It might be better to wait until I know more, but I wanted to say something about what occurred in Gaza on Monday, when a demonstration organized by Fatah to commemorate Arafat was fired upon by the Hamas-controlled police, with seven people killed including one child.
The police claim the shooting was started by someone in the crowd. But this is what police everywhere say when they fire on demonstrators and kill people, so there is no reason to automatically believe it. The stories I read or have seen do not have any explanation of what happened by Hamas.
Knowing a bit of the context might help understand what is going on. Remember that until earlier this year, there was an armed conflict between Hamas, which had won parliamentary elections in 2006, and Fatah, which had traditionally led the Palestinians under Arafat and which was now getting support by the US/Israel to try to oust Hamas. Hamas won the confrontation in Gaza but Fatah won in the West Bank, which caused many remarks about a “two-state solution”, “Gazastan/Hamastan” and “Fatahland”, that would have been clever if they weren’t talking about an unfolding tragedy. The confrontation at the time took the form of an contest between two armed bands.
What might be happening now is that Fatah may have changed its tactics and is trying to topple the Hamas government using political mobilizations and demonstrations, invoking Arafat’s memory and, now, provoking repression which will reveal Hamas to be callous to people’s suffering and to be acting like a repressive government rather than the leaders of a liberation movement. Such tactics could be much more successful, especially if Hamas responds as it has been doing, with not only firing on the demonstrations, but also arresting Fatah members, etc.
What makes this so much more painful to witness is that it is all going on at the same time as Israel’s tortures, destruction of villages, arrests, kidnappings, all continue without any interruption, as a glimpse at IMEMC will show.
Shame on Hamas, acting like
Shame on Hamas, acting like every government at anytime in history everywhere in the world. Shame on Fatah rally-goers that slur in unison “shia, shia, shia” at Hamas.
Since Hamas was elected about 200 Palestinians have been killed in factional fighting; 900 Palestinians have been killed by Israelis in the same period. Those 900 deaths were justified by the deaths of 20 Israelis – 12 of whom were soldiers or settlers – and the capture of one soldier. Israel invades Gaza daily, still.
There has also been virtually no reporting (in english) on Fatah’s attack on Hamas in the West Bank – many hundreds of arrests accompanied by torture, hundreds of cases of vandalism, sabotage.. Abbas’ decree to shut down Hamas charities and social welfare infrastructure, the ongoing imprisonment of Hamas cabinet members in Israel… and on and on. That’s during the day; at night, it’s the IDF’s turn. All in honour of Fayyad’s puppet government in Ramallah.
I got an email from Gaza today, a quick note about inflation caused by the cruel sanctions: Gas has doubled (200%); flour tripled; cooking oil tripled; cigarettes tripled. It costs six bucks for a bottle of cooking oil in a land where 80% of the population lives on less than two bucks a day. Cigarettes are six bucks a pack. There is not a can of soda in the Gaza Strip (not even from Ramallah’s Coca Cola plant)… ponder that life for a moment.
So neither Hamas, nor Fatah; not Israel or the US, to be sure; the EU? nope; the UN!?; definitely not Canada… it looks like tomorrow may be worse than today.