Cordoglio per cristiano ucciso a Gaza. Non si strumentalizzi ancora una volta la tragedia

L'assassinio  di Rami Khader Ayyad nella Striscia di Gaza , che molte volte ho incontrato proprio a Gaza, lascia costernati ed è un fatto gravissimo: esprimo tutto il mio cordoglio alla famiglia e alla comunità cristiana.

Le responsabilità dell'omicidio devono venire alla luce e i colpevoli puniti, così come già dichiarato dalle autorità di Hamas che controllano la Striscia e dal Presidente Mahmoud Abbas.

Da parte sua la Comunità Internazionale e soprattutto i media devono fare tutto quanto in loro potere per evitare di strumentalizzare questa tragedia, incentivando tesi pericolosissime che rintracciano nello scontro tra religioni episodi isolati e da condannare ma ad opera solo di schegge impazzite di una società allo stremo, quale quella di Gaza.

Lo ha ribadito anche monsignor Fouad Twal, arcivescovo coadiutore del Patriarcato latino di Gerusalemme, che ha escluso ci possa essere una persecuzione dei cristiani a Gaza, e anche il custode di Terra Santa del Vaticano padre Pierbattista Pizzaballa.

Fino ad ora i cristiani che hanno lasciato la Palestina lo hanno fatto per l'impossibilità di vivere dietro un muro, bloccati dai check point, e senza nessuna prospettiva economica. Ma il pericolo di una spirale di violenza è sempre presente.

Soltanto lavorando per la fine dell'occupazione militare, per la giustizia, il dialogo e la convivenza in Medio Oriente si potranno evitare simili episodi di intolleranza e barbarie, e soprattutto non lasciando a gruppi fanatici la possibilità di manipolare la disperazione di un popolo in lotta per uno Stato Palestinese indipendente e sovrano, in sicurezza e affianco a quello di Israele, dove la libertà di religione ed espressione siano alla base di una vera democrazia e convivenza civile.

Per info Luisa Morgantini 0039 348 39 21 465 o Francesca Cutarelli 0039 340 56 49 335

Luisa.morgantini@europarl.europa.eu www.luisamorgantini.net

Le catacombe contemporanee dei cristiani palestinesi

Francesca Paci, la Stampa, 08.10.07. L'assassinio di Rami Khader Ayyad, il libraio cristiano responsabile della libreria della Società Biblica Palestinese di Gaza, accende i riflettori su una situazione che i cristiani palestinesi, per paura, si affannano a definire "tranquilla". Il problema non è solo Gaza. A Betlemme le ragazze cristiane vengono considerate "facili" e approcciate volgarmente. A Taybeh, vicino Ramallah, i cristiani non vendono la terra ai musulmani e si fregiano d'essere l'ultimo villaggio palestinese cristiano al cento per cento. A Nablus Ibrahim preferisce tenere a casa la catenina con il crocifisso e la data di battesimo. A Gaza poi, dopo la vittoria di Hamas, le pochissime chiese si sono svuotate e i cristiani si raccomandano di non essere citati nei reportage giornalistici. Eppure, alla richiesta esplicita, tutti negano. "Siamo fratelli, palestinesi, stesso popolo", ripetono. La verità emerge dai gesti, uno scatto nervoso se il giornalista chiede il nome, l'atteggiamento furtivo, la clandestinità religiosa in un contesto dove la religione è identità da esibire. Come in una catacomba contemporanea. Adesso i leader di Hamas a Gaza si affrettano a condannare l'assassinio del libraio di Gaza, ma l'aria è pesantissima e lo sanno. Un'aria da prima della pioggia.

Internal unrest in Gaza continues as a Christian stabbed to death

Rami Almeghari, IMEMC & Agencies, 07/10/07. A Christian Palestinian has been found stabbed to death on Sunday morning in central Gaza city; one day after he was announced disappeared. Rami Ayyad, 32, and owner of the ‘Bible book’ store in Gaza, has been reportedly received threats by unidentified bodies before, while his shop has been exposed to more than one attack during factional infighting in Gaza between Hamas and Fatah.

