Islam, Armed Struggle and the Fatah

Just simply informative:


Islam and the Armed Struggle, 1959-1968

Ido Zelkovitz

In recent years, Islam has played an increasingly important role in the discourse of the Fatah movement. This phenomenon is not a new one but rather one that has historical roots. This article explores the Islamic background of the Fatah founding fathers and suggests that the appreciation of their social background and their early military and political experience is crucial to the understanding of later developments in the movement. The article also analyzes the adoption of the armed struggle ideology and its connection to Islam as a means for strengthening public support in Fatah.

From the moment it was established, the "armed struggle" was at the heart of the movement's ideology. The objective of that strategy was to mobilize the masses for the revolution that was to "bring them back to the lost paradise" of pre-1948 Palestine as was often written in the movement's scripts.

Fatah perceives the revolution as a key instrument for creating a new future for the Palestinian people. This is by no means a Marxist-style revolution that strives to eliminate the old socio-political order. Although the term revolution was constantly used, its full meaning remained undefined to the masses.

It should be noted that in the revolutionary discourse of the movement, Islam held and still holds great significance. According to current research about Fatah, the terms "revolution" and "armed struggle" have been used as synonyms. This makes it easier to place these terms in a wider linguistic context which can refer to both national and religious identities.

One could expect that some tension would exist between national and religious identities. However, the two can also coexist. Islam was utilized as an instrument for creating a system of symbols and images. This imagined system combined with the national struggle would fuse the Palestinian past and present, and pave the way to an ideal future. Fatah presents Islam as part of its national character. Religion, integrated as a sacred symbol into the national culture values, provides a tangible expression to the masses’ state of mind. It also provides a moral system that relates to the supreme political objective of liberation and the achievement of independence.

^

The Inventive People Are Now Shooting at Each Other

Reported:

Unidentified gunmen on Friday opened fire on the home of a local Fatah leader in the Jordan Valley.

Muhammad Abu al-Zour came under fire around midnight on Friday as he stepped out of a car outside his home. He was not injured in the incident although material damage was reported, a Ma'an correspondent said.

Secretary general of the Fatah movement in Nablus Mahmoud Shtayyeh denounced the attack.

But two days ago, we read:

Fatah, Hamas leaders debate PLO reform in Cairo

Palestinian factions, including Hamas, are "on the path joining" the Palestine Liberation Organisation, Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal told AFP Thursday following unity talks with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas..."This is a new departure on the path to joining the PLO of all Palestinian movements", Meshaal said following the talks in the Egyptian capital.

The Hamas leader said there was "an excellent atmosphere" surrounding his meeting with Abbas, which also included Egyptian intelligence chief Murad Muwafi and Palestinian independents.

Independent MP Mustafa Barghouti said the participation of unaffiliated delegates such as himself and businessman Munib al-Masri alongside representatives of Hamas and Islamic Jihad was "a historic event."

So, are we on the verge of unity or yet another phase in the tribal and/or factional internecine warfare of this invented people?

And in reading this:

The Hamas premier of Gaza, Ismail Haniya, praised steps toward reconciliation taken by the Islamist group and its former rival Fatah, which were angrily denounced in Israel...“We want to pursue positive dialogue with Fatah from this point,” Haniya told journalists.

“Practical measures must however be taken, like the liberation of political prisoners from Hamas detained by Fatah,” he said, adding that Fatah must also stop its repeated questioning of Hamas supporters during investigations.

The reconciliation moves drew an angry response from Israel...“This alarming rapprochement between Abu Mazen (Abbas) and Hamas is aimed at forming a government that one can only say is aimed at bringing about a genocide,” Transport Minister Israel Katz of the right-wing Likud party said. “Since the dark days of Nazism, no other movement has set as its aim the killing of Jews,” he charged.

we need ask: Is the future to be one of reconciliation or one of eliminating rivals?

Or joining forces against Israel?

