road infrastructure would run counter to Washington’s oft-stated goal, including as it launched ‘proximity talks’ last week, to establish a viable Palestinian state with territorial contiguity”.
Fayyad plan

While the Abbas and the Fatah leadership have continued to pursue a failed strategy of reliance on the US government as a “neutral broker”, appointed Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salaam Fayyad has continued to pursue economic policies to entrench and normalise Israel’s illegal occupation of the OPT. Over the past year, with the endorsement of Israel, the US and the EU, Fayyad, who has been hailed by both Israel and the US as “the Palestinian Ben Gurion”, has sought to implement an economic policy in the West Bank which is little different from the one proposed by Netanyahu in his Bar Ilan speech in June 2009.

Melbourne-based Palestinian writer Samah Sabawi, in her March 10 article on the Palestine Chronicle website, notes that, “Contrary to all the hype that surrounds economic peace, it is important to acknowledge the fact that it represents more of the same old policies Israel has pursued in the Occupied Territories for decades”. Sabawi noted that since 1967, Israel has “wanted the land the resources but not the people” of the OPT.

As Sabawi correctly argues, Netanyahu’s economic peace plan is a continuation of Israel’s attempt to economically integrate the natural resources of OPT into the Israeli economy. Fayyad, who initially opposed Netanyahu’s economically peace plan, has since fully embraced it. This is most clearly illustrated by in the way in which the PA continued to engage in monthly Joint Economic Committee meetings throughout the period when the PA had supposedly stopped talking with Israel until there was settlement freeze. The primary task of the JEC meetings is to foster joint Palestinian-Israeli business ventures.

Joseph Massad, a professor of Modern Arab politics at New York City’s Columbia University, noted in an April 14 article on the Electronic Intifada website that Fayyad is a “pioneer in normalisation” and that “Fayyad’s plan to establish a Palestinian state in August 2011 is in effect an acceptance of the Camp David proposals offered to and rejected by the late Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat in 2000”.

Given that Fayyad is aggressively promoting an “economic peace” policy which suits Israeli government and business interests, it is not surprising that Zionists around the world have started to be more vocal in their support for Fayyad. On May 13, Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, who is described by Jerusalem Post as “one of Israel’s most committed and articulate advocates”, told the Post that Fayyad was “the best [partner] Israel has, and probably the best Israel has ever had”.

Similarly, Bren Carlill an analysis at the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council, in an article in the May 13 Melbourne Age, while admonishing the Palestinian people for “their sense of victimhood”, observed that “There is one Palestinian, however, who is breaking the mould. Prime Minister Salam Fayyad is building Palestinian infrastructure, fighting Palestinian corruption and laying the foundations for a viable Palestinian state.”

In an interview with the April 2 Tel Aviv Haaretz daily, Fayyad indicated that he was prepared to give up the right of return of Palestinian refugees to their homes and properties in what is now the Israeli state. In response to the question of whether or not his plan takes into consideration the need to absorb Palestinian refugees, Fayyad responded, “Of course, Palestinians would have the right to reside within the State of Palestine”. The Palestinian state Fayyad refers to is what many analysts have come to regard as little different to the phony “independent homelands” (Bantustans) that apartheid South Africa tried, unsuccessfully, to get its indigenous African population to accept as a substitute for equal citizen rights.

Israel’s “good will gestures": The distance between reality and rhetoric

For the past month, Israeli and international media has been lauding Olmert’s for his “good will gestures” which include the proposed release 250 Fatah aligned Palestinian Prisoners. While the news of the yet-to-be released Palestinian prisoners is all over the international news, barely a word has been said about the fact that Israeli has arrested more than 300 Palestinians, the majority from Abbas’ Fatah party, in the two weeks period after Olmert and Israel began touting their good will gestures. According to Palestinian News Agency, Ma’an, the figures were released by Fatah’s information office on July 10 reveal that Israel has continued to target and illegal abduct Palestinians.

This week, the PA run Palestinian National Information Centre also released its monthly statistics on the Israeli occupation. According to the PNIC, during the month of June, Israel occupation forces killed 49 Palestinians and wounded a further 147. During the same period, the Israel abducted and arrested 383 Palestinians and carried out 765 invasions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank and committed a total of 2,380 human rights violations against the civilian Palestinian population.

