New PA-Hamas cooperation
The Palestinian Authority and its main political rival, the Islamic Resistance
Movement (Hamas), are once again trying to come an agreement on their respective
status in the self-rule areas, and the future of the revolutionary movement
under PA rule.
With the elections behind them, and Palestinian-territory municipal elections -- in which all opposition parties will participate -- tentatively scheduled for May, the two parties discretely met late last week in Gaza.
The encounter was lead by PA President Yasser Arafat and Hamas spokesperson in the Gaza Strip Mahmoud Zahhar, and resulted in the formation of an eight-person joint committee "for the solving of emergency problems," labelled the PA-Hamas Field Conciliation Committee.
The committee met the next day, on 27 January, with high-ranking representatives of both sides from the West Bank and Gaza Strip, including PNC acting president Salim Za'nun and Gaza's police chief Ghazi Jabali. PA sources in the Strip said the unpublicized meeting tackled the upcoming municipal elections, and means by which Hamas could operate "without discrediting the Authority."
Subsequently, Arafat granted Hamas permission to open a public office in the Gaza Strip, and publish an official party newspaper. He also ordered the release of 17 key Hamas activists from PA prisons.
Among those released was Sheikh Ahmad Nimr, who had been arrested some three months before, after delivering a Friday sermon attacking Hamas leaders who wanted to reach conciliatory agreements with the PA.
"The freeing of 17 Hamas members recently detained in the Gaza Strip was meant to create a new feeling of goodwill between the two sides, in honor of the holy month of Ramadan, and in continuation of the recent Cairo meetings," (where PA and Islamic leaders met in an attempt to facilitate the official participation of Hamas in the Legislative Council elections), Mahmoud Zahhar said the morning the activists were freed.
He added that, during the initial meeting with Arafat several days before, Hamas had again asked the PA to pressure Israel into releasing the movement's spiritual leader, Sheikh Ahmad Yassin.
The new pro-PA daily newspaper Al-Ayyam speculated in an editorial that "Arafat's permission for Hamas to open a public office in Gaza was made in hopes that Hamas will convert from an underground movement to a political party ... The confusion in Hamas ranks became apparent when some pro-Hamas candidates ran in the elections, and when Hamas supporters came out in big numbers to vote for pro-Hamas and other candidates on election day. To give up its opposition line and secret movement would be a betrayal to its core members and ideology. Such a political party would neither have Hamas nor mass support. But to give up the chance to participate in Palestinian decision-making would keep it a marginal opposition faction forever."
Hamas, which could not prove its might in the council elections it boycotted, is not the only group that sees the municipal council elections as the final gauge of political stature. The PA's leading party, Fateh, realizes that, since all factions will be running for municipal seats, it must prepare itself for the genuine competition it will be facing this time.
Fateh sources in Gaza said the faction is making a major effort to reorganize itself. The sources said many of the faction's old-time symbolic leaders were devastated in the legislative elections, while many younger, grassroots leaders, who did not run on Fateh election lists, were found to enjoy unexpected massive popular backing. After a meeting of Fateh officials in Gaza late last week, the movement reportedly decided to dissolve all its regional councils in the Palestinian areas, leaving the Fateh Higher Factional Council as the movement's only representative body.
The status of Jerusalem is not up for negotiation with the Palestinians either now, or in the future, Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres said last week. He was speaking to an American Orthodox Jewish organization, and Israeli reporters.
Hassan Asfour, PA director general for negotiations, said in response that Peres was directly contradicting the Oslo peace accords signed by Israel and the PLO.
The agreements stipulate that the issue of Jerusalem is slated for discussion in the final status talks, scheduled to begin in March of this year.
Asfour said Israel's rigid position constitutes a "serious threat to the entire peace process."
Peres' words certainly raise questions on the fate of Jerusalem -- and the situation on the ground suggests that the Israelis are doing more than talking about it. The Israeli policy of denying Palestinians access to the city and its institutions continues unabated.
While 200,000 Palestinians from the West Bank and inside the Green Line attended the first Friday prayers of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan at Al-Aqsa Mosque last week, the event was a telling example of how inaccessible the Palestinian capital has become.
Residents of the Gaza Strip were barred entirely from entering the city, as were all West Bankers under the age of 30. Those who made it in to pray faced heavy Israeli security presence around both the entrances and perimeter of the mosque.
Orient House, the PLO headquarters in Jerusalem, reports that many Jerusalem residents living abroad have recently had their Jerusalem ID cards confiscated, sparking fears of a renewed Israeli campaign to strip Palestinians in the city of their status. During the election, Jerusalem voters were repeatedly warned that they would lose their Jerusalem ID and the access to the city it ensures, if they voted for the Palestinian Autonomy Council.