________

In Arabic:

Osama Hamdan, an official of the Foreign Relations bureau of the Islamic Resistance Movement "Hamas", confirmed that the expansion into the frame of leadership with the PLO is not a formal process under new Parties to the organization, but is strategic to the nature of the organization and political programs to be consistent with the goals of liberation and return...Hamdan denied in a statement Friday (23/12) that the talks about the
rebuilding of the Palestinian Liberation Organization and the accession of "Hamas" to the framework of leadership is a beginning of the "tame" to reject "Hamas" and paid to enter the political process

(k/t=IMRA)

^

Are You Ready for the Fatah Opinion on Gilad Shalit?

From MEMRI:

Fatah-Affiliated Website: Shalit Spent His Time in Bars and Brothels, and Engaged in Robbery, Murder, and Rape


An article published on a Fatah-affiliated website, by journalist Sami Foda, stated:

"[Gilad Shalit is] a young man who spent his time in bars and brothels, playing games and pampering himself. He enjoyed the pleasures of a land not his own. He went around robbing, stealing, torching, raping, trampling, and desecrating the soil of this land that is not his own. He viciously strove to shed the blood of the martyrs, killed innocent people...a stupid murderer who did not mind killing our elderly, our men, our youth, and our women, and even our poor children, [so] pure and innocent.

...A Zionist soldier, he became seeped with Zionism to the bone...[He is] a gullible [boy], the genetic grandson of the Zionist leaders by virtue of his affiliation with, and loyalty to, his Nazi leaders. This monster joined the army of Zionist gangs, to carry on the legacy of his fathers, the apes and pigs of the Haganah, Irgun, Stern, and Palmach organizations, in order to carry out the orders of his fascist masters. That was the Zionist soldier Gilad Shalit, 19 years-old when he was captured by the Palestinian resistance...

These are the type of people with whom we ae to make peace?

To co-exist?

^

Strides Taken in Hamas-Fatah Unity Gov't

Just kidding.

Reported:

Hamas rejects Fayyad as next Palestinian PM

The Hamas militant group on Sunday rejected the rival Fatah movement's nominee for prime minister, complicating plans to unify the dueling governments in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and jeopardizing international aid for the Palestinians.

Hamas' opposition to Salam Fayyad's nomination marked a key setback in the reconciliation process, which aims to form a caretaker government until elections are held next year....It was not clear whether Hamas' announcement Sunday was a final decision, or a bargaining tactic as the sides gear up to fill Cabinet posts.

Fayyad, the prime minister of the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority, was nominated by the Western-leaning Fatah over the weekend to remain in his post...A U.S.-educated economist, Fayyad enjoys the respect of foreign donors...

Oh, well.

Where were we now?

Back in January 1946, I guess:

^

That Hamas-Fatah/PA Reconciliation Agreement

No, not the one signed yesterday in Cairo.

The other one.  The previous one.  The "Mecca Agreement".

To remind you:

Hamas & Fatah Mecca Agreement is an agreement between Fatah and Hamas signed in the city of Mecca on February 8, 2007 after eight days of talks, agreeing to stop the military clashes in Gaza and form a government of national unity. Representatives from the Fatah side included the President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas and parliament member Mohammed Dahlan. The Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya and Khaled Mashal represented Hamas.

An analysis:

15 February 2007

The International Implications of the Hamas-Fatah Mecca Agreement

Lt. Col. (res.) Jonathan D. Halevi

•The Mecca agreement between Hamas and Fatah does not presage a favorable diplomatic turn. It is merely a tactical political measure calculated to create a false impression regarding Hamas' political flexibility in order to whitewash the organization into being accepted as a legitimate player in the international arena without it having to meet the three preconditions of the Quartet.

•In practice, Gaza under Hamas rule continues to be a hotbed of terror organizations, including those with ties to al-Qaeda.

•The political flexibility of Hamas, as expressed in the Mecca agreement, derives first and foremost from Hamas' inability to score a decisive triumph, as well as from the international political and economic pressure which eroded public support for the Hamas government and the carrot and stick policy of Saudi Arabia (Hamas' financial patron). Hamas' main objective is the removal of the international boycott on the Palestinian Authority.