In their weekly report on Israeli human rights violations the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights noted that in the week of 5 July to 11 July:

•IOF killed 11 Palestinians, including 3 civilians, in the Gaza Strip and a 12th one on the West Bank.
•The victims in the Gaza Strip were killed during an IOF incursion into al-Boreij refugee camp.
•The victim in the West Bank was extra-judicially executed by IOF.
•30 Palestinians, including 25 civilians, were wounded by IOF gunfire in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
•24 of these Palestinians, including 20 civilians, were wounded during an IOF incursion into al-Boreij refugee camp.
•IOF arrested 2 of the wounded in the West Bank.
•IOF conducted 36 incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank, and 2 incursions into the Gaza Strip.
•IOF razed at least 200 donums of agricultural land in the Gaza Strip.
•IOF damaged some public and private property.
•IOF arrested 69 Palestinian civilians in the West Bank, and 10 others in the Gaza Strip.
•IOF have continued to impose a total siege on the OPT.
•IOF have isolated the Gaza Strip from the outside world and a humanitarian crisis is likely to emerge.
•At least 6,000 Palestinians have been stuck at the Egyptian side of Rafah International Crossing Point, and the number of deaths among them has mounted to 14.
•IOF positioned at various checkpoints in the West Bank arrested 3 Palestinian civilians.

So while the Bush and the EU laud Olmert for his (yet to be actually given) “generous gift” of 250 Fatah aligned prisoners and Abbas seeks to undemocratically retain control of the PA, another 11,000 Palestinian political prisoners languish in Israel’s jails. The road blocks Israel promised to remove still remain in place, as do the checkpoints and 380 prisoners take the place of the ones who are supposedly going to be released and the Israeli occupation continues ...

10 Days: the Palestinian crisis and the Hamas-Fatah struggle

24 June, 2007

It has now been 10 days since Fatah leader and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas declared a state of emergency, sacking the Hamas led Palestinian National Unity government. During this period, Abbas has moved to isolate Hamas further and strengthen his positon.

While the US, Israel and the European Union has come out in support of Abbas, promising to lift the crippling economic blockade and return taxes Israel stole from the Palestinian people, an attempt by the US to get UN Security Council backing for Abbas' action has failed. Russia, South Africa , Indonesia and Qatar have al opposed the US sponsored Security Council declaration of confidence in the emergency government on June 20. According to Israel's Ha'aretz newspaper, " Russia and South Africa have questioned the legitimacy of the Palestinian emergency government and argued that a Palestinian unity government is not only still possible, but would be preferable to the emergency government headed by Fayad, which has authority in the West Bank only". In addition, "the South African ambassador argued that the international community, especially the U.S., Israel and the Quartet, are to blame for the situation in the Gaza Strip". Objections were also raided to the declaration of support by the Palestinian observer who argued that such a declaration would constitute intervention in the PA's internal affairs.

Last week, I spent two days in Ramallah and it was clear that there are divisions amongst the other Palestinian factins. The Palestinian People's Party and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) has come out in support of the Abbas, the declaration of the state of emergency and the dismissal of the government. They have also called for new elections based on proportional representation.

However, the Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) have stated that they weren't part of the new emergency government despite reports in some of the Palestinian media and they didn't see the emergency government as a solution. The PFLP has publicly stated that they reject Hamas's military take over of the Gaza , but they also support a new unity government involving Hamas.

While I was in Ramallah, I also tried to speak to as many internationals and "ordinary" Palestinians as possible. Amongst the internationals I spoke to, whether individuals or involved with different solidarity groups, their primary concern was for the plight of the Palestinian people as a whole and they were angry that both sides seem to have forgotten about the occupation.

Amongst the Palestinians, in the first 5 days after the state of emergency being declared, there seemed to be no clear consensus about whether Abbas was right or not - as one Palestinian told me, you can ask one person a question and get two different answers from that same person. Some expressed support for one side or the other depending on their party affiliations. Others while agreeing that Hamas had been undemocratically ousted, also felt well what else were we to do, the blockade was causing such hardship.

However, it was clear that while Abbas, with US and Israeli backing, is trying to move as fast as he can to legitimise his emergency governments and to isolate Hamas, as the dust is beginning to settle more and more ordinary Palestinians are coming out in support of not only new elections but also unity between the factions. This as I mentioned before will put more and more pressure on Abbas to negotiate with Hamas, despite objections from the US and Israel . As veteran Israeli peace activist, Uri Avnery, has correctly pointed out in his latest piece, Saving Abbas, it is "pure fantasy" to think that any Palestinian "will agree to the separation of Gaza and the West Bank" or that the Gazan people will rebel against Hamas and that the West Bank Palestinians will forsake those in Gaza. They instead will demand unity and any party that does not respect that will be lost to the Palestinian street.

