asianaffairs-Feb 2008

                                      West Asia

Hamas is the winner in Gaza

Two years after Hamas won the parliamentary election, a majority of Palestinians, especially in the Gaza Strip, still identify with the movement and its ideology, comments
Rupert Fisher

  Hamas appears to have emerged triumphant from the latest crisis in the Gaza Strip. Following an international outcry, Israel has agreed to resume fuel and medicine supplies to the 1.5 million Palestinians living under Hamas’s rule in the Gaza Strip.
   The decision came after large parts of the Gaza Strip had been plunged into complete darkness for two days because the local electrical plant ran out of fuel. Israel decided mid-January to seal the borders with the Gaza Strip and to prevent fuel, medicine and food supplies in response to the continued firing of rockets and mortars into Israel.
   The Israeli government was hoping that the sanctions would create a humanitarian crisis that would prompt Palestinians to take to the streets to condemn Hamas for the attacks.
   Similarly, Hamas’s political rivals in Fatah were hoping that the Israeli measures would trigger an intifada against Hamas, which took full control over the Gaza Strip last June after defeating Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah-controlled forces there. Abbas’s top aides were convinced that the countdown to Hamas’s collapse would begin immediately after the lights went off.
   But they were in for an unpleasant surprise.
   Instead of seeing anti-Hamas demonstrators, Abbas’s men in Ramallah got televised footage of children and women holding candles in the dark streets of Gaza City. Al-Jazeera and other Arab TV networks carried live coverage of the peaceful protesters, many of whom blamed not only Israel but Abbas’s government and the rest of the Arab countries for their plight.
   The pictures coming out of the Gaza Strip were so damning for the US-backed Palestinian Authority leadership that some of its representatives accused Al-Jazeera of serving Hamas’s interests by deliberately providing a platform for Abbas’s critics. For good measure, Al-Jazeera also offered a window to several commentators and analysts who lashed out at Abbas, accusing him of ‘collusion’ with Israel.
   They also took Abbas to task for failing to suspend peace talks with Israel in response to Israel’s punitive measures. Almost all of those who appeared on the various Arab TV stations held back from blaming Hamas.
   In the view of the majority of Palestinians and Arabs the suffering of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip is largely a result of a plot concocted by Israel, the US and their allies in Ramallah to bring down the Hamas government and extract political concessions from the Palestinians.
   The fact that Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have not taken to the streets to demand the resignation of the Hamas government shows that the Islamist movement’s power there remains as steady as ever. The talk about Hamas’s dwindling popularity has once again proved to be wishful thinking.
   Only a handful of Arabs have thus far publicly blamed Hamas for the looming humanitarian crisis. Abdel Rahman Rashed, a Saudi national serving as general manager of the pan-Arab Arabiya news channel, said Hamas was responsible for the suffering of some 1.5 million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip.
‘  Hamas committed a stupid act when it gave the Israelis an excuse to launch attacks in retaliation for a few antique rockets’, Rashed wrote in the London-based daily Asharq al-Awsat. ‘Prior to that, Hamas committed a big crime against the Palestinian people by overthrowing the Palestinian Authority (in the Gaza Strip). The Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have suffered a lot because of Hamas’s actions. Hamas is bringing Israel back into the Gaza Strip after it was liberated by the Palestinian groups.’
   Rashed questioned the wisdom of firing rockets and mortars at Israel which, he said, was only increasing the suffering of the Palestinians; they were not causing much harm to Israel. In the recent attacks ‘only’ 10 Israelis were wounded, he said, as opposed to the ‘huge disaster’ that has befallen the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

  Two years after Hamas won the parliamentary election, a majority of Palestinians, especially in the Gaza Strip, still identify with the movement and its ideology. Tens of thousands of Palestinians participated in rallies marking Hamas’s twentieth anniversary several weeks ago, demonstrating that the movement remains as popular as ever. In contrast, Fatah was unable to attract large crowds when it celebrated its forty-third anniversary earlier in January.
   Fatah leaders did not conceal their dismay over Hamas’s ‘manipulation’ of the suffering of the Palestinians to score points among the Arab and Islamic masses. They said that Israel made a ‘mistake’ by resorting to collective punishment instead of going after those directly involved in the firing of rockets and mortars. Some of them even accused Hamas of staging the entire crisis for political gain.
   In an attempt to counter the Hamas propaganda machine, Abbas has dispatched his prime minister, Salaam Fayad, to a number of EU countries to try to persuade them to exert pressure on Israel to ease restrictions on the Gaza Strip. Abbas also announced that he was behind Israel’s belated decision in the third week of January to allow diesel fuel and medicines into the Gaza Strip.
   Abbas’s aides have also waged a campaign aimed at discrediting Hamas in the wake of the last crisis and are now holding the Islamist movement responsible for the deterioration.
   ‘Hamas is holding more than 1.5 million Palestinians hostage’, said a senior Palestinian official in Ramallah. ‘Of course, we strongly condemn the Israeli measures against the residents of the Gaza Strip, but Hamas is also responsible for what’s happening there. Unfortunately, the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are paying a heavy price for Hamas’s irresponsible actions.’

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