Fighting anew

Doaa El-Bey looks at the repercussions of internal Palestinian fighting this week

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The eruption of internal Palestinian fighting in the neighbourhood of Shijaiyeh, Gaza, this week raises concern about the Palestinian question. Palestinian unity is at stake.

Fayez Rashid described Hamas's detention of Fatah members in Gaza and the Palestinian authority reaction by detaining Hamas members in the West Bank as an insurmountable obstacle to Palestinian national dialogue. He regarded the latest developments in Gaza as "a clear sectarian conflict". And instead of looking for Israeli hands in igniting strife, the two major Palestinian parties are exchanging accusations without conducting proper investigations.

What Fatah and Hamas seem to ignore at present is that their people are still fighting for liberation, thus there is no point for the presence of two authorities, one in Gaza and the other in the West Bank. The writer repeated his call for dissolving the Palestinian Authority and resisting the common enemy.

"It is not a shame for Fatah to fail in reaching a sound vision for a settlement or for Hamas to fail to have a sound vision of the Palestinian Authority. If the two parties' programmes do not succeed, they should find a third programme: resistance of the Zionist enemy," he wrote in the United Arab Emirates political independent daily Al-Khaleej.

He also called for a comprehensive Palestinian national dialogue in which all the Palestinian factions and parties participate. That could be held on the basis of the 2005 Cairo Declaration, the 2006 National Dialogue Document and the Sanaa agreement concluded more recently in Yemen. However, he stressed that the latest developments ruin any basis for dialogue and make any calls for it romantic or unrealistic.

The Saudi daily Al-Riyadh described what is happening in the Palestinian territories as painful and shameful as it gives Israel proof that the Palestinians are not capable of running their own state. The major problem facing the Palestinians, according to the newspaper editorial, is the weakness and fragmentation of the Palestinian political establishment and the conflicting regional and Arab loyalties. In addition, religious extremism was confronted by an anti- religious trend, a thing that ignited sectarian strife. "The weak Palestinian political establishment could not negotiate with Israel from a position of power. Even if it succeeds, it cannot establish a strong state as long as the seeds of fragmentation are present in Palestinian parties and organisations," the editorial read.

The United Arab Emirates independent daily Al-Bayan noted that words couldn't describe the humiliating scene of the Palestinian confrontations in Shijaiyeh when the Palestinian citizens had to escape into Israel fleeing the bullets of their Palestinian brothers. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas appealed to the Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak to allow the injured Palestinians into Israel. Thus, the second scene of Palestinian humiliation started when the Israeli ambulance came to rescue a group of Fatah members who were injured during a confrontation with Al-Qassam militia Group of Hamas.

Hafez Al-Barghouti wrote that the internal fighting in Gaza showed that "brethren are giving us away to our enemy". The writer believes that we live in strange times and that we need to stand on our heads in order to see clearly. "We crush one another to achieve victories that leave our fate in the hands of others. There is nothing to boast about, as the spilled blood is a sign of shame for all of us. The great catastrophe is that we tend to forget our main issue, fighting occupation," he wrote in the Palestinian daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida.

He concluded by questioning whether there is any hope that the Palestinians will get any international support in the future.

Amr Giftilli expressed his wonder that the Palestinian scene has become so absurd that the Palestinians easily fell in the Israeli trap. He questioned the whereabouts of the Palestinian wisdom that should unite Palestinian parties before a common enemy that persecutes all Palestinian citizens. He also questioned why the Palestinians allow external parties to impede their national dialogue.

"What happened in Shijaiyeh and in other places before is causing pain and bloodshed that would have negative repercussions on the Palestinian question. It should be a lesson to all parties and a red line that should not be crossed in the future," he wrote in the Syrian official daily Tishreen.

Abdul-Rahman Al-Rashed expressed his wonder that the day has come when the Palestinians escape to Israel. He wrote in the London-based political daily Asharq Al-Awsat that it never occurred to Yasser Arafat when he returned to Gaza in 1994 that his men would one day escape Gaza for safety in Israel. Al-Rashed added that it never crossed Abbas's mind since he had allowed Hamas to participate in the elections and in the government in January 2006 that Hamas would one day pursue members of Fatah. "The conflict between Hamas and Fatah came at a strange time when the former has concluded a truce with Israel, when Syria is negotiating with Israel and Hizbullah is exchanging prisoners with Israel. At that time, Hamas came to launch an attack against its fellow brothers and Fatah members in Gaza," Al-Rashed wrote. He ascribed the recent confrontations to differences within the ranks of Hamas because some of its members are against a truce with Israel. He suggested that Hamas should first reconcile with itself by resolving its internal differences and explaining to its members that the truce with Israel is essential. Then it should reconcile with the Palestinian Authority. "Given that Hamas concluded a truce with Israel and tried hard to respect it, and given that its behaviour is becoming like Fatah, reconciliation has become essential and working together is possible more than at any time before," he wrote.