In addition, a number of Palestinian media outlets have either begun to question the way in which Abbas has "bent" Palestinian basic law, while other Palestinian Human Rights organisations have accused Abbas outright of violating the letter and spirit of Palestinian Basic law.

For example, the most popular Arabic and English language Palestinian news website during the crisis, Ma'an, while not explicitly condemning Abbas, has increasingly begun to refer to him as either "bending" or "eradicating" Palestinian Basic Palestinian laws. The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) while condemning both Hamas and Fatah for trying to resolve the conflict between the two factions military, has also come out and condemned Abbas for violating and violated undermining the Basic Laws saying this was "no less dangerous than what is happening in Gaza

In a statement issued on June 18, the PCHR argued that "Steps taken by President Mahmoud Abbas in response to these events violate the Basic Law and undermine the Basic Law in a manner that is no less dangerous than what is happening in Gaza". It went on to say that Abbas had no authority " to dissolve or interrupt the work of the PLC during the period of emergency (article 113). The Basic Law is superior to all laws, from which all powers, including those of the President and Prime Minister, are derived, and it must not be undermined or suspended in all circumstances". According to PCHR, the steps taken by Abbas "complicate the crisis" rather then solve it. It went onto say that the crisis is political rather then constitutional and the only solution was dialogue between Fatah and Hamas.

In recent days, PCHR, the Palestinian National Initiative (PNI) and the Palestinian Non-Government Organisation Network (PNGO) have come out and criticised Abbas for issuing a presidential decree on June 21 suspending the Palestinian laws relating to the Palestinian Civil Society Organisations (CSO) and NGOs.

According to the PCHR, "this decree as a first step in a crackdown on civil society organizations with the aim of closure or restricting its work during the state of emergency in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT)". PCHR noted that the decree the Ministry of Interior has the right to "review all permits for associations and organizations issued by the Ministry of Interior or any governmental source" and has the right to "take any steps deemed necessary against associations and organizations with the intent of closure, amendment, or any other action". The decree also demands that "all organizations and associations must submit new registration applications within one week; and all who violate this directive are subject to the law". According to PCHR, "this decree is a serious violation of the right to establish organizations, which is a basic human right guaranteed by article 26 of the Amended Basic Law for 2003, stating Palestinians' right to Establish unions, associations, federations, clubs, and public organizations in accordance with

Similarly, the PNGO stated in a press release on June 23, that "this Presidential Decree violates the law governing societies and organizations (Law N. 1 of 2000). It will restrict the work of associations and institutions and put them under Palestinian Authority's control without legal justification or practical procedure".

The issuing of the decree by Abbas is widely seen as an attempt to under cut the work of Hamas affiliated charities and NGOs, however, as Mustafa Barghouti's Palestinian National Initiative pointed out in statement (on June 23) condemning Abbas's decree that most Hamas affiliated NGOs were not registered under the NGO laws anyway. According to the PNI "as such, the decree has serious implications only for those CSO's [Civil Society Organisations] that adhere to and respect the NGO law". The PNI statement went on to state that "Palestinian CSO's are viewing the decree as a dangerous step that could represent an attack on CSO's and on Palestinian democracy, and see it as a move that could jeopardise the legal position of the new Palestinian emergency government"

Over the past week, the PLO Central Committee has met and has declared support for Abbas and has called for new elections. At one point, some PLO members called for the PLO central committee to replace the PLC. However, as outlined previously, this would be completely illegal as there is no provisions in the Palestinian Basic laws to dismiss the PLC (although Abbas has sought to isolate them). Despite repeated calls from Hamas and Haniyeh for renewed dialogue between Hamas and Fatah, Abbas and the PLO Central Council rejected any possibility of dialogue with Hamas. Instead, they called for amendments to the election law, establishment of a proportional electoral system rather than a district-based system.

However, the head of the PLO's political department Farouq Qaddoumi has been reported by the Egyptian media as denouncing not only the Palestinian Authority is as a "an illegal and illusory authority" but also denouncing Abbas for misusing his presidential authorities. According to reports, Qaddoumi stated that Abbas and the presidential office had misused PLO departments such as the Preventative Security forces using them "to commit things which we were not satisfied with, especially after the appointment of [Muhammad] Dahlan as national security advisor". Qaddoumi, while condemning the role of Hamas in Gaza , also called for unity between Fatah and Hamas, saying that it was unacceptable to establish separate "cantons" in the OPT.

