Opinion - News Analysis   

Palestinians gift advantage to Israel

K.S. Dakshina Murthy

— PHOTO: AP

Protesters display a banner during a demonstration in Jakarta on June 10, which marked four decades of the Israeli occupation of West Bank, Gaza, and east Jerusalem.

The latest Palestinian peace road map has led to a bloody cul-de-sac. And with it any hopes of a solution to the five-decades-old dispute over the Israeli division and control of the Palestinian territories.

With the ruling Hamas and rival Fatah groups at each other’s throat and splitting the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza between themselves, the dispute has now taken off on an uncharted trajectory, the outcome of which can only m ean more tears for the Palestinians and joy for the Israelis.

Though the Palestinians have been the target of incessant Israeli armed battering since losing large swathes of territory in the Six-Day War of 1967, the various groups, leaders, and ideologues stuck together whatever their differences. Yasser Arafat was a cementing force and proved a key obstacle to successive Israeli governments denting Palestinian unity.

Giving vent to frustration, Israel and its American and European allies refused to negotiate with Arafat in a bid to isolate him. Therefore it was no surprise when they projected his death in 2004 as the end of an era of obstinacy in Palestinian politics. Israel advocated flexibility (read compromise) among Palestinian leaders but now finds itself the recipient of a gift that would have been unthinkable even a few years ago: a split in the ranks of the Palestinian resistance ranks.

Unless the Hamas and Fatah leaderships introspect and do a turnaround, the split is likely to remain. Israel could not have asked for anything better. This makes it easy to consolidate its hold over territories it occupied in the 1967 war and keep under tight control whatever remains of the West Bank and Gaza.

The unrelenting Israeli-led economic squeeze on the West Bank and Gaza since Hamas won legislative elections in February 2006 is doubtless the key reason for the Palestinians imploding. Unfortunately for the Palestinians, there was no one of Arafat’s stature to step in. The more the Mahmoud Abbas-led Fatah leadership pressured Hamas to soften its stance and recognise Israel, the more the Islamist group resisted.

Fatah’s argument was that Hamas’ recognition of the Jewish state would ease the economic blockade imposed by Israel, the European Union, and the United States. But the argument did not carry as the Hamas leadership argued that it had been elected to power based on a platform of unstinting opposition to Israel.

A series of sporadic clashes followed by an equal number of patch-ups between the two groups continued for more than a year, finally culminating in the latest bloody battle for control of Gaza. For the rest of the world, it appeared that the Palestinian fighters had forgotten their common enemy, the oppressive conditions they lived in, and the statelessness of their existence. This despite the fact that the Israeli military never passed up an opportunity to make its presence felt, mainly by bombarding Gaza and the West Bank. Gazans, in particular, faced the brunt of missile attacks and daily bombing for several weeks after the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier by Hamas-led Palestinian fighters last year.

The Israeli Government and its Western allies have already initiated steps to ease the economic squeeze on the West Bank while threatening to tighten their blockade over the Gaza Strip.

For those in the West Bank, the announcement is bound to be a relief; it means an end to months of shortages in food and essential commodities. For those depending on work across the border it would mean income once more and government staff can hope to get salaries on time. In the Gaza Strip, the news of the further tightening of the Israeli squeeze could spell a nightmare for its residents, already reeling under the adverse effects of the economic blockade. Already, thousands of Fatah supporters and ordinary Gazans have fled the region.

Politically, Hamas has showed no signs of backing off and instead has said its battle will now spread to the West Bank where it will not rest until Fatah is completely overthrown. Logistically, with a huge swathe of Israeli-occupied land physically dividing Gaza and the West Bank, the Hamas rhetoric smacks of bravado. The leadership hopes to influence its cadre in the West Bank to rise against Fatah there. Fatah has always been strong in the West Bank and now with Israel and its U.S.-led allies backing it, Hamas has an uphill task. Rather than inspiring a revolt, it may well end up fighting for survival in the West Bank.

The tragedy is that Hamas fought an internecine conflict and knocked the bottom out of the Palestinian resistance in pursuit of political power when the real power is wielded by Israel. The West Bank and Gaza remain Palestinian territories merely on paper. No activity in the two regions can take place independent of Israel. When Palestinian legislative council members belonging to Hamas and Fatah publicly talk ill of Israel they are routinely “arrested” and interned in jails across the border.

Any ordinary Palestinian who crosses the line in opposing Israel either gets arrested, killed or has his or her house destroyed. Over the years, hundreds of Palestinians from the West Bank and the Gaza strip have been whisked away by Israeli security and dumped in jails without being given a chance to have their say in court.

With the split in the Palestinian ranks, the four-decade-old demands including the right of return of Palestinian refugees, the freeing of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, and the return of territory usurped by Israel in the 1967 war may recede to the background.

For ordinary Palestinians, who have lived most of their lives looking over their shoulders fearing an Israeli attack, to have to start suspecting their own neighbours is nothing short of a calamity.

(The writer was formerly an Editor at Al-Jazeera based in Doha.)

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

False affidavits and political stratagems
Democrats on course
Iraq: Game plan for the endgame?
Software firms spending on land, buildings
Environment and U.S. policy top global fears
Palestinians gift advantage to Israel
Corrections and Clarifications
Super-rich earn more but give more away
Social websites hail arrival of global village
BJP’s bluster
Goodbye Blair
Unethical
Unfair expectations?
Hats off!

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu