On Gaza

Arab commentators are still weighing the fall out of the Gaza crisis, writes Rasha Saad

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The on-going violence that erupted two weeks ago in Gaza between rival factions of President Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement continued to be the main focus of the Arab press this week. Commentators particularly lamented that the tragic events came at a time when all efforts should have been exerted in the development and consolidation of the Palestinian victory in the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The ICJ ruling has deemed the apartheid wall built by Israel to be in violation of international law, calling for the removal of those parts of it that have been already constructed on Palestinian land. A total of 150 nations have backed the UN General Assembly resolution drafted in support of the ICJ opinion, which the Sharon government has defiantly rejected. The violence in Gaza was seen to result from the lack of security, the absence of a unified national leadership, widespread corruption and mismanagement within the Palestinian Authority, and the absence of the rule of law and an effective judiciary apparatus.

The London-based Lebanese daily Al-Hayat offered a range of views analysing the crisis throughout the week. In last Thursday's issue, Palestinian activist and writer Mustafa Barghouti argued that this strife was being used to distract the Palestinian people from their main battle against the racist wall of separation, the illicit invasion of Beit Hanun and the destructive operations in Rafah and Khan Yunis. The crisis reflected the narrow vision of those who are busy competing for power and leadership in an authority that lacks sovereignty because of the Israeli occupation. "The struggle for power in Gaza under the current circumstances is like playing warden in a prison administered by the occupation," he wrote.

Barghouti denies that the Israeli intention is to pull out of Gaza. He reads the crisis not as a withdrawal, or even the beginnings of one, but rather as a re-occupation: "It is a gradual re-occupation. It is a systematic operation that aims at destroying the nationalist movement and Palestinian institutions. It is, also, an Israeli attempt to turn Gaza into a prison surrounded by Israel from all sides."

Calls on Arafat to step down continued to flow this week. In Friday's Al-Hayat Raghida Dergham wrote that the crisis was a call from Palestinians on Arafat "to free them from the prison they find themselves sharing with him. It is a cry for him to treat them with confidence and trust rather than deem them incapable of making decisions." According to the writer, it would be naïve to imagine that Arafat holds any of the important keys in the present impasse or that an agreement by him to strengthen the positions of the prime minister and the interior minister by authorising security reforms would eliminate the chances of a conflagration of the crisis. But yet she argues it would be wise for Arafat to undertake such measures and to weigh the alternatives to the Palestinian Authority in the event of its collapse. "It would be wise for him to go down in history not as the president at a time of collapse but as the president who stepped down from power in order to counter Israeli designs. The crisis is an overt expression of an unspoken desire for the Palestinian president to step down willingly from power."

The collapse of the Palestinian Authority would be a costly disaster not only for Palestinians but also for Israelis. According to Dergham the power vacuum that would result from such a collapse would likely be filled by organisations such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. "Sharon is well aware of such a possibility. He knows that in the absence of coordination with the PA his ploy of unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip would lead to a take-over by the organisations he has labelled 'terrorist'."

Dergham believes that while there is no indication of Israeli readiness to co-exist with Hamas as an alternative to the PA, there is every indication of a readiness to further entangle the Palestinians and lure them into a trap, thus providing an excuse for their mass eviction as part of a policy of population "transfer".

Most analysts refuted the involvement of regional or international forces in Gaza. They argue that Gaza has been a loaded barrel for many years, even before the establishment of the PA in 1994. "A few days ago this barrel exploded because the Strip is getting ready for Israeli unilateral withdrawal next year. Skirmishes between Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and Palestinian security forces in Rafah are the beginnings of the practice of power there," wrote Abdullah Iskandar, also in Al- Hayat on Thursday.

Palestinian writer Mamdouh Nawfal argued in Saturday's edition that Sharon used these events to claim that the PA was incapable of living up to expectations as a partner in any political agreement. However, he added, "the occupation is not responsible for the intellectual, organisational and political crises that Fatah is going through." According to the writer, Sharon succeeded in destroying the strategies of peace, yet "he is not responsible for the mistakes the Palestinians commit."

The demand for a total reshuffle of the Palestinian leadership was echoed by many writers. Abdul- Bari Atwan, the Palestinian editor- in-chief of the London-based daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi, wrote on Monday calling for a total reshuffle of the Palestinian leadership. In an editorial entitled "A corrupted leadership that should be changed", Atwan argued that the Palestinian political leadership was corrupt and impossible to reform, making total change the only way out. Furthermore, 60 per cent of Palestinians are under the age of 20, stressed Atwan, and yet the average age of their leaders is above 65. The present conflict is not one over the Palestinian state but over power and more corruption, he declared. "The Palestinian leadership has lost its revolutionary momentum and at the same time has not gained the momentum of a state. It moved from the purity of revolution to the corruption of power and stained the Palestinian people, thousands of whom fell victim, with this corruption." Atwan also lamented that the Palestinian leadership is the only one in history that agreed to negotiations and signed peace agreements but failed to achieve a state or even peace: "Peace agreements signed by independence movements have led to independence. The Palestinian independence movement is the only one that led its people to despair."

Writing in the Kuwaiti Al-Ra'i Al-Aam Shafiq Nazim underlined the need for a young leadership that understands the givens of the current historical moment. "Unless such new leadership emerges, the Palestinian situation will collapse and turn into complete chaos leading to another Nakba." Nazim demanded that the Palestinian president end his long rule in a manner that would help build a future for the Palestinians and maintain his image as a symbol of the Palestinian cause.