In response to the dissolution of the Unity government, Israel has segregate Palestinian political prisoners for the first time. However, leaders of the various factions have rejected the new policy and called on all factions for unity, saying that the Palestinian struggle for their own land is greater then the struggle amongst their own people. According to one leader, Tawfiq Rabay'a, the segregation was aimed at separating brothers and to prevent them meeting. He accused Israel of implementing this rule as part of its policy of deliberately severing the Gaza Strip from the West Bank.

Hamas has continued to argue that its actions in Gaza were to stop collaborators undermining the Palestinian national struggle. According Ahmed Yousef, the political advisor to Ismail Haniyeh (Hamas leader and Palestinian Prime Minister) in an article in Ma'an, " Hamas's actions to secure Gaza from the horrific recent violence of the Palestinian contras have been out of self-defence. The assassinations of Hamas officials and supporters, attempts on the life of the elected prime minister, and kidnappings and bombings by some in President Mahmoud Abbas's paramilitary groups had to stop". He went on to argue "The PA has a clear legal right, indeed an obligation, to prevent this violence, by force if necessary, and to protect the Palestinian people. It is not Hamas that has "outlawed" the government. When has an elected party with a voting majority ever resorted to banning the government to get its way?".

Yousef went on to say "Some critics raise the red flag of 'al-Qaeda' and say that Hamas and parliament are a stalking horse for Salafi Jihadists. I defy them to demonstrate one instance in which Hamas's military structure has struck against any force outside the theatre of the occupation. The struggle has always been against the Israeli agenda of ethnic cleansing and conquest. Hamas is a movement of Palestinian liberation and nationalism - Islamist, yes, but in the sea of contending faiths that is the homeland, where is the sin in loving one's creed? Likewise, those who demean resistance to the occupation as little more than a proxy for Iran, Syria or Hezbollah are ignorant of history".

Hamas has also claimed that they have found conclusive proof amongst documents they seized from the headquarters of the Fatah aligned Preventative Services that there was extensive collaboration between Fatah, Israel and the US to undermine the democratically elected Hamas lead PA, as well as the Palestinian National Unity government. At press conference on June 23, Hamas said they could produce documents it has seized.

In response to Hamas' allegations, Abbas, has accused Khaled Mes'hal of being behind an attempt to assassinate him. However, Abbas and Fatah are yet to provide proof of the tape they say they supposedly have. In addition, the Fatah aligned head of the Palestinian intelligence agency has accused Hamas of receiving training from Iran and Syria and denied that any Preventative Security members had been involved in assassinations of Hamas members.

Over the past week, several rallies have been held in Gaza by Hamas supporters. According to Pal media, "several thousand Hamas supporters demonstrated on the streets of the Gaza Strip on Wednesday evening, protesting and condemning the speech of President Abbas, during which he launched a strong attack against the Hamas movement ....Protesters shouted slogans against President Abbas, and burned photographs of him, alongside American and Israeli flags, demonstrating their anger at his rejection of dialogue with the Hamas movement"

In the West Bank proper, it has been exceedingly quite on the highways and only minimal movement from the Israeli occupation forces, this is primarily because the Preventative Services are currently doing most of the arresting of Hamas militants, arresting 120 in the last week. During this same period, however, Israel has continued its occupation, killing at least 5 Palestinians in Gaza and arresting at least 13 Palestinians in the WB, including members of Hamas, Fatah, Islamic Jihad and the DFLP. On Friday, they killed a young Palestinian man at a checkpoint in Hebron . Israel and the IOF has also continued to restrict the movement of Palestinian human rights workers, including Shawan Jabarin, the director general of the Palestinian human rights non-governmental organization Al-Haq and one of the editors of Ma'an news agency.

Abbas, Hamas and the Palestinian Crisis

18 June, 2007

Dear friends

As mentioned in my previous post, after 4 days of intense fighting, which left more then 110 people dead and hundreds injured, Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas declared a state of emergency and dismissed the Hamas led PA government ministry.

On Sunday, (17/6), Abbas swore in (illegally) a new unelected emergency government made up primarily of technocrats. The emergency government is headed by Salam Fayyad from the Hanan Ashawri’s Third Way party. According to Palestinian News Agency, Ma’an, it contains two Fatah affiliates, a member of Barghouti’s Palestinian National Initiative, 2 independents, 1 member of the Palestinian People’s Party, I member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and 4 others, who I am not sure who they affiliated with or if “independent”

Only one minister (an independent) is carried over from the previous unity govt member of the new emergency government. In addition, while Fayyad is feted by Israel, the US and the EU and amongst some Palestinian elites, his party only won 2.4% of the vote at the 2006 elections.

