| Submit your comments on this article |
| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| The Impossibility of Keeping Order in Gaza |
| 2007-02-23 |
| The next time the leaders of rival political factions here in the Palestinian territories come to a podium with smiles and handshakes—as Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh recently did to announce a unity government they pray will end factional fighting between their Fatah and Hamas parties—remember Majed Ghrayeb, a top Fatah security official. One evening, a little over a month ago, Ghrayeb was at home when the interior ministry's Executive Force—the Hamas addition to the more than a dozen militias, mafias, and gangs that ply their trade in the Gaza Strip—attacked his house in the Jabaliya refugee camp. In the ensuing gun battle, Ghrayeb was wounded and taken from his home by the Hamas gunmen. Within minutes of the attack, Abbas, whom everyone calls Abu Mazen, called Haniyeh in an effort to get Ghrayeb released. Haniyeh reached the commanders on the ground, ordered them to release Ghrayeb, and was promised that he would be let go "in five minutes," according to an official in the room at the time. About five minutes later, the Hamas fighters executed Ghrayeb and dumped his body in the street. they lie to their own leaders. the nobility and integrity of the palestinian people knows no bounds. Despite Abbas' and Haniyeh's recent moves toward cooperation, the two men have failed to address what might be the only issue that currently matters: who will command the thousands of underpaid and overarmed gunmen who wander the streets of the Gaza Strip "keeping order." ignorant, hate filled, murder-accepting and armed. quite a combination. It's great news that Hamas is now willing to share ministry portfolios with Abu Mazen's Fatah party. Great news, that is, if you or a family member are chosen for a cabinet position. But for the rest of the Gaza Strip's poor and frustrated residents, all that matters is the lack of money, the number of guns in the hands of young men, and how it seems that Haniyeh and Abu Mazen have little, if any, say in the behavior of their own security forces. The tax revenues collected by Israel and the huge amounts of international aid given to the Palestinian government are the only things that keeps Gaza eating. And because of Hamas' refusal to recognize the state of Israel, most of that revenue has dried up since the party's January 2006 election victory. At the same time, since Israel evacuated its Gaza settlements in the summer of 2005 and Israel turned over the Egyptian border to Palestinian authority in November of that year, local black-market trade in guns, rocket launchers, and drugs has boomed. plenty of money for weapons and drugs. food? not so much. It's easy for Americans and Israelis to say—as they recently have—that the Palestinians need to unify their security forces and support a government that recognizes Israel's right to exist. But doing so would require a series of impossibilities. First, the Palestinian Authority would need to find an interior minister who could integrate a slew of different factions that hate each other and whom the fighters on the street would respect. However, any potential minister who was himself untainted by factional bloodletting would also lack the gunmen needed to bring the others in line. Hamas will never accept the command of Fatah security boss Mohammed Dahlan, and Dahlan's men are loyal to him only as long as he pays their salaries. And if Haniyeh can't even keep his men from killing senior Fatah officials against direct orders, it seems unlikely that he can force his more militant allies to accept the terms that would reopen the aid spigot the government desperately needs. in other words, peace with Israel is absolutely impossible because the palis hate each other so much. what a bizarre set of circumstances. even more bizarre is the fact that the world doesn't see it for what it is -- purely out of convenience and self interest. In the Khan Yunis refugee camp, a Hamas stronghold, the Executive Force is housed and trained, not without irony, in a former Israeli settlement. Where Israelis once worked and raised families, palis train to kill. In new blue camouflage uniforms, Hamas militants go through the motions of training to be real police officers. For the most part, they're sweet kids, quick to laugh and joke with an American visitor, and a few even speak fondly of the days before the intifada when Israeli settlers would come to Khan Yunis to shop and hang out. To a man they insist that while they are Hamas party members, they want to be part of a police force that protects all Palestinians, regardless of affiliation. But when pressed, one of their top officials—a huge, gregarious man named Abu Mutana—admits that even with the new deal, the chances of preventing more intra-Palestinian bloodshed are slim. On his giant hands, he checks off the problems: hate for Dahlan by his own men, family feuds and revenge killings that continue unabated despite the pleas of the leaders. Finally, he admits that unity is a charade, as would become clear if he were ordered to arrest Ghrayeb's killers. "If you ask me once, I am the interior ministry police. You ask me again, I am Palestine's