| Anybody got a spare logic board for my digital surprise meter? Mine burned out! |
Pictures of Muppets adorn the corridors of Al-Quds Educational Television, but the control room where the Palestinian version of Sesame Street was once produced is now scarred by bullet pockmarks.
| But it gives Count Count a new day to teach counting to ten for the kiddies. |
Early last month, masked gunmen broke into the studio in the pre-dawn hours. The attackers beat the two technicians on duty and sprayed the control room equipment with dozens of bullets. The television employees managed to escape. They knew nothing about the attackers. "They didn't leave any message," said station director Ayman Bardawil. "There are so many suggestions as to why this happened, but none of them were proven. Until this day, nothing has come out of the investigation."
| Maybe they wanted Baywatch. |
Law and order in Palestinian cities has all but disappeared during 41 months of conflict and the reoccupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip by Israeli forces. In many places, Palestinian police and security forces have been fragmented or disappeared altogether. The power vacuum has been filled by armed and anonymous Palestinians who are enforcing their own rules. The lawlessness has exposed the internal divisions of Palestinian society and government. Pitted against one another are rival security agencies, militant splinter groups and some members of powerful families in the cities. And as the disorder spreads, Palestinian intellectuals and politicians are increasingly looking past Israel as the usual scapegoat and admitting they share a part of the blame. Not everyone has been as fortunate to escape alive as the employees at Al-Quds Educational Television. Shortly after midnight Tuesday, unknown gunmen shot dead Khalil al-Zabin, an adviser to Yasser Arafat and a veteran journalist, as he left his office in Gaza City's Sabra neighborhood. The brazen attack jolted Palestinians and unleashed a torrent of self-criticism. "The Palestinian Authority, the security services and the Palestinian factions are all responsible," Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia told Al-Jazeera TV.
"I blame myself Mahmoud." |
Minutes before the funeral of al-Zabin, his daughter, Nour, said: "Did my father fight 40 years for the Palestinian cause to be killed by Palestinians? These are cowards."
| That's pretty much right. |
The Palestinian Authority's central rule has been severely weakened with Arafat holed up in his half-destroyed Ramallah headquarters for the last two years, surrounded by red binders Israeli troops. In the cities of the West Bank and Gaza, the overlapping political fiefdoms and the unwieldy network of Palestinian security forces have turned against one another in some cases. Mohammad Dahlan, a former security chief in Gaza recently sidelined from the Palestinian Cabinet who still controls one of Gaza's strongest security forces, has blamed the Palestinian government for the lawlessness while denying any personal connection to the attacks. "It's a result of the weakness of the Authority," Dahlan said. "It's some kind of chaos."
| "It's all their fault! Can't be mine!" |
The specter of a further deterioration of order has raised concerns in the United States and Israel about a potential takeover by Hamas. But many observers, both Palestinian and Israeli, don't see Islamic groups as ready to challenge Arafat's government, which is still the globally recognized administration and the recipient of international aid. "Most people realize that the Palestinian Authority are the only ones that can speak to an European and Arabic international audience," said Hillel Frisch, a political science professor at Bar-Ilan University who specializes in Palestinian affairs. "Hamas and Islamic Jihad aren't even close to being given that access." But it's not at all clear just how the Palestinian Authority can reestablish the rule of law. Palestinian police in the West Bank are prohibited by the Israeli army from carrying weapons and lack equipment to investigate crimes.
| And they have an unfortunate tendency to explode in public. |
"People are reverting to tribal laws," said Hasan Khreisheh, a Palestinian legislator. "This is not a good situation, because in civilized countries, all things should be carried out by courts, not by returning to families and revenge."
| Have the Paleos ever known anything other than tribal law? |
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