A coup by whom?
Abbas and his aides have accused Hamas of staging a military coup in Gaza, however, as Guardian Foreign Affairs editor, Peter Beaumont and veteran Middle East journalist, Robert Fisk have noted, it was Hamas who was the party which was elected democratically with an overwhelming majority in 2006, not Fatah and that in effect a coup has been staged against the democratically elected government led by Hamas.

On Saturday, Abbas issued presidential decrees suspending three articles of Basic Palestinian Laws which demand that Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) must give approval to any new government.

The suspension and violation of these laws are the clearest evidence that Abbas and Fatah have staged a political coup (backed by the US and Israel) against the 2006 democratically elected PLC. In addition, on Saturday, Pal media reported - either in response to or in coordination with the Presidential decrees - that Fatah gunmen stormed the PLC attempting to arrest PLC members.

According to Palestinian Basic Law:

• In relation to dismissal/convocation of government:
Articles 67 and 79 clearly demand that any and every new government must be approved by the PLC, including an emergency one.

It should be noted while Article 44 of the BL does allow the President “the right in exceptional cases, which can not be delayed, and when the Legislative Council is not in session, to issue decisions and decrees that have the power of law”, he does have carte blanche power. He must then present those decrees to the PLC “in the first session convened after their issuance, otherwise they will cease to have the power of law. If these decisions were presented as mentioned above, but were not approved, then they shall cease to have the power of law”.


• In relation to a state of emergency:
In addition, (as mentioned in my previous post) under Section 7 of the BL which deals specifically with state of emergencies specify that the president can declare a state of emergency for 30 days, however, he must have this approved by the PLC. Section 7, Article 114, section 4 clearly states that the PLC has “the right to review all or some of the procedures which have been implemented during the emergency state at the first session to be convened after the announcement of the state of emergency, or in the extension session whichever comes earlier, and to conduct the necessary questioning in this regard”

In addition, if he wants to extend the state of emergency beyond 30 days he must gain the approval of two thirds of the PLC (Article 110, section 1 & 2). Finally, Article 113 of Section 7 states emphatically that the President can not “dissolved or suspended during the emergency situation, nor shall the provisions of this chapter be suspended”.

Hamas response:
In response, Hamas has continued to refuse to step down from their positions in government and from the PLC saying that Abbas has acted illegal and in breach of the Palestinian Basic Laws.

Haniyeh and Mes’hal have publicly stated that they do not want to seize power in the Palestinian Authority and that they recognised recognizes Abbas as the head of the PA and would cooperate with him in the national interest. Mes’hal instead has argued in the media that “"What happened in Gaza was a necessary step. The people were suffering from chaos and lack of security and this treatment was needed”. Mes’hal was quoted in the Israeli english daily, Ha’aretz as saying the dissolution of the unity government "will not remedy the situation ... and will not solve the problem. There will be no two governments and no division of the homeland” and that a national unity governemtn was the only solution.

In the wake of the fighting in Gaza, an overall tense calm has apparently been established there, although there has been occassional sparodic fighting. Deposed Palestinian PM, Ismail Haniyeh has instigated a number of new security measures, including establishing a new police operational forces in the wake of the Abbas controlled interior ministry dismissing the Fatah aligned police force in Gaza. He has called on all police force members to return to their jobs and has stated that newly trained members will soon be sworn in.

Haniyeh has also banned Hamas members from wearing face masks on the streets, saying that Hamas member are only permitted to wear face masks during battle.

According to the Guardian, there has also been a rally of several thousand supporters of Hamas in Gaza on Saturday.

The “Abbas plan”:
According to both Pal and Israeli media, the current plan backed by Abbas, the US and Israel is to refuse to negotiate with Hamas, while seeking to hermetically seal of the Gaza. The intention is to maintain the siege of Gaza for a few weeks in the hope that build pressure against Hamas into agreeing to a compromise dictated by Abbas, the US and Israel. It should be noted that while the US has said they will, in an attempt to shore up Abbas, end the economic blockade and free up funds, they mean that they will only end the blockade of the West Bank, not Gaza. Israel has said it will only “consider” releasing the Palestinian taxes it has stolen.