•Despite the desire of the EU countries to see a stable and democratic Palestinian government, past experience demonstrates that the billions of dollars poured into the Palestinian Authority since the Oslo process commenced have only served to strengthen the radical forces. If assistance is now extended to a Palestinian government where Hamas predominates, the West would be sawing off the limb of the tree which constitutes its Middle Eastern perch.

•Hamas, as part of the Muslim Brotherhood movement, does not conceal its aspirations to foment Islamic revolution throughout the Middle East, which would topple the moderate regimes allied with the West and establish an Islamic caliphate which will threaten Europe.

How long did it last? Until June.

What evolved? Reconciliation?

No, this:-

One Gaza doctor, who has examined the bodies of hundreds of Palestinians killed in fighting with Israel, said the level of cruelty in the factional fighting was "beyond our imagination".

"Israeli missiles can dismember bodies... but such brutality cannot be between people who are supposed to be brothers in arms," the doctor said.

Khaled Abdallah, a construction worker, said attacks by rival gunmen on the homes of Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas and Abbas could mark the point of no return.

"I do not think they will ever reconcile. It is like pouring sand on a fire. It does not die out. Once some wind takes away the sand, the flames rise up again," he said.

It was even in the NYTimes.


(Major k/t= SoccerDad)

A Look Inside

Quite interesting.

Maybe the internal conflict is more imminent?

And who is demanding that Western countries "stop funding and supporting the PA and its security forces"?

Hamas warned Wednesday of unspecified repercussions if the Palestinian Authority continues its ongoing detention campaign against West Bank-based supporters and leaders of the Islamic movement.

Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, is asserting that 30 affiliates were detained overnight and at least 70 more summoned for interrogation by the Ramallah-based PA, which has partial security control over some Palestinian cities.

“The ongoing detentions have exceeded all redlines and exposed [Fatah's] real attitude to Hamas reconciliation,” Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said at a news conference in Gaza City on Wednesday.

He affirmed that a large number of Hamas supporters were detained across the West Bank, especially in Hebron and Nablus. The campaign targeted journalists, academics, and party leaders, he said.

“The repercussions of this campaign will be serious if Fatah does not stop these procedures and release all detainees,” Barhoum warned...Barhoum also alleged that the PA raids coincided with an Israeli campaign against the Palestinian people in the West Bank and Jerusalem demolishing houses, expanding settlements, and deporting lawmakers.

...Barhoum also urged donor countries which channel funds to the PA in the West bank to consider their support in light of for the current situation. He urged donors to stop funding and supporting the PA and its security forces.

The top Hamas representative's tone echoed that of Salah Bardawil on Monday following a detention in Hebron a day prior. The spokesman said the move was politically motivated and illegal, noting that "we will be obliged to reciprocate."...

A hot summer?

- - -

You Do Know What "Popular Resistance" & "Struggle" Means

Reported:-

Marking the 43rd year since the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, Fatah said it would continue adhering to popular resistance and national struggle as a means of achieving a sovereign Palestinian state.

A party statement issues Saturday said Fatah would "hold to Palestinian constants, national goals, as well as to steadfastness, sacrifice and struggle," calling on Palestinians to participate further in their "legitimate right to popular resistance."

"Struggle" equals:-

Abbas Zaki, a member of the Fatah Central Committee and former Palestinian envoy to Lebanon...told the Jordanian paper: “If Israel insists on closing the doors to peace, as it is currently doing, peace and stability won’t be achieved in the region. We will then go to the United Nations and demand that we start from the beginning of the conflict, meaning going back to Resolution 181 and the armed struggle.”

The Fatah official said that Israeli “intransigence” and “aggression” would force the Palestinians to return to the pre-Oslo Accords period, including the option of waging an armed struggle against Israel.

Superb Analysis

My friend, Jonathan Spyer:

The key Palestinian leader in the West Bank today is Prime Minister Salam Fayyad. Fayyad is not a Fatah member, and his government holds power not as a result of that movement's authority. Rather, Fayyad is in effect an appointee of the West. The security forces led by Gen. Keith Dayton, which keep him in place, are Western organized and financed, and not beholden to any political faction. His gradualist approach is quite alien to Palestinian political culture, and despite the undoubted improvements this approach has brought to daily life in the West Bank, the level of his support is uncertain.

