Palestine is burning, not because of the Israeli fire but due to fratricidal war. Hamas and al-Fatah are at daggars drawn and killing one another. The fratricidal war has caused a deep political crisis. Hamas fighters have taken Gaza Strip under their control, whereas forces loyal to Mahmoud Abbas have full command over West Bank. The President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas added political fuel to the military fire or conflict when he dismissed the national unity government led by Ismail Haniya, a prominent Hamas leader. Abbas has also declared Hamas as a terrorist organisation and, according to him, people related with this organisation can not be associated with any organ or department of the government. After dismissing the national unity government, Mahmoud Abbas has sworn in Salam Fayyad as new Prime Minister whose cabinet includes one member of al-Fatah and many independent members of the Palestinian Majlis or the so called Parliament.
Ismail Haniya, the “sacked” Prime Minister has said that he is still in office because the constitution that has made Mahmoud Abbas President of the Palestinian Authority, has no clause for dismissing an elected government. Thus the new emergency government led by Salam Fayyad is illegal. With Gaza Strip and West Bank having been virtually under the control of rival factions, the possibility of further bloodbath can not be ruled out. Mahmoud Abbas has already announced that he would extend his authority over all of Palestine. Salam Fayyad’s government has also said that security is their first priority. Israel, on the other hand, is planning to send its forces deep into Gaza to crush the Hamas. It has also stopped fuel supply to Gaza. The implication is obvious. Israel and forces loyal to the new government along with the ousted Fatah fighters will try to retake Gaza Strip which, in plain words, means starting afresh the now stopped bloodbath and fratricidal war.
In view of the recent bloody political developments, many people are raising the alarm that the Palestine may be divided. However, such a possibility has been ruled out by Ismail Haniya who is reported to have said that he can not even imagine of such a scenario.
The present situation is that the US, the European Union, Israel and Russia have supported all the actions of Mahmoud Abbas without giving any thought to their being legal or illegal. The West has also lifted the sanctions it had imposed against the Hamas government. Israel, too, has decided to release the Palestinian fund it collects through taxes on the Palestinian people. It means the new government, despite being illegal, would not face the kind of financial crisis that the illegally sacked Hamas government was facing.
It would be appropriate to analyse the current Palestinian crisis in a dispassionate manner. In fact the genesis of the crisis lies in the Oslo Accord of 1993. That was the time when PLO and Yasser Arafat had been greatly undermined because of their support to Saddam Husain in the Gulf War. Capitalizing on the weakened position of Arafat, the West and Israel decided to call him to the negotiation table. Arafat lost everything when he renounced violence and recognized the State of Israel without securing a Palestinian state. He was satisfied with the promise that in the coming five years (after 1993) attempts would be made to facilitate the creation of a Palestinian State. We all know that promise is yet to be fulfilled.
Before the creation of a full Palestinian State an interim arrangement was to be made. Arafat returned to West Beank. He supervised the framing of a constitution under which elections were held for the President and the Majlis. Hamas had boycotted both the elections as a result of which Arafat and his Fatah members were voted to power with huge majority.
Hamas had rejected the Oslo Accord and continued its struggle against Israel. On the other hand Arafat realised that he was indeed cheated. Although he called himself President, but he knew well that he was not more than a mayor. He also realised soon that Israel was not sincere about creating an independent Palestinian State nor was America a fair peace-broker. Both Israel and America began to demand things that Arafat would have fulfilled only at the cost of betraying his people. He, therefore, refused to follow every Israeli-American command. What happened to him thereafter is a known history. The Israeli army surrounded his palace, destroyed it and effectively prevented him from moving out of his office. Only when he fell terminally ill, he was allowed to fly to France for treatment where he died.
Mahmoud Abbas succeeded Arafat after his death. Hamas did not participate in the presidential election but joined the electoral battle for the Palestinian Parliament which it won with a huge majority. The Hamas victory came despite blatant Israeli-American and Western interference in Palestine’s internal matters. And when Hamas won despite all these, they demanded it to accept Israel’s right to exist if it wanted Western aid. Hamas refused, formed the government and ran it against heavy odds. Israel and America could not tolerate it and encouraged the defeated Fatah to create problems for Hamas including attacks on its prominent leaders. To ward off this conspiracy and fratricidal war, Hamas agreed to form a unity government despite having a clear majority in the parliament. But some elements of al-Fatah continued to play the Israeli-American game and created the huge crisis in which Palestine is embroiled today. It is, therefore, al-Fatah and Mahmoud Abbas, coupled with the US and Israel, who must be blamed for the present Palestinian crisis.
[June, 2007]
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