Ironically, the Jerusalem municipality announced last week that it will spend a significant part of its budget on building and maintaining a sewage system in the eastern section of the city.
A finance official with the municipality said "it is quite important for the Municipality to prove the talk that revolves around a unified city, and that East Jerusalem is an undivided part of the city. This is why we have to invest in Arab neighborhoods."
While Israeli Internal Security Minister Moshe Shahal recently announced that Israel is considering lifting the checkpoints at the various entrances to Jerusalem from the West Bank, he stated firmly last week that no PA Council members will be allowed to have an office in Jerusalem.
Although seven of the 88 new Council member represent the Jerusalem
constituency, Shahal said they would not be allowed to have offices in
the city, as it is "eternally united" under Israeli control.
The economic future of Palestinian-territory economic activity is housing, say Palestinian officials, lots and lots of housing. In the next five years, especially if plans to bring in thousands of Diaspora refugees and displaced persons begin to bear fruit, residents of the self-rule areas are going to need over 200,000 new housing units.
Palestinian Authority Housing Ministry undersecretary Marwan Abdul Hamid said representatives of several PA ministries have recently come together to form a "central organizing committee" to study Palestinian housing needs and draft the necessary plans.
Factors such as demographic growth, the possible return of Diaspora Palestinians, the systematic Israeli demolition of Palestinian homes and the economic situation of the self-rule areas and its residents will be taken into account. Abdul Hamid said the PA is expecting affluent Diaspora Palestinians to invest in the housing sector.
There is also hope that the increasing need for housing will create work for Palestinian-territory laborers who are finding it more and more difficult to work inside Israel, within the self-rule areas.
Workers unions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip report that the Israeli police and military forces have recently launched an intensified campaign against Palestinian workers, arresting over 1,200 Palestinians working within the Green Line without Israeli work permits since the beginning the year.
Some 125 of these workers have been sentenced for periods ranging between six months to two years in prison.
Banking is another PA favorite, and, after last year's influx of branches of Arab banks into self-rule cities, the next in line are banks of Islamic persuasion. A group of Gazan businessmen will open an Islamic Bank (which is opposed to usury, but operates on interest received from investments) in Gaza with a starting capital of $10 million this March, according to the bank's vice president, Abdullah Husari.
Husari said $5 million were gathered from Palestinian investors in the Gulf and Gaza Strip, while another $3 million were collected from Palestinian investors in the West Bank. The remaining $2 million are hoped to be collected from the public in the form of shares, which will be sold for $1 each.
The main focus of the bank will be the setting up of projects within the Palestinian areas, and not abroad. Husari said the bank is considering building housing projects on cheap land outside high population areas for low-income families.
In the West Bank, the Islamic holding company Beit Al-Mal announced
it will open its own Islamic Bank in Ramallah soon. Beit Al-Mal president
Mazen Sinokrot said the PA has given only its verbal permission to the
company. Sinokrot said the bank will have a starting capital of $20 million.
The Saudi company Dallat Al-Baraka, which already owns a rent-a-car company
in East Jerusalem, will cover 26 percent of the capital; the Jordanian
Islamic Bank will contribute 14 percent; Beit Al-Mal is putting up 20 percent,
while the rest is made up from Palestinian and Arab investors abroad.
Only two days after four landowners from the villages of Jinsafout and Deir Isitya in the West Bank managed to save 100 acres of their land from a plan to enlarge the nearby Israeli settlement of Emanuel, Israeli military commander of the Central Region Ilan Biran ordered the expropriation of four acres of this land for "military purposes." The landowners had spent a year in Israeli courts after the Emanuel settlement council declared its intention to confiscate the 100 acres, and finally received a promise from the council that their land would not be annexed to the settlement.
But on 26 January, Biran's order gave the landowners four days to contest the seizure of the four acres, said defense attorney Hisham Nasr. Nasr said the designation of the land for military purposes meant the landowners would have to go through lengthy and difficult bureaucratic procedures to revoke the order. The landowners don't stand a chance of regaining their land, Nasr told reporters. Villagers say settlers have, throughout the years, seized thousands of acres of land in the area through land dealers backed by Israeli court or military orders.