police force." He pauses and grins. "You ask me a third time, my friend, and I am Hamas; only Hamas." "I'm whatever I need to be in the moment. My loyalties are for sale." An hour later, back in Gaza City, more than 3,000 armed young men aligned with Fatah were marching and shooting guns in the air. My driver and I assumed the war had resumed, for who would send thousands of armed men to fire wildly in the air in front of the Islamic University of Gaza, a hotbed of Hamas support that was recently burned and looted by Fatah gunmen. But it seems they just want jobs. After what they claimed was eight months of training—although their ability to march and handle automatic weapons makes me suspect they need another eight months—they have no jobs, only uniforms and weapons. As they shouted and fought over whose turn it was to shoot the machine gun in the air, a local journalist leaned over and whispered in my ear. "This is about money," he said. "Fuck Fatah, and fuck Palestine. If [Israeli Prime Minister Ehud] Olmert called right now and offered them each [$250] a month, they'd all become Jews and join the Israeli Defense Forces." |
| Posted by:PlanetDan |
| #15 wonder what the diff in life expectancy is between Gaza and the WB. In the WB, at least, they seem to keep the wepons on "safety", except for celebrations and such, of course, like weddings, unexpected funerals, IDF arrests.... |
| Posted by: Frank G 2007-02-23 20:34 |
| #14 Maybe we could flood the place with cheap meth. |
| Posted by: Chiper Threreger8956 2007-02-23 20:27 |
| #13 True statesmen, each and every one. |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2007-02-23 18:55 |
| #12 Yeah, let's give these people a country. |
| Posted by: Brett 2007-02-23 17:45 |
| #11 PCHRÂ’s preliminary investigation indicates that at approximately 19:00 on Saturday, 20 January 2007, Ashraf Matar (22) was injured by a bullet in the head during weapons training in a camp for Izzedeen El-Qassam Battalions to the southwest of Gaza City. He was taken to Shifa hospital for treatment, where his injury was listed as serious. At approximately 11:30 on Friday, 19 January 2007, Salim Sobhi Ibrahim Abu El-Kheir, a 51-year old resident of El-Amal Quarter in Khan Yunis, was killed by bullets to the head and chest. Unknown gunmen traveling in a car fired at the victim as he was heading to the mosque in his neighborhood. The Police started an investigation into the murder. On Thursday, 18 January 2007, Kamal Mohammad Sarhan El-Bashiti (32) was killed and two children were injured by gunfire in a wedding celebration in Khan Yunis. PCHRÂ’s fieldworker reported that a gunman lost control of an assault rifle he was firing in the air during the wedding celebration, in the Batn El-Samin area in Khan Yunis. The injured were taken to Naser Hospital for treatment. Kamal, the groomÂ’s brother, died of his wounds at the hospital; while the childrenÂ’s injuries were listed as moderate. At approximately 16:00 on the same day (18 January), Mahmoud Adnan Abu MaÂ’rouf, a 23-year old resident of Jorit El-Lout area in Khan Yunis, was moderately injured by a bullet in the left leg. The injury occurred due to the accidental discharge of a bullet from a friendÂ’s weapon in El-Mawasi area, west of Khan Yunis. Abu MaÂ’rouf was taken to Naser Hospital for treatment. At the same time as the previous incident, Anwar Badawi El-Yazji (51-year old resident of Gaza), was injured by shrapnel in the back while he was in El-Remal Quarter in the city. El-Yazji informed PCHRÂ’s fieldworker that masked gunmen fired at him after they failed to abduct him. I gotta stop. This is like crack... |
| Posted by: tu3031 2007-02-23 16:43 |
| #10 The dream of President Abbas, whom everyone calls Abu Mazen, to push the Jews off the land by outbreeding them, is looking farther off with every visit tu3031 makes to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights website. ;-) |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2007-02-23 16:23 |
| #9 Clashes broke out in Ramallah on Thursday afternoon after Palestinian security officers accidentally killed a Palestinian youth. The incident began when a Palestinian military intelligence forces instructed a vehicle traveling in the West Bank city to stop. The driver refused and continued driving. The force opened fire at the vehicle, missed, and accidentally killed a teenager standing next to the vehicle. The boy, Ahmed Abu Nefisa, was killed on the spot. In response to the killing, the boy's family members began attacking Palestinian Authority security officers and vehicle and set fire to police vehicles. The rioters also vandalized several shops in the city and vandalized them. Almost all businesses in Ramallah were shut down in response for fear the clashes would continue. Several hours later, senior members of the security organizations reached an agreement with the family members after promising them that the dead youth would be declared a "shahid" (martyr) and his family members would be compensated by the PA. The people injured in the riots and their family members would also be compensated, and in return, the riots would be halted until the three mourning days are over. After the mourning period, the parties would agree on the amount of compensation. The security organization which killed the boy apologized for the incident. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2007-02-23 16:23 |