Relations between Muslim Palestinians and approximately 3,200 Christians, mainly Greek Orthodox, have ever been described stable and good, even after the Islamist Hamas movement has taken over the coastal region in mid June.

Ehab Alghosain, spokesman of the Hamas-dominated government’s interior ministry, described the murder as a ‘crime’ and said his ministry has launched an investigation.

In the meantime, the Hamas-led police forces in Gaza arrested on Sunday three Palestinians, after they have been spotted, while planting explosive devices on the sea road in Khan Younis city, police sources claimed.

In the northern Gaza Strip town of Jabalya, the police said three other people have been caught, while planting a booby-trapped bomb in the town.

On a related note, the interior ministry warned of cracking down strongly on those proved to be involved in stealing locals’ cars, after a series of reports has recently revealed car burglary in Gaza.

Al Mezan Commends Hanniyeh's Instructions to Security Personnel in Gaza; Calls for Enforcing Them

30.09.07. Al Mezan received a copy of a decision issued on 26 September 2007 by the deposed Prime Minister and acting Minister of Interior, Mr. Ismail Hanniyeh. The decision includes instructions directed to the commanders of the 'Internal Security Forces'. Notwithstanding the positive content of this decision, the information retrieved by Al Mezan from the field shows that many of the illegal conducts that preceded its issuance have continued. The Executive Force (EF), Hamas' policing body, carried out dozens of arrests in the towns of Khan Younis and Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip, in which the EF's members did not observe the due process in terms of the arrest procedures, the conditions and places of detention, the rights of the detained people or the limitations on the interrogation procedures.

Al Mezan welcomes this decision, which instructs the internal security under the command of the deposed government to respect the rule of law, respect and protect freedoms, political activism and peaceful assembly. It also instructs them to respect and follow the due process as far as arrest and detention are involved, and to respect the rights of all individuals under their custody; including informing them of the reasons of their detention and the places where they are detained. The decision states that arrest warranties can only be issued by a legally authorized body, and that persons under detention must be allowed access to a legal counsel.

Al Mezan asserts the significance of issuing these instructions which, if implemented, could produce positive impacts on human rights in Gaza. Al Mezan therefore calls for creating adequate mechanisms to ensure full implantation on the ground of these instructions. Effective tools for monitoring and accountability for non-abidance by these instructions are crucial for ensuring their effective implementation.

Notwithstanding the positive content of this decision, the information retrieved by Al Mezan from the field shows that many of the illegal conducts that preceded its issuance have continued. The Executive Force (EF), Hamas' policing body, carried out dozens of arrests in the towns of Khan Younis and Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip, in which the EF's members did not observe the due process in terms of the arrest procedures, the conditions and places of detention, the rights of the detained people or the limitations on the interrogation procedures.

According to field sources, at approximately 7pm on Saturday 29 September 2007, confrontations broke out between prayers and members of the EF, when the EF arrived at the scene to defuse a dispute between prayers supporting Fatah and others supporting Hamas in a mosque near Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. Over 20 people were injured and 14 others arrested; of whom seven were released after being subjected to torture and degrading treatment. The other seven have been kept under the EF's custody. Members of the EF also broke into four homes in the neighborhood without observing the relevant legal procedures as stipulated in the Palestinian Penal Law and the Basic Law. This despite that the above-mentioned decision asserts the full respect of both laws.

In the town of Rafah, the EF arrested eight persons. The arrests occurred at approximately 11.05pm on Thursday 27 September 2007, after a grenade had been thrown at Raja'i and Mahmoud Hussein and injured them. At approximately 1am, on the next day, the EF prevented their family from visiting them at Abu Yousif An-Najar Hospital on the pretext that they were affiliated with Fatah. A dispute started between the family members and the EF. According to eyewitnesses, an EF's member opened fire at 23-year-old Mousa Hussein, who was injured in left leg. Further, the EF beat seven members of the family. Medical sources reported that the condition of one of them; Imad Ad-Din Hussein, was critical as he sustained fractures in the skull and right arm.