It remains widely believed that without the presence of the "Dayton" forces and more importantly without the continued activities of the IDF in the West Bank, the area would fall to Hamas in a similar process to that which took place in Gaza.

Veteran Palestinian political analyst Yezid Sayigh recently noted that both the Gaza and Ramallah governments are dependent for their economic survival on foreign assistance. The Fayyad government has an annual $2.8 billion budget, of which one half consists of direct foreign aid. The Hamas authorities, meanwhile, announced a budget of $540 million, of which $480 million is to come from outside (Iran). The dependence on foreign capital reflects perhaps the salient element shared by both Palestinian governments - they are both able to continue to exist because of the interests of rival outside powers that they do so.

The split in the Palestinian national movement is ultimately a function of the broader strategic situation of regional cold war. It is thus likely to continue for as long as this regional reality pertains.

A Public Service Announcement

From Barry Rubin's blog:

Fatah has apparently chosen as next leader a man, Muhammad Ghaneim, who rejects the 1993 Israel-PLO (Oslo agreement) and the ensuing peace process. He was so passionately opposed even to negotiating with Israel that he refused to go to the Gaza Strip and West Bank with Yasir Arafat in 1994...Ghaneim got 33 percent more votes [at this last Fatah Congress in Bethlehem] than Barghouti, who not only has a personal base of support but the chic of being a prisoner...the key reason is that Mahmoud Abbas, PA and PLO leader, and his colleagues told delegates to vote for Ghaneim.

Abbas may well retire in the next year and Ghaneim would then become leader of the PA, PLO, and Fatah, too. This is incredibly important...

...If Ghaneim takes over, you can not only forget about peace—which doesn’t look too promising any way—but the status quo could also be jeopardized. The re-radicalization of Fatah might lead to a very big, even violent, sustained crisis. Attention must be paid to this development...

Tibi's "Settlers"

INN reports:

Knesset Member Ahmad Tibi [spoke] at the Fatah convention in Bethlehem Tuesday.

Speaking of Arabs like himself who have Israeli citizenship, Tibi said: “We are an inseparable part of the Palestinian people, we are the original residents of the place and we will never leave it. We are the owners of these lands and we are not guests… Let he who arrived last leave first.”

Israel, he said must not only freeze the settlements in Judea and Samaria but dismantle them. There will be no peace “as long as there are settlers,” he said. “The land must be clean of settlers,” he then proclaimed, adding: “Get out of the Palestinian lands, get out of our souls.”

A reaction:

Minister Michael Eitan (Likud) responded to a speech made by MK Ahmad Tibi at a Fatah convention Tuesday. Tibi called on settlers to leave Palestinian lands.

"Those who want to remove Jews from their homes because of a national objection to their being located near Arabs provide an opening for similar statements to be made by Jews about Arabs. This speech is an obstacle to peace and a dangerous radicalization unhelpful to the bridging of gaps between the people," Eitan said.

But I just wanted to make sure you truly understand that Tibi means all Israelis all over Israel.

As PMW detailed:

The following is an excerpt from the speech by the high school graduates:

Sign on stage: "Tribute to high school graduates under the auspices of Mahmoud Abbas, Fatah."
Male graduate: "In the name of the Shahids (Martyrs), in the name of the prisoners, in the name of the stone and the rifle."
Female graduate: "In the name of Fatah, the school that taught us the meaning of nationalism."
Male graduate: "in the name of Palestine: Haifa, Acre, Jaffa, and our Arab Jerusalem."
Female graduate: "In the name of Palestine: Gaza, the West Bank and the flag of national unity."
...
Male graduate: "Fatah is [still] with the rifle. And our rifles are not rusty even if they have fired thousands of bullets."
[Al-Filistiniya TV (Fatah), July 28, 2009]

Another Amazing Geographical Defying Assertion

A Haaretz headline:

The distance between Gaza and the West Bank is growing

Actually, it refers to the unbridgeable gap between Hamas and Fatah.