The Israeli media reported on 25 January that Israel is planning to construct a brand new settlement in the West Bank. The settlement will have 13,000 units, designated for ultra-Orthodox Jews. The plan was developed by Housing Minister Binyamin Ben Eliazer and approved by Shimon Peres. The construction of this new settlement comes in exchange for a pledge from three religious parties not to support efforts by the far-right to bring down the government. The project will go before the ministerial committee on settlement building for approval this week
More than 100 settlers from Kiryat Arba met with MKs from Meretz on 25 January, at the recommendation of Peace Now to discuss assistance for settlers interested in moving inside the Green Line. Peace Now says at least 200 families have expressed willingness to move back inside Israel.
The Youth and Culture Center in Kiryat Arba refused to let the settlers meet there. The meeting had to have police protection, and some settlers said they had been threatened with being fired from jobs in the settlement because they were considering leaving. Meretz said the government should help those who want to leave settlements since it encouraged them to live there in the first place.
Israeli soldiers used percussion grenades and rubber bullets to break up a Palestinian demonstration, badly injuring two protestors, on 24 January. The residents of Hableh, near Qalqiliya, came out in force against the presence of Israeli bulldozers. The bulldozers had begun leveling village lands in order to erect a checkpoint between it and the nearby settlement of Matan. Two protestors were arrested. Villagers are attempting to stop the destruction of agricultural land planted with citrus trees, paving the way for the an electric wall, 1 km by 70 m, designed to separate the settlement from Hableh. At a later date, the wall will be extended from Qalqiliya to Tulkarem at the expense of Palestinian land. A meeting at the regional military DCO, initiated by the Palestinian side, failed to halt the bulldozers, as the Israeli representative claimed that their action was the result of an irreversible political decision.
And Israeli bulldozers continue to expand Halamish settlement north of Ramallah at the expense of land belonging to Deir Nizam and Nabi Saleh villages. Villagers said the bulldozers have been working for at least a week, and have uprooted hundreds of olive trees.
The successful completion of the first Palestinian elections demonstrates the Palestinian people's firm commitment to democracy. According to the reports of the numerous international observers and journalists who covered the elections, Palestinians proved themselves capable of organizing and conducting political elections largely fault- and mistake-free.
The results raise questions on a number of issues: the importance of elections in Palestinian society, the implications of the election results, the magnitude of the role of the general public -- and finally, what is actually expected from the elected Palestinian Legislative Council. What is the importance of these particular elections?
These elections are of value for three reasons.
First, the presence of an elected leadership gives both credibility and legitimate political clout to the Palestinian people, attributes which will provide a new impetus in the struggle for obtaining their inalienable rights.
Secondly, the success of the elections on both the political and tactical level strengthens universal confidence in the Palestinian people, who will see a renewed effort in support of their rights to self determination and independence. The positive picture painted by the elections will also help in eroding the traditional negative stereotypes of Palestinians.
And finally, the presence of a directly-elected popular council will create a new dynamic which will, over time, allow for a new accountability, and therefore effectiveness on the part of the elected officials. Debate in the Palestinian political arena will shift from discussion of general political theories to tackling issues directly concerned with meeting the needs of the people on a daily basis.
In a general sense, these elections were viewed as positive and are considered a step in the right direction. One can draw this conclusion even in the face of shortcomings such as the absence of the opposition and the political homogeneity of the elections, alongside the technical problems at the polling stations which detracted from their success.
Without getting into a lengthy explanation of the factors which determined the election results, we can safely say that they were a huge success for Yasser Arafat/the PA/Fateh (all synonymous in the public's eyes).
Members of Arafat's Fateh party won no less than 70 out of 88 seats on the Legislative Council, and nearly all the PA ministers and officials who are considered close to him won landslide victories. The public came out in force behind Arafat/the PA/Fateh, in what can only be considered a vast display of support for the current political process.
The results of the elections should not come as a surprise to anybody, in light of the fact that the Palestinian elections were held directly after the Israeli army finished its withdrawal from major Palestinian population centers. The timing of the redeployment created the impression among the Palestinian people that the PA is leading them on the right track toward statehood, and so they should be allowed to complete this task.
It is also worth noting that these elections took place approximately a year after Fateh began its monopoly over the administration, organizations, and media services of the PA. This monopoly on the PA's governing mechanisms paved the way for the faction's landslide victory.
It would be incorrect to assume that since the opposition parties were absent from the Palestinian elections, they will therefore be absent from the Palestinian Legislative Council as well.
Regardless of the fact that the majority of successful candidates are from Fateh, and that the differences between members of the party are mainly personal, the nature of the council's tasks vis-a-vis the development of social services and meeting the needs of the people will allow for debate, and cause differences to arise as people's interests begin to conflict.