Al Mezan Center for Human Rights views with much concern the excessive and disproportionate use of force, as well as other illegal conducts, that have been carried out by the EF. Many of these conducts have occurred after the issuance of the above-mentioned decision; a fact that necessitates the creation of adequate mechanisms to monitor its implementation and hold accountable those who do not observe its full respect on the ground.

Al Mezan renews its commendation of Mr. Hanniyeh's decision, and views it as a step in the right direction. However, Al Mezan believes this step will fall short the expectations without adequate implementation, monitoring and accountability mechanisms that ensure its respect and implementation on the ground to guarantee respect of the rule of law.

A Sort of Peace in Gaza

ANDREW LEE BUTTERS / GAZA CITY, TIME, 30/07/07. On Patrol in Shijaiyah, the toughest neighborhood in Gaza City, Lieut. Naim Ashraf Mushtaha, 31, an officer of the Hamas Executive Force, spots a man in civilian clothes carrying an M-16 assault rifle and walking through the street suqs in broad daylight. His officers quickly encircle the suspect and demand that he identify himself and turn over the weapon. The man turns out to be a member of one of the neighborhood's most powerful clans, and he refuses to give up his gun. "What's my name, boys?" he shouts to the gathering crowd of curious onlookers. "Mohassi Abbas!" they shout back. "See, everyone knows who I am," says the gunman. "I don't care who you are," says Mushtaha calmly, without raising his voice or his weapon. "No one is above the law."

The rule of law has returned to Gaza. Just two months ago, this beachfront slice of sand dunes and concrete jungles, home to about 1.5 million Palestinians, was one of the most dangerous places on earth. In June, after a few days of internecine warfare, Hamas, the Palestinian militant group, took control of Gaza from its rival, Fatah. Since then, Gaza has been under siege. Almost all shipments except for basic humanitarian supplies are barred from entering, and almost nothing comes out. The blockade is part of an Israeli and American strategy to isolate Hamas in the hope that Palestinians will turn away from its Islamist leaders, who have never recognized Israel, and toward Fatah, which is willing to restart the peace process. So far, the plan isn't working. With a free hand to govern as it pleases, Hamas is building popular support and military capability that may well outlast the international blockade.

Security is key to support for Hamas. Within a week of the takeover, crime, drug smuggling, tribal clashes and kidnappings had largely disappeared. According to human-rights groups, the ability of the Executive Force to achieve such a result is an indictment of the corruption and criminal collusion at the top of the Fatah-dominated security services that once controlled Gaza. "For the last year and a half, there has been an orchestrated escalation of chaos by some Banana Republic officers to show that Hamas does not have control of Gaza," said Raji Sourani, director of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights. "Gaza became like Somalia, Afghanistan and Iraq. Thugs and gangsters were ruling, and some were supported and protected by our own security forces."

There have been isolated cases of civil rights abuses by the Executive Force since the takeover. But Hamas hasn't set up Shari'a courts. Without any help from the regular police, prosecutors and judges--all of whom have been barred from returning to work by the Palestinian government--Hamas is slowly trying to train itself in the administration of Palestinian law. Mushtaha and his officers spend most of their time delivering subpoenas and telling the families of wanted men to turn the suspects in. In Gazan neighborhoods, everyone knows everyone else, and there's no place to hide: crooks certainly can't flee to Israel.

With peace on the streets, civil society is returning to Gaza. On Friday night in downtown Gaza City, the streets are clogged with motorcades taking newlyweds and their families to seaside banquet halls. Just one thing is missing: celebratory gunfire. Hamas has banned partying with firearms. But there has been no cultural crackdown since Hamas took over. Gaza has long been more religious and conservative than the rest of Palestinian society--alcohol disappeared from public view here long ago. But secular women who walk the streets of Gaza City without head scarves or veils say they were more likely to be harassed by criminals in the old Gaza than by religious conservatives today. Rumors that Hamas is ordering barbers not to shave beards are just that. I got mine shaved off by Hossein Hussuna, the barber of Hamas leader Ismail Haniya, who told me that most of Haniya's eight sons are clean shaven.