But here's a great quotation:

So what, after all, is the source of Obama's optimism? One prominent Palestinian commentator ventured that it stems from ignorance. "Obama still doesn't know what the Middle East is and what the Palestinian issue is," he said. "With time, he will learn."

Only Five?

Ma'an reports:

The fifth round of Palestinian unity talks is expected to kick off in Cairo Saturday in what many see as a final attempt to overcome the remaining obstacles preventing governmental unity between the West Bank and Gaza.

The Fatah and Hamas delegations are expected to arrive to Cairo on Friday with the task of finding a solution to the remaining government, elections system and the security apparatus files.

The four previous rounds, not all successful, were able to find acceptable solutions to two of the five central dividing points. Committees around the five points met during the third round of talks to discuss Transitional Government Formation, Issues in Reconciliation, Security Services, Elections Reform, and the role and make-up of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)...

I could've sworn there were more than five rounds.

Maybe just this most recent time.

Red Hot in Ramallah

The Daily Mail brings us this delightful Ramallah street scene:



But the headline of the story reads:

In the smart West Bank health club, between jogging and swimming laps, people were screaming 'Death to Israel ...'

And includes this incident of peaceful coexistence:

On the West Bank, an urbane and tolerant Palestinian woman told me that when she went to a Jewish friend's wedding in Jerusalem she was so worried about her teenage children's reaction that she hid her outfit from them and got changed at the reception.

But when she returned home, her children guessed where she had been and her son spat: 'I hope you didn't go to that Jewish b******'s wedding.'

and another:

A woman described what happened when the news reached her smart, expensive health club in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

'It just electrified the place. In between jogging and swimming laps, people were screaming "Death to Israel!"' she said.

Health clubs in Ramallah and Arabs in Gaza need humanitarian aid?

Why don't they just vote Fatah instead of Hamas?


P.S. Which is a more dangerous "red": her dress or their berets?

Finkelstein Flunks History

In the London Times, one Daniel Finkelstein writes in his op-ed piece entitled, Triumph of those who dare to resist violence that Obama's victory is one not just over the white supremacists, but also the black separatists - for democracy over terrorism.

Fine.

Then, at the end, he writes:

...the election of Mr Obama is a rebuke to people like Malcolm X, a symbol that Martin Luther King was right with his patience, and his give and take and his belief in democracy. For, in the end, democracy triumphed. In the end, non-violence worked. In the end, moderation and self-discipline and restraint worked.

The election of Mr Obama is a rebuke too, to the Eta Basque separatists who put bombs in shopping centres, to the IRA with their pub bombs, to the Baader-Meinhof gang with their abductions and killings. It is a rebuke to the Irgun terrorists whose terrible crime was to blow up the King David Hotel and to the murders and missiles of Hamas and Fatah. It is a rebuke to all those who abandon law and peace in favour of the gun.

And it is an affirmation that sometimes it is the moderates who are the boldest, the slow route that is the quickest, and the man who refuses to raise up his arms who is the most courageous.

Let's read that again slowly and I'll comment:

It is a rebuke to the Irgun terrorists whose terrible crime was to blow up the King David Hotel and to the murders and missiles of Hamas and Fatah. It is a rebuke to all those who abandon law and peace in favour of the gun.

Mr. Finkelstien, I presume you meant to insinuate that

a. the Irgun attacked a civilian target

and that

b. it is a parallel group to the Hamas and Fatah.

In the first instance, the hotel's southern wing was taken over by the British Army starting in 1938 and then the mandate's secretariat moved in so that by 1946, the entire five-floor wing was a legitimate target representing British oppression and participation in aiding the Nazis in their 'final solution' as well as reneging on the League of Nations decision to establish the reconstituted Jewish National Home, to facilitate close settlement on the land and to aid Jewish immigration to that territory - which they had already whittled down by partitioning TransJordan away and suggesting, in the Peel Commission report and that of the Woodhead Commission, to commit another criminal partition.