The Israeli government has forced the sole supplier of fuel to the Gaza Strip, Israeli company Dor Alon, to cut of fuel supplies to Gaza, supposedly at the request of Abbas, an attempt to isolate the region more. The Israeli Infrastructure minister has called for complete isolation of the Gaza. Israeli has also moved to station Israeli Occupation Forces in the north of the Gaza Strip. Despite Hamas over running the US backed and trained Fatah forces in Gaza, the US is also planning to keep funding and training Fatah forces.

While Abbas is currently being backed by the old Fatah guard, it has been reported that a number of the young guard led by jailed Fatah leader, Marwan Barghouti have refused to sign on. Barghouti has refused Abbas request to publicly denounce Hamas.

A number of other Fatah leaders from the young guard, including Ahmed Hilas, have remained in the Gaza Strip and have been holding talks with the Hamas leadership. Hilas has denounced Fatah warlord, Mohammed Dahlan and several other old guard Fatah leaders as “collaborators”

In the West Bank, fighting has been sparodic, with the worst in Nablus. In Nablus, Fatah gunmen stormed the Nablus Municipality building “arresting” the elected Hamas officials. A number of charitable organisations aligned with Hamas were also set on fire. According to a Palestinian friend who lives in Nablus, people are basically staying off the streets at the moment.

There was fighting in Tul Karem on Thursday but according to a friend who is with one of the other international human rights groups based there, things have quitened down since then. According to friends in Ramallah, while there has been sporadic fighting, on the whole things have been quite.


Where to next?
Abbas is currently trying to strengthen his hand by demanding that Israel met the “benchmarks” set by the US, including massive removal of checkpoints throughout the West Bank, the resumption of negotiations and the release of Palestinian prisoners. In particular, according to reports in the Ha’aretz newspaper, Abbas is demanding the release of Barghouti, in an attempt to strengthen his standing. If he can get these conscessions then he will go a long way to isolating Hamas.

However, Israel’s usual tactic is to either delay committing to this or to say they will consider committing to them (or the other option is to say they will commit to them and then renege on their promise and get away with doing this, as they did when they last promised to remove a substantial number of checkpoints from the West Bank earlier this year). If they stay true to form, Abbas will have little joy.

While Hamas will no doubt come under intense pressure to compromise, they will probably be able to ride it out as they have done for the past year and half, although Israel’s attempt to starve out the people of Gaza will put immense pressure on them.

At the moment the only people really supporting the new emergency government is the international community lead by the US and Israel. Even the Arab League, which has said it supports many of the measures by Abbas, has refused to denounce Hamas outright (but you would not know this from the western media coverage). Instead, the Director of the League, Amr Moussa has sought to restart negotiations between Hamas and Abbas/Fatah. Also the Arab states, such as Egypt and Jordan will not want Hamas to increase their power in Gaza.

In addition, it is still yet to be seen whether the new emergency government will have the support of the Palestinian people or not. It is really only today that the Palestinan media have started reporting that Abbas has violated the Basic Laws and suspended ones which don’t sit with what he and the US and Israel want too do. This will not go down well in the eyes of many Palestinians and it will be interesting to see whether they will therefore accept the legitimacy of this new government.

Also, if the US do lift the econmic blockade, but do so only in relation to the West Bank, the majority of Palestinians will be appalled at the continued attempt to starve out their relatives in Gaza. Gaza is already the poorest area of the OPT. So even if the US actually does releases funds to the West Bank, it may do them little good as many Palestinians will resent that their families are being starved in Gaza.

And finally, as mentioned before the majority of Palestinians want national unity and there will be immense pressure on Abbas to achieve this and to eventually negotiate with Hamas (and to improve the plight of the Gazan population). Over the next few days and weeks, it will become a matter of who will blink first.

in solidarity, Kim

Some comments on the Palestinian Crisis

16 June, 2007

Dear friends,

As of today, more than 110 people have died in the last 4 – 5 days and hundreds wounded.

However, today, there has been a strange sort of calm in many places throughout the West Bank (including the village I live in), while in other areas there has been factional fighting.

Talking with a number of contacts and friends in different villages and towns, it reminded me when I was here last time when Arafat died. Peope are sad and depressed and seem at a bit of a loss and not sure what to do next (of course this was a much more deeper sentiment when Arafat died). They are also angry (at both factions) and ashamed of what has been going on.