Only if business owners like my barber succeed will normality return to Gaza. Mohammed Telbani owns the largest factory in Gaza, making cookies and ice cream. But he can't get his raw materials and packaging through the Israeli embargo, and he can't send his finished products to the West Bank, where distributors have started buying cookies from Lebanon instead. "I've worked on creating that market for 30 years, and now it's gone," Telbani said. Gaza's beaches may be packed and its streets safe, but its factories are shut, and its stores have almost no customers. The economic damage caused by the siege is immense, with unemployment at around 44%; about 80% of the population receives food aid from U.N. agencies. Nasser el-Helou, a hotel owner and a spokesman for the Chamber of Commerce, said the Gazan economy would collapse within weeks if the siege continues.

Yet Gazan business owners like Telbani and el-Helou--practical, apolitical men--are unanimous in their criticism of Israel rather than Hamas for economic problems. "If we are free, we should control our own borders," said el-Helou. "But we do not, so the full responsibility is on the Israeli side." And business leaders point to a paradox of the embargo; it is destroying the only class of Palestinians who looked favorably on Israel. Most of those in commerce speak Hebrew and have--or used to have--Israeli clients, partners and friends. They had once looked forward to the day when there would be no trade barriers between an independent Palestine and an Israel with which it was at peace. "The majority of Gazans do not like Israel," said Amassi Ghazi, the chairman of a company that imports building materials. "Until now, only the private sector had good relations with Israel. So please open the border before all Gaza will be enemies of Israel."

Some Gazans take being Israel's enemies seriously. At midnight, at what used to be the parade ground for the Palestinian coastal police, a couple of dozen men are practicing small-arms drills. They are in the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigade, the military wing of Hamas, and ready to bolt at a moment's notice if they get a warning that Israeli warplanes are overhead. But since Fatah was driven out of Gaza, said Abu Ahmed, the commander of the unit, there have been fewer collaborators spying on Hamas for Israel, and Israeli strikes have hence dwindled. Qassam Brigade soldiers have been able to operate with relative impunity. Later Abu Ahmed takes me to a Qassam Brigade position a couple of hundred yards from the Erez crossing into Israel. Soon an Israeli surveillance drone starts buzzing overhead, and we leave quickly, back over the sand dunes into Gaza City. On the streets patrolled by Mushtaha and his men, all may seem peaceful. But at night, the war between Hamas and Israel continues.

Two governments at odds

The suffering from the stand-off in fractured Palestine is a disgrace, says Saleh Al-Naami, Al-Ahram Weekly, 2-8/08/07. Raji Al-Sourani, a lawyer and director of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, one of the largest and most important human rights organisations in Palestine, believes that President Abu Mazen holds a large degree of responsibility for the suffering people are enduring due to the conflict between the two governments. Al-Sourani told the Weekly he disapproved of Abu Mazen and the Fayyad government issuing decisions merely to undermine the Haniyeh government. "Why did the Fayyad government order its police not to report to their units and threaten those undertaking their duties with loss of pay? They are destroying the judiciary," said Al-Sourani. He pointed to the positive results produced by Hamas's control over the Gaza Strip. "As a man of law and one in charge of a human rights organisation that has taken on the responsibility of dealing with the lack of security, I am certain that the security situation in the Gaza Strip has not been better than it is now," Al-Sourani asserted.

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Gazapalooza Summer '07

Andrew Lee Butters/Gaza City, TIME, 31/07/07. I've been in Gaza since Thursday reporting on my own without Hamas. For the first time in years, civil society is returning to Gaza thanks to the security provided by the 5,000 members of the Hamas Executive Force, a paramilitary unit that has taken over the policing the 1.4 million people of Gaza. Less than two months ago, Gaza was one of the most dangerous places in the world. But within a week after the Hamas takeover, the crime, the violence, the tribal clashes, the kidnappings and murders by in large ended. This is surely one of the world's most impressive law enforcement achievements, and the fact that it was done so quickly with so few people is a testament to the corruption and collusion that was endemic among the 70,000 or so members of the Palestinian security forces in Gaza who were financed by America and mostly loyal to Fatah. The new security in Gaza partly explains why there were so many journalists on this tour. After the kidnapping of BBC correspondent Alan Johnston, Gaza was a no-go area for us. Now Alan is free and a banner hangs in front of the main press building in Gaza city: "No more threat to our foreign visitors and guests -- Hamas." There is a new sheriff in Gaza.