That reference to Nazis may be a bit harsh for your ears but I suggest you read this book, "Britain and the Jews of Europe, 1939-1945", to understand Britain's role in World War II as a result of caving in to Arab terror in Palestine during the 1930s and adapting the 1939 White Paper policy.

As for the second point, Fatah started operations in 1964-65. What "Palestine" were they "liberating" then? It wasn't the Israel that "occupies territories"? There was no occupation at that time. It wasn't the Israel of "settlements" for there were no Jewish communities in the area at the time. It was Israel. All of it. Tel Aviv, Beer Sheba and Haifa.

And isn't it a bit odd, if not downright funny, that your "terrorist" Begin made peace with Egypt and tried to reach peace with the Arabs of the Land of Israel through an autonomy plan, one they rejected? And received a Nobel Prize for Peace?
(Okay, I will admit that it isn't funny at all that Yasser Arafat received one after all that has happened since the Oslo process kicked in).

I think you understand why I think you failed history.

Talk About Talking - Or Not

A Hamas official in Gaza said Sunday that his organization was holding unofficial talks with representatives from the rival Fatah movement, as tension between the factions continued to simmer on the ground. Fatah officials denied that any such dialogue was taking place.

and

A Fatah spokesman, Ahmed Abdel Rahman, said that Mr. Youssef’s statement had “no basis in truth” and that Fatah’s position was clear: there would be “no dialogue with the perpetrators of the coup.”

An official in Mr. Abbas’s office said that Hamas was “begging” for talks with Fatah, but that there would not be any “until Hamas apologizes and reverses everything it has done” in Gaza. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the news media.

So Why Can't the IDF Do Something Like That

Here's something I excerpted from an article on how Fatah lost Gaza:

We had already been fighting for six months when the big confrontation came. We had occupied the higher floors of the towers, and they made us descend using a pretended truce mediated by Egypt," he said. "Immediately after we came down they took our places and started shooting at us; they had a plan of division of Gaza in different squares, with the aim of not allowing our people to move where we needed them. They pushed us and closed us with the shoulders to the sea, we were only 35 shooting like crazy against hundreds, I kept trying to call my 185 men but they could not get to us: the strip, the town, Rafah, Khan Yunnis, everything was isolated."

What, the IDF can't so something similar?

Thursday-Friday or...Friday-Saturday?

Also on Thursday, the separate Palestinian governments in the West Bank and Gaza had a battle of wills over the Palestinian weekend. Government workers have always taken off Thursday and Friday, but this week, Salam Fayyad, who leads the emergency cabinet in the West Bank, decreed that the official weekend was changing to Friday and Saturday.

In Gaza, hundreds of Palestinian Authority employees headed to work at 8 a.m. on Thursday, intending to follow the orders of the West Bank government, which pays their salaries. Hamas dispatched forces to prevent the workers from reaching their jobs.

Muhammad Bkair, 30, a Housing Ministry employee, said five members of the Executive Force, the Hamas police militia, were blocking the entrance to his workplace. He said he and a crowd of other workers waited 30 minutes, then three jeeps arrived with reinforcements.

“They kept shooting in the air and referred to us as sheep,” Mr. Bkair said. “They referred to one employee as a collaborator. We were obliged to leave.” But, he added, “On Saturday we will not come.”

Source.

Isn't That Called "Repression"?

Dozens of Hamas members have been arrested in the last week, since the
militant Islamic group drove Fatah out of Gaza, the West Bank’s smaller and more
radical sibling. Men with beards — the symbol of religious devotion and, often, of Hamas — say they are sticking close to home. Hamas’s charities, a bedrock of the group’s support, have been attacked, and their workers are lying low.

Not when it's being done by Fatah.

Limmerick

There once was a Fatah from Gaza,

whose Hamas could stand them no longa.

They said with a grin

as they launch mortars in,

"We'll destroy you like Custer did the Lakota."

(Kippah tip: Fark)

This is Terrible - I Think

Later Hamas gunmen ambushed a jeep and mistakenly killed five fighters from their own side detained by Fatah men.

Well, for Hamas, maybe.