Listen Here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99260606
Morning Edition, January 13, 2009 · Among the many losers in the war in Gaza may be Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah movement.
At the start of Israel's offensive, Abbas said that Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, was at least partly to blame for the conflict because it had provoked Israel with its rocket fire.
Abbas has since toughened his criticism of Israel. But he seems to have misread popular Palestinian sentiment on the war.
While there have been massive demonstrations against Israel's assault on Gaza across the globe, similar protests have been largely suppressed in the occupied West Bank, which is run by Abbas and Fatah.
When demonstrators left a mosque in downtown Ramallah on Jan. 9, parking attendant Abdul Hakim Nakhleh watched as helmeted Palestinian police beat the largely peaceful protesters.
"People were chanting, not knowing that they would be beaten and tear-gassed," he says. "Even women were beaten by women police."
The demonstration had started out in support of the people of Gaza but turned into a protest against Abbas. The 43-year-old Nahkleh says he once voted for Abbas but will vote for Hamas from now on.
After a year of failed peace talks, Abbas is hard-pressed to convince Palestinians in the West Bank that moderation pays.
Jeweler Murad Odeh says he thinks Abbas, who is also known as Abu Mazen, will be in trouble in the next elections.
"Abu Mazen keeps talking about peace, but we haven't seen anything," Odeh says. "Despite Israel's promises to withdraw, there are still more than 600 Israeli roadblocks. They continue expanding their settlements on our land. At any time, the Israeli army can come here and arrest people. People here do not feel secure."
Abbas has clamped down on Hamas in the West Bank as he pursued peace talks with Israel — but those negotiations have stalled.
And his legitimacy is in question for another reason: His four-year term as president ended Jan. 9. His aides say legislation gives him another year. Hamas rejects this. Bitter jokes now circulate — one text message calls Abbas a "U.S.-made product" whose date has expired.
Ayman Daraghmeh, a Hamas-affiliated member of Parliament, believes Abbas has made serious mistakes in recent weeks, reinforcing the growing perception that he is a pawn of Israel and the U.S.
But however much Hamas might have gained, Daraghmeh says, the continuing split between Palestinians must be resolved so there can be new elections.
"After this crisis ends, I think people will have to sit together to end this split between Gaza and the West Bank," he says.
Daraghmeh warns that if the two sides can't work together and there is no progress in real peace talks, there could be more violence.
"People will sometimes explode suddenly … without permission from the Palestinian leadership," he says.
Abdullah Abdullah, a senior Fatah official, also hopes that the crisis in Gaza will somehow force the Palestinians to resolve their differences. He says the international community is as much to blame for the split as the Palestinians themselves.
"If the peace process were progressing normally, Hamas wouldn't be there. Extremism comes to fill a vacuum that was created by those who are not serious about peace," he says.
While loath to acknowledge that Abbas has lost ground, Abdullah does say the security forces in the West Bank have gone too far to suppress Hamas supporters.
"We don't accept them arresting any demonstrator. … It has stopped. We intervened strongly, and it has stopped," he says.
This may be too little, too late. It remains to be seen Friday — when more demonstrations are expected — whether, indeed, the Fatah-led government will allow them.
(Because of intense interest in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, NPR makes available free transcripts of its coverage. View the free transcript of this story.)
No comments:
Post a Comment