The Media is the Message at the Palestinian Parliament

Ever since Hamas kicked the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority out of Gaza in June, Fatah -- with American encouragement -- has been hitting the airways with tales of Hamas ruthlessness, extremism and totalitarianism in the Strip. So Hamas hit back with a field trip for the foreign press designed to show the world what life in Gaza under Hamas is really like. And if yesterday's events were any guide, lemme tell ya, it's a lark!

First off, we went straight to the home of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. In contrast to Fatah leaders and their gangsta-fabulous lifestyles, Hanniya and his family still actually live in the 'hood -- in this case Beach Camp, a poor district in Gaza City for refugees from the '48 war. Still, it all got a little thick when Haniyeh himself appeared on the terrace above the journalist throng. I half-expected him to throw roses or start singing: "Don't cry for me Argentina! The truth is I never left you."

The House that Haniyeh Built

Next stop, we looked at some of the houses and buildings belonging to the Palestinian Authority and to Fatah leaders, which were supposedly looted by Hamas, according to Fatah. I personally can attest that the bathrooms in the official Palestinian guesthouse were in perfect working condition. Noticeably absent on this Gaza version of MTV Cribs was a tour of Fatah security chief Mohammed Dahlan's lair. In the days just after the Gazan civil war, angry locals visited the homes of those Fatah heavies accused of murder and torture, and apparently the mobs weren't as nice about using the proper facilities as I was.

I've seen some tough things in the Middle East, but nothing has quite burned my retina like the sight of a hundred journalists bum-rushing the jail cells at Gaza City security headquarters to ask killers, thieves and child molesters what it's like to be in a Hamas-run prison. Talk about Felliniesque. Anyway, I'm just as bad as my colleagues -- I went one floor up and talked to a man convicted of killing a money changer who said the difference between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas was like night and day. Now they've got better food, family visits, and an end to verbal abuse. "Hamas people know God, and they respect our humanity," he said.

What, you don't trust a convicted murderer? Well how about a a Catholic priest. There are about 4,000 Christians in Gaza (of whom about 200 are Catholic) and according to Father Manuel Musallam of the Holy Family Church, they have little to fear from Hamas. "As Palestinians, we Christians live with Muslims, and we suffer with Muslims," he said. "We did not suffer from them. Hamas defends Christians as well as Muslims. We are not talking about a fanatical institution."

Anyway, you get the point. But as heavy-handed as the Hamas PR was, it pretty much checks out. I've been in Gaza since Thursday reporting on my own without Hamas. For the first time in years, civil society is returning to Gaza thanks to the security provided by the 5,000 members of the Hamas Executive Force, a paramilitary unit that has taken over the policing the 1.4 million people of Gaza. Less than two months ago, Gaza was one of the most dangerous places in the world. But within a week after the Hamas takeover, the crime, the violence, the tribal clashes, the kidnappings and murders by in large ended. This is surely one of the world's most impressive law enforcement achievements, and the fact that it was done so quickly with so few people is a testament to the corruption and collusion that was endemic among the 70,000 or so members of the Palestinian security forces in Gaza who were financed by America and mostly loyal to Fatah.

The new security in Gaza partly explains why there were so many journalists on this tour. After the kidnapping of BBC correspondent Alan Johnston, Gaza was a no-go area for us. Now Alan is free and a banner hangs in front of the main press building in Gaza city: "No more threat to our foreign visitors and guests -- Hamas." There is a new sheriff in Gaza.

--Andrew Lee Butters/Gaza City

Inside Gaza: An Arms Dealer's Tale

As U.S. plans to sell arms to Saudi Arabia make waves in the Middle East, NEWSWEEK’s Kevin Peraino visits a Gaza arms dealer.