This is especially true in the non-political work of the council, as opposition figures will emerge, not in a political sense, as is the case presently, but with regard to the administrative and negotiation performance of the PA, and its ability to spur economic development.
Finally, the council will have to deal with the growing pressure to amend the anachronistic Palestinian National Covenant.
Given the fact that this pressure is being generated by the Israelis, the council members ought to be able to make significant gains in exchange for amending the Covenant, chiefly winning our right to an independent state recognized by Israel. Such a change in the Covenant will also require Israel's true dedication to abiding by promises heretofore left unfulfilled, such as the release of all Palestinian prisoners.
Abdul Rahim said Israel has thus far agreed to the return of some 2,000 Palestinian diaspora families, but only to the Palestinian territories and not to their homes inside what is now Israel proper. The families may return within what Israel calls "family reunification" programs, he said, but Israel still refuses to recognize the right of return of all Palestinian refugees and persons displaced during the 1967 war, as dictated by UN resolutions 194 (pertaining to refugees) and 237 (concerning displaced persons). Abdul Rahim protested that Israel is refusing to even discuss these UN resolutions, but is referring them to the Egyptian-Jordanian-Palestinian-Israeli committee on displaced persons, which has not yet been able, in eight sessions, to agree on the definition of who a Palestinian displaced person is, leaving the question of who can be considered a 1948 refugee unaddressed.
He said Canada, which chairs the multilateral working group on refugees, has prepared a working paper about possible solutions for refugees, including return, monetary compensation and granting them citizenship in Arab or Western countries, and expressed hope this paper would yield some progress on the refugee issue.
He said recent UNRWA statistics on the number of Diaspora Palestinian refugees in the Middle East were inaccurate, as they took into account only those living in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and the Palestinian territories, and not the refugees of Egypt and Iraq, and he called on Arab nations to give the PLO accurate numbers, and to form a unified stand on the refugee issue. UNRWA maintains that there are now 3. 2 million Palestinian refugees in the Middle East.
The recently appointed UNRWA Comm.-Gen. Peter Hanson started off his term by meeting with the head of the Lebanese government, Rafiq Hariri, and Lebanese Foreign Minister Fares Bouez in Beirut last week, to discuss the future of refugees in the country. Hanson said the meeting was merely one of protocol, and stressed that he "did not believe the year 1996 was the year for working on the issue of refugees." Hanson added that the issue would take three years to solve, starting from May 1996.
He said UNRWA was directly interested in the final solution for the refugee predicament, and would supply information, humanitarian aid and stability for the refugees, but could not offer financial aid because of its deficit.
News Shorts
YASSER AND SHIMON CHAT\ PA President Yasser Arafat met with Israeli
Prime Minister Shimon Peres at Erez checkpoint last week to discuss furthering
support for the peace process and the upcoming final status negotiations.
The meeting covered possible scenarios for the return of the remaining
PNC members; Arafat called it "positive and important." The PA
head expressed his desire to see relations between Palestinians and Israelis
become stronger, and also expressed hope that the peace process will pick
up steam on the Lebanese and Syrian tracts in accordance with his goal
for strengthening relations between all peoples of the region.
JOINT DISCUSSION ON REFUGEES\ Palestinians and Israelis met to tackle the thorny issue of refugees at a public discussion organized by the Palestine-Israel Journal in Jerusalem last week. The journal is the only joint Palestinian-Israeli publication, published by PA Council member Ziad Abu Zayyad (Independent-Jerusalem) and Israeli journalist Victor Cygielman. The meeting was addressed by PLO ambassador to the Vatican Afif Safieh and Israeli Minister of Communication, Arts and Sciences Shulamit Aloni (Meretz). Safieh asked Israel to apologize to the Palestinian people and suggested that evacuated Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territories be turned over to returned refugees. Aloni said that some 1967 refugees could be absorbed in the Palestinian areas, while 1948 refugees would not be permitted to return, except for humanitarian cases. She also said that Israel "cannot consider the return of refugees to "Israel proper" because "we have responsibilities to [Jewish] refugees from European and Arab countries."
ABU ALA' ON EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE\ Council member Ahmad Qrei' (Fateh-Jerusalem) suggested last week that the PLO Executive Committee be reformed to reflect the results of the elections. Currently, the committee has 18 members, divided according to the popularity of factions in the 1970s. Almost half of the committee members have quit since the Madrid conference. Qrei' likely means that seats originally set aside for PFLP and DFLP representatives be reduced, and seats for Fateh and independent members be increased.
