Rivalries destroy PA's ability to lead


March 11, 2015
Sarah Benton


Hand-wrestling? No, brotherly love between PM Haniyeh and wild card Mohammed Dahlan. Photo by STR/AFP/Getty Image

PA holding 50 Islamic militants, fearing terror attack will give election to Likud

Hamas officials call it the biggest round-up in years, say security co-ordination with Israel constitutes treason.

By Amos Harel, Jack Khoury and Reuters, Haaretz
March 10, 2015

Palestinian special police forces train in Ramallah
Palestinian special police forces show their skills during a training session in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Sunday, March 16, 2014.

Palestinian Authority security services have arrested some 50 members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the West Bank over the last two days, acting out of apparent fear that a terror attack in the coming days would give the Israeli election to Likud.

There’s a well-known precedent for this: the firebombing of a bus in Jericho on the eve of the 1988 Knesset election, which killed five Israelis, including a mother and her three children.

In later years, that incident was cited as having cost the Labour Party the victory by shifting votes from Labour to Likud at the last moment. Shimon Peres, who was Labour’s prime ministerial candidate at the time, claimed the attack had cost the left two or three Knesset seats, and that if not for this attack, Labour would have won the election.

Israeli security sources said the wave of arrests, which took place in towns and villages throughout the West Bank, was ordered by PA President Mahmoud Abbas. Most of those arrested belong to Hamas, but some belong to Islamic Jihad. In both cases, most of those arrested belong to the two organizations’ military wings.

The Israel Defence Forces and Shin Bet security service have recently uncovered several Hamas cells in the West Bank that were planning to carry out attacks. Two weeks ago, for instance, the Shin Bet announced that in January, it had arrested 11 members of a Hamas cell from the Hebron area whose members were planning various types of attacks, including suicide bombings and shootings.

A senior Hamas official in the Gaza Strip, Ismail al-Askar, issued a statement on Monday denouncing the PA for the arrests. “The continued security co-ordination with Israel constitutes national treason by the PA and sticks a knife in the back of the Palestinian people,” he said. Hamas officials called it the biggest round-up in years, saying those arrested included party leaders, university students, writers and journalists affiliated with the movement.

PA spokesman Adnan Al-Damiri said, “Arrests are made in accordance with the law and not on grounds of political affiliation.” He described the detainees’ offences as “criminal” and accused Hamas of incitement against the Palestinian Authority.

However, according to Hamas, the arrests were a response to the detention of a senior PA official by Hamas security forces in the Gaza Strip, and also demonstrated the extent to which the PA was continuing its security cooperation with Israel.

Independent elements in the West Bank initiated contacts with the PA’s security forces, demanding the release of the detainees and that Abbas, who is now in Switzerland, intervene personally.

“We hold President Abbas personally responsible for the aggressive campaign against Hamas in the West Bank,” said Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman. “It is part of a dual campaign by the Zionist enemy and the Palestinian Authority to uproot Hamas and the resistance.”


Palestinian Authority policemen on operational duty in Nablus.

The arrests were widely covered by the media and led to mutual recriminations between Hamas and Fatah over failed reconciliation talks and the persistence of the status quo both in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

The lack of progress in reconstruction in the Gaza Strip was further highlighted on Monday when the Palestinian Energy Authority announced it was halting the electricity supply from the Gaza power station because of a severe shortage of fuel. The authority said the donation of fuel it had received from Turkey had run out and there was no money to buy more at the price demanded by companies in Israel.

A senior Hamas official told Haaretz there are various proposals for reconstruction of the Gaza Strip that have been repeatedly put forward, but all parties understand that international backing is needed, which will come only with agreement among the Palestinian factions over the regime in the Gaza Strip.


Concerns rise over plots to oust Abbas

With security tensions on the rise in the West Bank, there is talk of conspiracy in which Hamas, Israel and ex-Fatah official Mohammed Dahlan are spreading chaos with the goal of toppling President Mahmoud Abbas.

By Adnan Abu Amer, trans. Pascale Menassa, Al Monitor / Palestine Pulse
March 10, 2015

Al-Monitor was able to secure a copy of the statement issued by one of Fatah’s organizational structures close to Dahlan, which read: “The PA arrested more than 20 supporters of Dahlan and attacked the offices of the Gaza members of parliament who live in the West Bank.”

During an interview with Al-Monitor, Hamas spokesman Hossam Badran called for “ending the PA’s violations and the political arrests targeting Hamas, among others. The PA is fighting each patriotic person and pursuing those who resist occupation.”

Maj. Gen. Adnan al-Damiri, spokesman for the PA’s security apparatus, accused Israel, Hamas and Dahlan on Feb. 16 of conspiring together to stir chaos in the West Bank by forming groups to end the PA’s presence and get rid of President Mahmoud Abbas. But what he described as “the Gaza coup” — meaning when Hamas took control of Gaza in mid-2007 — will not happen again, he said.