WEB-EXCLUSIVE COMMENTARY

By Kevin Peraino

Newsweek

Updated: 5:37 p.m. ET July 30, 2007

July 30, 2007 - It is not a fact that he particularly likes to advertise, but, if pressed, Abdel Hamid Bahar will acknowledge that his business is at its best when people are dying. Last Sunday I went to see the black-market arms dealer at his home, a squat, dilapidated structure made of cinderblocks and tin sheeting, in the central Gaza village of Moghraga. We sat on pink plastic chairs in the shade, next to a slightly sickly garden with a couple of banana plants and a slender olive tree. The weapons merchant's business varies widely, of course, depending on how much fighting is going on. Last summer, when Gaza was at war with Israel after the kidnapping of Gilad Schalit, Bahar was pulling in almost $3,000 per month, more than most Gazans earn in a year. How is business now, I asked, with Hamas in power and the streets relatively calm? "Zero," the gun dealer complained, without bothering to hide his frustration.

Bahar nodded to one of his sons, who had been leaning against a cinderblock wall and watching us without saying anything. The lanky young man disappeared for a moment inside the house, and then returned carrying a new-looking semiautomatic rifle, slick with resin and grease. For my notes, I asked for the kid's name and age. The arms dealer frowned. "I don't know how old he is," he said, a little disdainfully. "I have 13 children. I don't even know all their names." He paused for a second, and then added: "All my children, the girls and the boys, know how to use guns." He took the rifle, a Chinese-manufactured Kalashnikov, and slid out the clip. "This is well made," he told me. "Seventeen-hundred dollars each. If you need 50, I'll bring them to you. While you're drinking tea, I can get you 100. I am the No. 1 for weapons in Gaza."

The arms dealer has a rangy, mangy look to him. His head is almost entirely shaved, but he wears a long, scraggly black beard over his gaunt features, which makes him resemble a Palestinian Abraham Lincoln. A net of thick veins bulges from his sinewy forearms. He smiles every now and then, but the desired effect is lost when he reveals a mouthful of yellowed and rotting teeth. He chain-smokes cigarettes from a pack of Royals stashed in his left breast pocket, and keeps a 70-year-old, German-made 9 mm pistol tucked into the waistband of his jeans. (He refers to it as a "Hitler.") The arms dealer is 43 years old, and has been selling guns for the past two, since just before Hamas won the territory's legislative elections.

Bahar grew up in Gaza's Bourej refugee camp, and eventually moved to Moghraga, a poor farming village of about 5,000. He married when he was 16 and got a job as a construction worker with his father in Israel for a while. Later he earned a living as a taxi driver and auto mechanic. During the first intifada he fought against Israel as a militant in the Tanzim, the Fatah-affiliated militia. Still, despite his youthful loyalties, it is bad business for an arms dealer to be taking sides; he says he now sells to both Hamas and Fatah. One of his kids had scrawled the word HAMAS in black spray paint on the side of the house. "I started my business in order to feed my children," he told me. As the rivalry between Hamas and Fatah intensified last spring, "all the factions began to buy weapons."

I had come to see Bahar because arms sales were the talk of the Middle East over the weekend. On Friday the Bush administration said it would like to sell Saudi Arabia and its regional allies billions of dollars worth of sophisticated weaponry. Washington has also promised Israel –which, in a sign of its concern about Iran possibly obtaining nuclear weapons, has dropped its traditional objections to U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia—another $30.4 billion in weaponry. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates were set to tour the region this week to help work out the details of the proposal. Israel also promised to allow 1,000 M-16s to pass from Jordan to Palestinian Authority security forces in the West Bank—an effort to prop up the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas.

Against that backdrop, it seemed like a good idea to visit one of the trade's real-world practitioners. In the news stories about American support for proxies in the region, the recipients of such weaponry are usually described as "moderate," while their antagonists are inevitably "radical." Those are cartoon descriptions, of course, and are often carelessly applied. In the four years since I've been working in the Middle East, I've met plenty of radical American proxies, and just as many moderate "radicals." The labels "Islamist" and "secular" don't reveal all that much about character either, although they're slightly better than "terrorist" and "stooge." If I were forced to divide and classify the Gazans I meet, I'd say they tend to be better described as hawks and doves, and there are both of those in all camps. Bahar, the arms dealer, is one of the former by trade.

