The abhorrent news from Gaza of
illogical killing among Palestinians
has hurt the Palestinian cause.
Palestinians in the West Bank, where
it is rumored that all available
weapons and ammunition have been
purchased by militants from one
faction or the other, are bracing for
some difficult days ahead.
Palestinians can't blame anyone but
themselves. Despite the economic siege
and restriction on movement placed on
Gaza, there is little that anyone can
say by way of explaining the madness.
The way attempts at self government
have been executed leaves little hope
for successful peace talks. An outside
observer can easily be excused for
asking how Palestinians who cannot
learn to administer power fairly,
apply the rule of law and understand
the meaning of power sharing and
rotation of power in Gaza can
guarantee that they can do it in the
rest of the Palestinian territories.
While the current fighting is a black
spot in Palestinian history, some
contextualization is necessary.
Palestinian territories (Gaza and the
West Bank, including Jerusalem) have
been under a brutal foreign military
occupation that has violated
international law by moving Jewish
population to houses built on lands
expropriated from Palestinians. The
Fourth Geneva Convention specifically
prohibits the occupying power from
moving its people into areas under
occupation.
Since the Israelis left Gaza, the only
open border to the over one million
Palestinians living was closed many
more days than it was opened. The
Israelis say they regularly close the
Rafah crossing point because of the
still unresolved problem of the
captured Israeli soldier. Again, such
action constitutes collective
punishment and is a violation of
international law.
Furthermore, the unjust economic siege
by which the international banking
system prohibits a single penny from
being transferred into an account of
the Palestinian Authority has caused
extreme poverty and unemployment. With
little hope for the present or the
future, it is not difficult to predict
more chaos.
The Mecca agreement between Hamas and
Fateh resulted in an agreement by
which the dominant legislative
authority (Hamas) agreed to give up
power in order to please the
international community and break the
unjust economic siege. But three
months into the new national unity
government no lifting of siege has
been witnessed.
Sources from Gaza indicate that the
current round of fighting was
instigated by some hardline officials
who were asked to leave in order to
make room for the national unity
government. Some of these leaders are
wondering how to share power with
Fateh if the latter has not been able
to bring an end to the economic siege.
One can argue that Hamas cannot blame
Fateh for the continuation of the
siege. Palestinian President Mahmoud
Abbas has repeatedly said that the
commitments made by Hamas in Mecca
were not enough. It was hoped that the
movement would show more moderation by
moving closer to the demands of the
international community.
Whatever arguments are made by any
side, the pictures coming out of Gaza
are disagreeable to anyone supporting
the Palestinian cause. As Palestinians
were remembering 59 years since the
Nakba (catastrophe), the time when the
Palestinian refugee problem was born,
Palestinian newspapers ran
eight-column headlines in black and
red calling what is happening in Gaza
a new Nakba. But while commemorating
the Nakba is supposed to remind the
world of the right of Palestinian
refugees to return to their lands and
homes, the new Nakba is threatening to
make the dream of an independent
Palestinian state in the West Bank and
Gaza as difficult as the right of
return.
* A Palestinian columnist and
director of the Institute of Modern
Media at Al-Quds University in
Ramallah.