The security developments in the West Bank are not limited to a pursuit here and an arrest there. The PA is concerned about a local, regional and international scenario to turn Abbas’ page, given his multiple disputes with everyone, from Hamas to Dahlan and Israel. Fatah spokesman Osama al-Qawasmi said the PA seems to believe that these rivals might unite their interests temporarily to get rid of Abbas.

Abbas cannot be envied for the situation he’s in. He is fighting along several fronts, be they internal, with Hamas and Dahlan, or external, with Israel. Perhaps if he had resorted to a strategy to solve crises instead of fuelling them — by withholding the Hamas employees’ salaries, pursuing Dahlan’s supporters in the West Bank and freezing the latter’s money in the Gaza Strip — he would not have been under these threats, as his partisans call them.

Palestinian riot police in the West Bank city of Ramallah in 2012. The US appointed a new Israeli-PA security coordinator, Paul Bushong whose main task will be working with Palestinian security forces. Photo by Issam Rimawi/Flash90)

Fatah and parliament member Alaa Yaghi, who’s close to Dahlan, warned on Feb. 27 of the deterioration of the security situation in the West Bank if the PA’s security campaign persists. The situation will worsen, just like the incidents in Gaza that led to the division in 2007. He said the security campaigns in the West Bank are based on a conspiracy theory and on spreading rumors that a huge network is attempting to stage a coup against the PA.

In the same context, a high-ranking official who frequently visits the PA’s headquarters, told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity about “simmering deliberations between senior Palestinian officers against the backdrop of growing tensions in the West Bank. Some of the PA’s high commands are deeply concerned about the recent behavior of some senior officers with Abbas.”

In a phone interview from Ramallah, the official said: “Abbas received information stating that some high-level security officials are reporting to the US and Israel the details of the political steps he intends to take. Upon receiving these reports, the US and Israel warn him of the danger of taking such steps.”

However, Ismail al-Ashqar, Hamas leader and chairman of the Palestinian Legislative Council’s Security Committee, told Al-Monitor: “Abbas is to blame for the security chaos in the West Bank as it is in a state of loss and devastation. This could be a systematic sort of chaos that the PA is practising to prevent Palestinians from defending themselves from the occupation’s soldiers.”

Al-Monitor has discussed that the increasing security tensions in the West Bank are annoying Abbas. Israel is threatening to cut him off and stop transferring funds to the PA’s treasury. He is afraid to see the scenario of Yasser Arafat repeated. Arafat was dismissed based on an Israeli decision and with the help of Palestinian pawns.

For this reason, Abbas is making significant changes in some security positions, especially those close to him, until he receives a verification of the reports about high-ranking officers playing a role in attempting to topple him. In the wake of the recent meeting of the PLO’s Central Council March 4-5 in Ramallah, the PA issued security warnings about a dirty game aimed at disturbing the Palestinian internal situation to weaken Abbas and make him lose credibility before the international bodies he is resorting to.

Al-Monitor received a Palestinian security report submitted to Abbas end of February that stated: “Political money is overflowing in the West Bank to make transitions that suit the interests of some parties and that serve suspicious foreign agendas to shake stability and security in the West Bank, in cooperation with Israel, Arab and European parties and with the US blessing. … Arab capitals accommodated meetings at governments’ headquarters and intelligence centers during which the terms of a plan to recommend an interim PA president and deputy were discussed. The first step would be by shaking the West Bank’s security to wreak havoc and form armed groups in the camps there.”

Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah said Feb. 6 that no party will be allowed to destabilize the West Bank or cause chaos and harm to the security of its citizens. But several refugee camps in the West Bank — especially the Balata refugee camp in Nablus — have been experiencing armed clashes between young Fatah members and security officers who tried to break into the camp to arrest them. Masked men burned tires at the entrance of the camp to prevent the advance of the officers who used their weapons multiple times.

A Palestinian security source who spoke on condition of anonymity told Al-Monitor, “News has been circulating in Balata camp that 50 gunmen ages 18-22 are in contact with Fatah leaders in the West Bank and abroad with Dahlan who funds them.”

All this is happening when more meetings between Arab and Western diplomats with official and nongovernmental Palestinian figures are taking place in the West Bank. Al-Monitor learned from officials, who were interviewed on condition of anonymity for security reasons, that some meetings are taking place in public venues such as hotels and institutions, and others in the homes of those involved, to discuss the developments of the Palestinian situation and predict its future developments.

The current security tensions recall the situation on the eve of late PA President Arafat’s siege in his West Bank headquarters in 2003. At the time, there were Israeli incursions into several cities, while internal disputes provoked by Dahlan appeared in Fatah’s ranks. There were also disagreements with Hamas before the division happened, and the Arab states were preoccupied with their wars and did not give much attention to the Palestinian situation.

The PA will maintain its iron grip on security in the West Bank out of fear that the situation might reach a point of no return. Still, there are no guarantees preventing substantial changes in the PA’s leadership with internal and external consensus, in a bid to topple Abbas through a calm coup without Palestinian bloodshed.

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