The frustrating, inconvenient thing about all this is that, when you meet the people up close, it is often the hawks who seem the most shrewd and competent, at least tactically. They sometimes appear a little paranoid, but in the unforgiving Middle East they are also often the most determined survivors, the ones you would want on your side in a street fight. At one point while we talked the other day, Bahar jumped up out of his chair in one quick movement and darted over to his garden. He tore a branch off his olive tree, and then stuffed the whole thing into his mouth—wood, leaves and all. He chewed it and swallowed hard. "I can eat the grass and the trees, but I will never hold the white flag," he said. "There are many here like me who are ready to eat anything." Sanctions against Hamas won't work, he argued. He told me that he considered Abbas feckless and weak, too unwilling to resist the Israeli occupation. "We will never return to Abu Mazen," he added, using the president's nickname. "Israel and America are so foolish." There was some obvious theater in the tree-eating bit, but it was effective all the same. I tried to imagine Abbas—the quiet former schoolteacher—jumping up and eating a tree, but the image would not come.

About halfway through our conversation, my translator, Hassan, pointed out a faint buzzing sound in the air overhead—an Israeli drone. Bahar shrugged. "Before you hear the noise of the plane, I hear it," he said. "I'm sensitive to it." After drinking cups of thick, sweet coffee, Hassan and I eventually got up to leave and walked back to the car. On my way out I noticed that Bahar's front yard was almost entirely scorched. A few lonely blades of grass shot up through the large black stains covering the turf like oil spots. I asked the arms dealer what had happened to his yard. "I burned it," he told me. "So I can see the snakes." He said it without the slightest hint of irony.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20042003/site/newsweek/?from=rss

Who's in charge?

From The Economist print edition. GAZA, NABLUS AND RAMALLAH. 19/07/07. At the al-Awda sweet factory in central Gaza, the owner, Manal Hassan, says he is employing only a third of his usual staff of 370, and for less than half the week. But frequent border closures in the past few years have taught him to keep three months of stock; he is happy that Hamas has taken control. “Before, when I went to the bank, I needed to be surrounded by gunmen,” he says. “Now it is safer. I would rather have no money and be safe than have money and be in danger.” Down in Gaza, Hamas has its own problems. Only a few hundred of the 17,000 police are showing up for work, under orders from the government in the West Bank, which pays their salaries. Hamas militiamen are filling the gaps, and there have been cases of torture of Fatah men and attacks on journalists. Raji Sourani, a respected human-rights lawyer, condemns such attacks but says the Hamas leadership seems keen to avoid such “mistakes” and pins much of the blame on Mr Abbas. “How can you tell these people not to turn up for work? They are destroying an existing civil system.”

FOR years they have fought Israel; now it wants to pardon them. Israeli right-wingers were predictably furious at their government's decision to take 180 members of the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, the militias loyal to the Palestinians' secular Fatah party, off its most wanted list last week. If they lay down their guns and behave for three months, it will let them move freely in the West Bank for the first time in years.

Most have signed up, though some, like Nasser Abu Aziz, a beefy militant from Nablus, the West Bank's biggest city, who sports a neatly trimmed beard, a commando-style woollen cap and a new-looking M16 rifle, are holding out for something more—possibly promises of jobs from the Palestinian Authority (PA), where many of them once worked in the security services. Fayez Tirawi, a comrade of Abu Aziz who is not on the amnesty list, is more pragmatic. He doubts that Israel will abide by the deal, but is convinced that it is the only way to give Mahmoud Abbas, the PA's president and Fatah boss (pictured above), a chance to prove his claim that he can bring order to the West Bank.

Mr Abbas is not doing this just for Israel. Some self-styled “wanted militants” are, says Shawan Jabareen, director of the al-Haq human-rights centre in Ramallah, “mafiosi” who use patriotism as a cover for crime and extortion. If Mr Abbas can use the amnesty as a first step to bringing these and other gunmen to heel, it will cement his authority in the West Bank. After last month's showdown between Fatah and Hamas left Fatah running the West Bank and the Islamists of Hamas in control of the Gaza Strip, he must convince Palestinians that Fatah can do a better job than Hamas. But these are fragile times. Israel's army still makes near-nightly raids in Nablus and other towns, killing and arresting suspects. If it accidentally kills someone on the list, all bets will be off.

