It seems that in times of crisis, the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority(PA) shows its true face. Like its responses to the demonstrations here against Annapolis; and the demonstrations against the last major attack on Gaza, “Operation Hot Winter”; again the PA is brutally repressing any attempts at dissent that are not PA-authorised.
Two days ago, on 28th December, PA police (“shorta” in Arabic) shot 3 demonstrators in Hebron with live ammunition, as a coalition of Palestinian political parties and organisations marched through the streets together, protesting the war on Gaza. I wasn’t there, but looking at photos and footage taken by my friends, it was a really nice sight of unity as the predominantly Hamas and PFLP supporters merged in a mass of red and green flags. They chanted angrily against the slaughter of civilians that Israel claims is not happening. And then they encountered the PA police, who started shooting immediately. The crowd started running scared, except the amazingly brave Hamas women, who yelled at everyone else for being cowards, and, still moving forward, took up stones to throw at the cops. My friend who was filming got caught behind the police-lines, at which point he got beaten up and his cameras stolen. Later these were returned to him by the head of the PA secret police, because he had good connections. The photos and footage were intact, although extra footage on one camera shows where the cops tried to mess with the footage but seemingly couldn’t figure out how.
The next day, planned demonstrations were again thwarted by the intense police presence. Groups of young boys (shabbab) were permitted to throw rocks at soldiers near one of the illegal Israeli settlements, Beit Romano, but the police maintained a heavy presence to ensure that no one got near to checkpoint 56, which divides PA-controlled areas from those controlled by Israeli occupation forces; as well as to ensure that larger numbers of demonstrators didn’t join the shabbab in their riots.
In Ramallah demonstrations, PA police arrested two protesters from PFLP and one from Hamas seemingly without reason, except that it is now illegal to belong to these parties. When a few young guys went to the police station to argue for their release, they were also detained for being PFLP - an affiliation they didn’t deny when questioned.
Today, in Nablus, where resistance to the massacre in Gaza has been almost non-existent – restricted to a few meagre demonstrations marching cheerfully around the city streets as though children weren’t being slaughtered in their beds – the PA Governor for Nablus refused to allow a meeting of a coalition of political parties and civil society organisations (which explicitly excluded Fatah) to occur in the advertised meeting place. A few hours before, he called the parties to advise that they would not be able to use the Masoud centre, and that to ensure this, he had positioned a unit of PA police around the building.
When questioned as to why there is no show of resistance in Nablus, people here lament that with the PA forces here, there is nothing they can do. 18 months ago, Nablus was controlled by the various fighting brigades, intent on resisting any Israeli incursions into the city. “The knights of the night”. And whilst this situation brought with it many problems, such as the presence of armed gangs with mafia-style operations, it also ensured that the responsibility of resistance to the occupation did not rest with one party alone. However, with the establishment of the US-brokered and funded Nablus security deal in late 2007, which led to the installation of 500 PA police in Nablus, this began to change. Working in conjunction with the Israeli occupation forces in defiance of Oslo accords, which decree that no Israeli military are allowed to enter any part of the West Bank designated Area A (such as Nablus and all other cities in the West Bank), the PA agreed to share security operations in Nablus withIsraeli military forces – with the PA police on the street from 6am-12am; Israeli army from 12am-6am. Designed to “clean-up” Nablus, the true aim of this collaboration seems to have been to disarm the freedom-fighting brigades in order to concentrate all power with the PA. Notably, in December of 2007, PA police spent one day overrunning the old city of Nablus- along the with refugee camps one of the resistance strong-holds in Nablus. For hours police controlled the ancient passages, clearing out roadblocks that had prevented Israeli jeeps from penetrating deep into the warren-like suq. That night, Israeli forces invaded, and were able to arrest more than 50 fighters from parts of the old-city they had never before been able to access.
The West Bank has now been pacified to such an extent that armed resistance against the Israeli-occupation (a right under international law) is now largely impossible. As Gaza is destroyed, Israel announces increasing relaxations of travel-restrictions for the besieged city of Nablus. Soon it will be possible for cars to travel in an out of Nablus without prior permission from Israeli authorities. It seems the Israeli occupation has nothing left to fear from the once notoriously-resistant city.
Ironically, today Fatah leaders called on Hamas to return weapons it confiscated from Fatah-fighters when it took over the Gaza strip in 2007.
This level of collaboration (all nuances intended) has found new voice with the war on Gaza. Two days ago, Mahmoud Abbas (President of the PA) asserted that the fault for the war on Gaza lay with Hamas. He vociferated extensively about the lengths to which he and his cabinet had gone to try to convince Hamas to renew the cease-fire. That if they had only listened to him… Surprisingly, this is exactly the same line being pushed by Israel and the US (who have committed to funding the Israeli military at the sum of approximately $3 billion each year for the next 10 years). Palestinians all across the West Bank, and those who have heard of it in Gaza, are reeling at this assertion.
The Israeli plan for Gaza, I fear, will be modelled on the war waged on Iraq. To destroy Gaza and install the Fatah-led PA as its puppet government. It seems the PA are just biding their time.