On Thursday night, Abbas declared a state of emergency and dissolved the unity government. However, what the Israeli and Western media have failed to report that the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) is still functioning and that it still remains the democratically elected body through which legislation must pass and it is still the body which must approve Abbas presidential decrees (even the Arab media have not reported this very clearly)

Under Section 7, Article 110 of Palestinian basic law, a state of emergency can be declared for 30 days (I have included a copy of Section 7 at the end of the email). However, the state of emergency can only be extended for another 30 days be a two third vote in the PLC.

Under Section 3, Article 45 of the Basic Laws (the section that deals with the Presidential powers),the President (in this case, Abbas) has the right to appoint and sack the PM and invite them to form the cabinet – ie. he as the right to sack the PM and the government ministry.

HOWEVER: there is nothing in the Basic Laws that give him the right to sack the entire Palestinian Legislative Council during an state of emergency. In fact the Basic Laws (Amended in 2003) strictly prohibit this, with Article 113 stating "The Palestinian Legislative Council shall not be dissolved or suspended in an emergency situation, nor shall the provisions of this chapter be suspended".

There are also no provisions in the Basic Laws for the President to unilaterally call for new elections (altho in the past some in Fatah have argued that because the basic laws does not explicitly prohibit the president from calling new elections that he in fact has the right to do so – but this is all very gray)

This is why Haniyeh and Hamas have declared Abbas to have acted hastily, saying that Hamas members of the Unity government will continue to functions as the legitimate government – ie. that the currently democratically elected PLC, which is dominated by Hamas, is still the legitimate parliamentary body until 2010. If Abbas wants to extend the state of emergency after 30 days, he has to go back to the Hamas dominated PLC to get the extension and of course this most likely would not be granted.

Today I spoke with one of the Palestinan dipolomats I know and he confirmed that, yes, that in effect there are now "two governments" and that Abbas has no way of implementing his decrees because they need to approved by the PLC (outside of the initial sacking of the PM and govt and declaring the initial state of emergency). He was not sure where this was all going to lead.

Haniyeh told Palestinian and Arab media that Hamas would seek "national reconciliation through the appropriate mechanisms and there is no change to the relations with the nationalistic forces. We will go ahead with the unity program alongside those who would like to work with us". Haniyeh went on to confirm that Hamas would adhere to "domestic treaties, including the Mecca agreement and the Cairo dialogues, and our relations with Arab states are still brother-relations".

According to Palestinian and Arab news reports, Abbas had appointed Salam Fayyad as the new head of the emergency government. Fayyad is not aligned with either Fatah or Hamas (although Fatah courted him in the run up to the 2006, promising him the PM position if they won). Fayyad, along with Hanan Ashrawi and Yasser Abed Rabbo set up the "Third Way Party", which won two seats in the 2006 elections. Fayyd is highly respected within Palestinian politics and also apparently by the Israelis, which is why he was appointed the finance minister in the Unity government.

In response to the sacking of Haniyeh and the dissolution of the unity government, Israel and the US have moved quickly to attempt to sure up Abbas. According to Israeli media reports, Olmert is looking to easy the economic blockade and hand over the taxes Israel stole. The Bush Administration has also announced that they want to "fast track" peace talks.

Both Abbas, Israel and the US are playing a dangerous game. While on one hand, as I mentioned last night, this is exactly what the US and Israeli have been pushing for and Abbas, the clique leading Fatah and the PLO desperate regain their once former dominant position in the Palestinian political landscape have obliged.

However, the US and Israel have not had it all their way. Despite spending millions and millions on shoring up around 40,000 presidential guard and other Fatah security forces, Hamas quickly over run them and took control of Gaza. This has completely undermined the US plan to use the newly trained Fatah forces to fight and over run Hamas. Now Israeli is demanding that an international force be sent into the Gaza , but not to keep peace but to fight Hamas (now that their proxy army has cut and run).

While both Israel and the US will be hoping that they can isolate Hamas in Gaza (and this could happen), Haniyeh and Mes'hal have been making clear overtures towards Abbas, while still remaining the dominant force in the PLC and also maintaining their position of control over the Gaza (today Mes'hal stated that Hamas has no interest in over throwing Abbas and are willing to "cooperate" with him in the name of the national interest).

Hamas's project is for a full Palestinian state not just a state in Gaza, in addition, they know that the Palestinian people as a whole will not accept such an arrangement. This is where Abbas is on the back foot.

He may be the legitimate president and have some control over the West Bank, but he has no control over Gaza . In addition, he has to deal eventually with the Hamas dominated PLC (unless he can somehow twist the Basic Law to allow him to call new elections).