Fragile times, but also strange times. Men like Mr Tirawi are now readier to co-operate with Israel, which has occupied the West Bank for 40 years, than with Hamas, many of whose men they once counted as brothers-in-arms. When he accuses the Islamists of “collaborating with Syria and Iran” and “destroying the national project”, he sounds more like George Bush, who in a speech this week said Hamas was more “devoted to extremism and murder than to serving the Palestinian people”.

Mr Bush says he wants to “boost” Mr Abbas. In his speech, originally scheduled to commemorate the much-trumpeted “vision of two states” he announced five years ago, he promised Mr Abbas $270m in aid, a loans programme for Palestinian businesses and an “international meeting” on the conflict which may well be just a special session of an already-existing foreign donors' forum. Its time and place have yet to be announced.

But that boosting does not include what even the most moderate Palestinians insist is necessary to make Mr Abbas credible at home: some prior commitments by Israel towards the creation of a Palestinian state. The goals that Mr Bush set each side are similar to those of the long-dormant “road map” towards peace, which leaves those issues to the end. Noticeably, the Palestinian obligations (such as rounding up terrorists) were “musts”, while Israeli ones (such as stopping settlement-building on the West Bank) were “shoulds”, prompting Israeli pundits to comment that Ehud Olmert, the prime minister, need fear no pressure from the Americans.

Mr Abbas, however, is feeling it intensely. The interim government he appointed after the Fatah-Hamas showdown is trying to impose order on the streets and bring the PA's institutions back to life after a year-long aid boycott during Hamas's reign, all while it is in a legal limbo. Parliament must ratify the government but more than half of Hamas's MPs are in Israeli jails and the rest refuse to turn up to vote, so there is no quorum. Early elections, which Mr Abbas has called for, are impossible without Hamas's consent.

Mr Abbas may be trying to manoeuvre the Palestine Liberation Organisation, the worldwide umbrella body (of which he is also chairman), into holding elections for its own representative council for the first time in a decade, perhaps in an attempt to override parliament. He has also signed decrees extending military courts' power and giving the interior ministry the right to close down non-governmental organisations without a court order, measures that Mr Jabareen compares to other, more repressive Arab regimes. It all adds up to a slow dismantling of institutions on which foreign donors have spent billions—with the donors' acquiescence.

Down in Gaza, Hamas has its own problems. Only a few hundred of the 17,000 police are showing up for work, under orders from the government in the West Bank, which pays their salaries. Hamas militiamen are filling the gaps, and there have been cases of torture of Fatah men and attacks on journalists. Raji Sourani, a respected human-rights lawyer, condemns such attacks but says the Hamas leadership seems keen to avoid such “mistakes” and pins much of the blame on Mr Abbas. “How can you tell these people not to turn up for work? They are destroying an existing civil system.”

Still suffocating

Meanwhile, Gaza's border crossings with Israel have stayed shut to all but humanitarian aid since the Hamas takeover. Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, has given warning that Gaza will become “near totally aid-dependent” unless commercial trade resumes. A telephone poll in Gaza by Near East Consulting, a firm based in Ramallah, the Palestinian capital, found that Mr Abbas now enjoys nearly double the trust rating of Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas man who was prime minister until Mr Abbas brought in the emergency government, and that if an election were held, Fatah would get double the Hamas vote. Some Fatah and other politicians in the West Bank say they see signs that Hamas is beginning to buckle, and may agree to early elections under public pressure.

At the al-Awda sweet factory in central Gaza, the owner, Manal Hassan, says he is employing only a third of his usual staff of 370, and for less than half the week. But frequent border closures in the past few years have taught him to keep three months of stock; he is happy that Hamas has taken control. “Before, when I went to the bank, I needed to be surrounded by gunmen,” he says. “Now it is safer. I would rather have no money and be safe than have money and be in danger.”