ABU SHARIF\ Bassam Abu Sharif, a long-time Arafat adviser, returned to the homeland on 23 January. Abu Sharif was an activist with the PFLP until 1987; he was badly injured by a Mossad letter bomb in 1972, and became an activist for peace with Israel in the late 1980s. He last visited his family home in Jerusalem in April 1967, and was barred from returning by Israel until two weeks ago. Asked whether he would resume his role as a close adviser of Arafat, he said it was up to the Chairman. Abu Sharif, 49, said he would "continue his patriotic duties toward building Palestine with the Palestinian people and building a national economy;" he did not say whether he would be forming a political party.
MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS\ Palestinian factions are preparing for the first municipal elections in the Palestinian territories in 20 years, tentatively scheduled for this May. Until now, the municipalities have been run by Palestinians appointed either by Israel or the PA. In Gaza, Hamas spokesman Mahmoud Zahhar said that all factions are helping to prepare the municipal elections law.
AIRPORT UPROAR\ Residents of Rafah are demanding that the PA pay more compensation for land confiscated for the future Palestinian airport. Landowners representative Suleiman Fara says the PA promised to trade their confiscated lands for nearby lands of equal size and fertility; to find homes for people whose homes were bulldozed for the project; and to compensate for all lost revenue from the lands for the next 10 years. Now the PA has offered plots of equal size, but which are useless for farming, Fara said. Fara and a delegation of landowners met with PA officials last week; engineer Deifallah Akhras said that the compensation program is fine. Homes have been found for people whose homes were demolished, and lost revenue from crops was compensated. As for the quality of the land assigned as compensation, the farmers seem to have no choice but to accept it, he said.
CENSUS\ The PA census department said a trial census will be conducted in selected neighborhoods in Gaza, Hebron and Nablus next week. The six-day experiment is in preparation for the first national Palestinian territory census, which is expected to be completed by 16 March of this year. The main census will be conducted by 15 supervisors, 500 observers and 2,700 enumerators. For now, selected buildings in several West Bank towns have been marked by splashes of paint for the trial count.
RETURN\ Some 500 PLO soldiers will soon leave Lebanon for the PA areas, Fateh said last week. They will bring some of their weapons with them and donate the rest to the Lebanese government. Palestinian sources said the delegation will be headed either by PLO Political Department head Farouq Qadoumi or by PLO Executive Committee member Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen). They are expected to arrive before the end of Ramadan.
CONFEDERATION?\ Yasser Arafat said in Jordan last week that the Palestinian elections were the first step toward a Palestinian state, which in turn is a step toward confederation with Jordan.
WANTED\ Israeli Labor Party Secretary-General Nissim Zvilli told an audience in France last week that the assassination of Yahiya Ayyash was entirely defensible, and that the Israeli Mossad is hunting 39 other "wanted" Palestinians, despite the current state of the peace process and the Israeli military redeployment from parts of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Zvilli added that any Palestinian wanted by the security forces before the Israeli withdrawal is still wanted. "The list is not long," he said. "It used to have 127 names, but now has only 39, 17 of whom are held in Jericho. I do not think the PA is going to turn them over to us despite of their agreement with us." Zvilli went on to add "this does not mean that all of those wanted will be physically eliminated; some are pursued with great effort, others with less." Zvilli said that all the PNC members will be given immunity and will not be pursued or tried while they are in the PA areas.
DEMOLITIONS\ Palestinian activists have appealed to international human rights organizations to pressure Israel to cancel demolition orders for several houses in the Ramallah area. Two families have been given six weeks to appeal demolition orders for homes in Area B which Israel says were built without permits. The owners say they applied for permits but never got an answer from the Israel authorities.
RAMONDA TAWIL RETURNS\ Ramonda Tawil, mother of Suha Arafat, returned to Ramallah after 11 years away from the homeland, on 15 January. Tawil ran the Palestinian Press Service in Jerusalem when she lived in the country, but and ran a similar service in France for most of her absence. She was greeted by the largest marching band display seen in the town to date. She said she will be making regular visits to Gaza to visit her daughter, granddaughter and son-in-law.
While Israeli troops redeployed to the edge of the Gaza Strip in May 1994 and of five West Bank cities in winter 1995,the Israeli Occupation of the Palestinian territory is by no means finished.The JMCC seeks to keep a record of acts of Israeli violence(both military and civilian),and collective punishment.The following facts and figures are from the week of 23-29 January,and were compiled from the Palestinian press and JMCC sources.They should not be considered a complete list of the ongoing Israeli violations of the human rights of palestinians.
HARASSMENT All Gazans,and all West Bankers under age 30,barred from praying in jerusalem.All those entering the Old City to pray stopped and searched.