| #8 According to investigations conducted by PCHR, at approximately 15:30 on Monday, 22 January 2007, Sameeha Hammad ‘Eissa, 34, was killed by 3 live bullets to the head fired by mistake, when she attempted to stop a quarrel between two of her brothers. Her body was transferred to the forensic medicine department at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2007-02-23 16:08 |
| #7 TOP SECRET - EYES ONLY Four Rules for Handling Firearms 1. All guns are always loaded. 2. Never cover anything with the 3. Keep your finger off the trigger until the target is in your sights. 4. Always be sure of your target. |
| Posted by: Al Aska Paul, Resident Imam 2007-02-23 16:00 |
| #6 But wait! There's more! At approximately 20:30, 13 February 2007, 4 persons were wounded when bullets were fired in celebration of a wedding party in al-Sabra neighborhood in the east of Gaza City: 1)Saleh Nafez al-Nemer, 27, wounded by a bullet to the left foot; 2)Yousef Ahmed al-Azbaki, 17, wounded by shrapnel to the left leg; 3)Samer Hanna Shihada, 22, wounded by a bullet to the left foot; and 4)Zaki Mohammed al-Gharbli, 22, wounded by a bullet to the left foot. In another incident, at approximately 13:30 also on Tuesday, Mohammed Zaher Abu Nasser, 15, from Jabalya refugee camp, was wounded by a bullet to the right foot, when he carelessly checked his fatherÂ’s gun. PCHR is gravely concerned for the increasing number of casualties resulting from the misuse of weapons. PCHR reiterates its call for the Palestinian National Authority, represented by the Attorney-General, to investigate such attacks and to bring the perpetrators to justice. Damn. I could be in here all day. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2007-02-23 12:19 |
| #5 Almost as good as Nuggets From The Urdu Press. Almost. |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2007-02-23 12:12 |
| #4 Just found a goldmine. The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights website: PCHRÂ’s preliminary investigation indicates that at approximately 16:30 on Wednesday, 21 February 2007, Adham Atallah ShaÂ’ath, a 25-year resident of Gaza City, was killed by a bullet in the back. Ahmad Khader El-Shamali (23) was injured by a bullet in the right foot. They were hit when bullets were accidentally fired from a firearm they mishandled in Johr El-Deek village, southeast of Gaza City. They were taken to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where ShaÂ’ath was pronounced dead upon arrival and transferred to the forensic medicine department in Shifa Hospital. El-ShamaliÂ’s injury was listed as moderate. At approximately 13:00 on Wednesday, 21 February 2007, Nahda SaÂ’di Hasanein, a 20-year old female resident of ShejaÂ’eya Quarter in Gaza City was admitted to Shifa Hospital suffering from a gunshot wound in the abdomen. She was injured while inside her house; and the source of the shot was not determined. When members of the young womanÂ’s clan were inside the hospital, a verbal dispute broke out when they refused to give information about the injured woman to the Executive Force station in the hospital. At approximately 19:30 on the same day, the Executive Force prevented members from Hasanein clan from entering the hospital because they were armed. An gunfight broke out between both sides in the hospital compound, and led to the injury of 10 people. At approximately 12:00 on Wednesday, 21 February 2007, Zaki Hussein Abu El-Thieb (39) from Deir El-Balah was admitted to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the city. He was suffering from a gunshot wound in the right leg. El-Thieb, who works in the security apparatus Force 17, was injured from a firearm he was carrying when he attempted to fire during a dispute in a mechanics garage in Deir El-Balah. At approximately 1:45 in the morning of Wednesday, 21 February 2007, an explosive charge was detonated in front of the house of the Director of Police Security, Abdel Naser Doghmosh (45), in Tal El-Hawa Quarter in Gaza City. The explosion shook the area, and caused damages to the house entrance. In addition, the house windows were shattered. No injuries were reported. PCHR is concerned over the continued falling of victims by the misuse of weapons. In addition, the Centre strongly condemns the clashes inside Shifa Hospital. The Centre reiterates the call to the PNA, represented by the Attorney-General, to seriously investigate these crimes, and to bring the perpetrators to justice. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2007-02-23 12:06 |
| #3 Seriously, this would be a bad movie script, wouldn't it? There's suspending belief and then there's just disbelief... Ask me if I care about what happens in that god-forsaken place.... - tumbleweed - |
| Posted by: Tony (UK) 2007-02-23 11:23 |
| #2 By all means, feel free to kill each other. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2007-02-23 11:05 |
| #1 The tax revenues collected by Israel and the huge amounts of international aid given to the Palestinian government are the only things that keeps Gaza eating Oh how easy they forget/hate who feeds them!!!! |
| Posted by: Ebbolump Glomotle9608 2007-02-23 11:05 |