The US and Israel are trying to shore him up, but Abbas while wishy washy is also not stupid, he knows that the Palestinian street will not support two separate states and he will be forced eventually to negotiate with Hamas (although, Israel and the US will do everything in their power to prevent this). Israel and the US have still not come to understand that they can not buy of the majority of the Palestinian people and that the majority of Palestinians are horrified by the factional fighting and will seek national reconciliation.


Some other things to note:
(1) Over the last two days, demonstrations have taken place in Gaza City, Khan Younis, Bethlehem and Hebron (and other cities) protesting the factional fighting. In Gaza city and Khan Younis, on Thursday before the Gaza fell to Hamas there were demonstrations of 1000 people in each city. There has been subsequent rallies organised by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) calling for an end to the factional fighting and national unity. Other demos have taken place as I mentioned in Bethlehem and Hebron.

(2) Pal media reported on Thursday, that Fatah in Gaza had split. According to one report, the new head of Fatah in the Gaza is now Abu Hilal, who went on to denounce Mohammed Dahlan and several other Fatah leaders as "collaborators". According to Abu Hilal, an emergency committee had been set up to rearrange affairs in the Fatah movement (not sure if this is at a national level or just in Gaza) and that he had reached an agreement with the leaders of Hamas and the Al Qassam brigades to ensure that the "good" people (ie. those not suspected of collaboration) were not harmed.

(3) Despite reports in Israeli and Western media, Hamas is not running around willy nilly killing every Fatah member they can get their hands on. On Wed and Thursday, Hamas definitely sought out Fatah members they believe to be collaborators and did carry out extra-judicial killings (as did Fatah of Hamas members). With Hamas taking control of the Gaza, they imposed a tense calm once the fighting was over. However, Hamas did carry out the execution of two Fatah members today, that they claimed was responsible for the killing of Hamas members.

However, Hamas has not made a point of going around rounding up Fatah members to execute them willy nilly. Today, Haniyeh and other Hamas leaders announced that Fatah members would be granted amnesty or clemency and that Hamas was only interested in routing out the collaborators within Fatah.

(4) In response to the Hamas victory in Gaza , Fatah fighters have started to target Hamas affiliated organisation and Hamas members, killing 1 Hamas member. Fighting has taken place in Nablus, Ramallah and Tulkarem. However, at least 12 people who were abducted from a Hamas aligned organisation on Thursday in Nablus were released unharmed by the Al Asqa Martyrs Brigade.


(5) With Hamas taking control of Gaza , the Israeli and Western media have gone into a feeding frenzy of speculation, including declaring that there will be a separate Islamic state in Gaza and/or that Hamas will impose Islamic rule over Gaza and that Gaza will become a "taliban style" strong hold.

This of course ignores completely that Hamas is nothing like the Taliban, other than the fact they both happened to be Islamic. However, even on this front, the two groups are widely divergent – Hamas does not engage in applying an extermist versiono of Shari'a law like the Taliban, which prohibits listening to music, engaging in other cultural activities and it does not prohibit women from attaining an education or working (the main force behind Hamas electoral success were professional women – doctors, lawyers, teachers). As Haniyeh made clear when he was elected in 2006, he has no plans to enforce the hijab and/or strict reading shari'a law (it should be note that Section 1, Article 4, part 2 of the Palestinian laws, signed into effect by Arafat and Abbas state, already that shari'a law is the basis of Palestinian legislation)

In addition, Hamas under the leadership of Khaled Mes'hal and Haniyeh and others have prioritised the national liberation agenda over Hamas religious agenda. They have consciously worked to ensure they do not alienate secular and Christian Palestinians and recognise that if they are to stay in the mainstream of politics, they need to be more pragmatic and not alienate all of those Palestinians who voted for them but do not necessarily agree with their religious agenda. To say that they are suddenly going to become a carbon copy of the Taliban is hysterical clap trap and a deliberate black propaganda on behalf of Israel to scare not only their own citizens but also the West.

In response to these wild predictions, which have little basis in reality (much of which is emanating from both the Israeli and Bush administrations in order to generate fear amongst the US, Israeli and international community, so they can push their own agenda), Haniyeh has stated quite clearly that Hamas has no interest in setting up a separate state in Gaza. In addition, Hamas political bureau chief, Khaled Mes'hal has denied that Hamas will implement blanket Islamic law across Gaza .

in solidarity, Kim