JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1995, Pages 15, 111

Special Report

Blame Enough for All in Gaza Shootings

By Stephen J. Sosebee

The Nov. 18 bloodletting in which Palestinian National Authority (PNA) forces killed 13 Islamist demonstrators outside the Palestine mosque in Gaza City was the culmination of a 10-week confrontation between Islamic radicals and the PNA. Though both parties share responsibility for the bloodshed, Israeli and international actions also contributed to the violence.

Unemployment in Gaza is over 50 percent. Living standards have dropped 25 percent in the past three months and infectious diseases, even including cholera, have broken out in recent months. These factors have had more to do with growing opposition in Gaza to Yasser Arafat's PNA than the popularity of Islamic fundamentalism.

Hard-line PNA officials like General Nasr Yusef, the head of the Palestinian police, must bear responsibility for having PNA forces outside the Palestine mosque to prevent a demonstration and then permitting the use of live ammunition when things got out of control. Head of intelligence Ghazi al-Jabali and Justice Minister Freih Abu Middein also have followed the Israeli lead in taking a hard line against fundamentalist opposition in Gaza. However, while the PNA is accountable for the behavior of its police, the Islamists are at fault for continuously exploiting the economic situation in Gaza and the weakness of the security arrangements in the Oslo Accords.

Israel still maintains civilian settlements and soldiers to protect them in Gaza, making both an easy target for opposition groups to hit and escape back into the autonomous areas. PNA President Yasser Arafat tried for months to appease these Palestinian opposition groups while their attacks intensified, finally provoking the hard-liners in the PNA to resort to force to deal with an out-of-control security situation.

The fundamentalists have put Arafat in a position where he appears as an Israeli proxy if he arrests opposition activists for attacks against Israeli targets. However, he cannot condone guerrilla attacks on Israelis if he is to continue negotiating with them to get more authority in the West Bank. This is the no-win position into which the fundamentalists and Israelis have maneuvered the PNA, which led to the confrontation at the Palestine mosque.

Hamas leaders claim that most Palestinians support their continued use of violence against Israelis from the autonomous areas, but facts indicate otherwise. According to the results of the most recent poll conducted by the Center for Palestine Research and Studies (CPRS) in Nablus, more than half of the population of the occupied territories, including Gaza and Jericho, oppose armed attacks by Palestinians on Israelis from the self-rule areas. The poll also found that nearly half of the population suports an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel, while only 38 percent would hold out for "The liberation of all of Palestine." Hamas political leaders boast that they enjoy the support of the majority of Palestinians, but actually Arafat's Fatah faction garnered 42.3 percent support compared to 17.4 percent support for Hamas, the second-largest faction. Three-fourths of all Palestinians polled claimed they were going to vote in the coming elections.

Moderate and Radical Islamists

Like the PNA and Israelis, the Islamists have moderates and radicals within their leadership. But the Islamist moderates have yet to use the political opportunities in the Oslo Accords to build a strong political opposition. Nor have fundamentalist leaders proved politically mature enough to make the compromises necessary to end the Israeli occupation and bring about a Palestinian state. They instead have chosen to label the accords a "sell-out" before testing them, and to employ violence to undermine them even before the extensive Israeli withdrawals called for in the accords.

The Israelis also must take some responsibility for the violence in Gaza. It is well known that Israel encouraged the growth of Hamas in the early 1980s in Gaza as an alternative to the PLO. Further, since the Oslo Accords, Israeli troops have continued gross human rights violations, including killing unarmed Arab civilians, imprisoning political activists and expanding illegal Jewish settlements in the West Bank. Israel's Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin has intensified the bad economic situation in Gaza by closing its borders after violent incidents involving Israelis.

Rabin also made a significant blunder in October that weakened Arafat, strengthened Hamas, and set in motion the events leading to the massacre. This came when a unit of Izzadin Al-Qassem, the militant arm of Hamas, kidnapped Israeli Corporal Nahshon Wachsman. Rabin insisted the soldier was being held in Gaza, despite denials by both Hamas and the PNA, and threatened to resume Israeli military control of Gaza. Israel reportedly massed artillery and tanks on Gaza's border before it was finally determined that the soldier was being held just north of Jerusalem.

For most Gazans, the issue is an improvement in their quality of life.

By then, Arafat had buckled under Israeli pressure and arrested 350 suspected Hamas activists. By the time it was demonstrated that the Israeli soldier, who was killed by his captors during an Israeli rescue attempt, had never been held in Gaza, Arafat had lost much credibility, even among his supporters, and Hamas felt strong enough to challenge PNA authority in the streets.

For most Gazans, the issue is not Islamic power or PNA rule, but rather an improvement in their quality of life. The international community missed taking advantage of a six-month grace period starting in May when Arafat had the overwhelming support of Gazans celebrating the end of curfews and of Israeli soldiers shooting people in the camps and towns.

This period of euphoria provided the donor countries, who promised the Palestinians $700 million for 1994 but so far have given only $70 million, the chance to help suffering Palestinians feel the meaning of peace. By haggling with Arafat over accounting, the international community allowed the optimism generated by the Israeli withdrawal to wither in the face of economic stagnation. Without jobs, food or a promise for a better tomorrow, it was just a matter of time before the rejectionist groups were able to mobilize a strong opposition in Gaza's streets. The continuing delays raise serious questions about the sincerity of the donor countries in making peace a reality.

For the Middle East peace process to succeed, there must be peace between Israel and the Palestinians. For peace between Israel and the Palestinians to succeed, there must be peace among the Palestinians. The current economic decay in the West Bank and Gaza only postpones the ability of the Palestinian Authority to begin the hard negotiations with Israel over Palestinian refugees, Jewish settlers, East Jerusalem and Palestinian sovereignty.

An improvement in the economic situation and fair and open Palestinian elections will go far to undermine Islamist obstruction and avert the possibility of civil war. But the donor countries, who were so quick to volunteer support to "Middle East peace" a year ago, have yet to fulfill their pledges to the Palestinians. Nor is it fair or prudent for the Israelis to pressure Arafat to do what they themselves were unable to do in Gaza. For the sake of real peace in the Middle East, the PNA, Israel's Labor government and the donor nations must act now. A failure that turns Gaza into another Lebanon will undermine the only serious prospect in the past 50 years for real stability in the Middle East.