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Arafat Attempts to Regain Support Among Palestinians
With Additional reporting by Neveen A. Salem
WASHINGTON D.C., Dec. 6 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Thousands of Palestinians on Thursday staged a demonstration in favor of Yasser Arafat as the Palestinian Authority leader faced tough opposition from Islamist ranks over the Israeli-dictated arrests of scores of activists.
The march in Gaza City was organized by Arafat's Fatah faction and brought together key members of the Palestinian Authority (P.A.) and of the Palestine Liberation Organization's (PLO) executive committee, as well as Fatah leaders.
The protesters, referring to Arafat by his nom-de-guerre, Abu Ammar, pledged their "allegiance" to the 72-year-old Palestinian leader and denounced the "Zionist occupation and plots."
"Unity, unity, until the liberation of Palestine," they chanted as they marched from the Palestinian legislative building in downtown Gaza across the city.
Fatah's secretary general for Gaza, Ahmed Halass, warned in a brief speech that Israel's "Nazi aggression against all [Palestinian] national symbols and against President Abu Ammar ... will be catastrophic for the whole world."
"The butcher Sharon and the entire world community are responsible for this escalation and its repercussions," Halass said in reference to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
But he also urged the world community to "intervene seriously and effectively to stop the aggression and the organized terrorism launched by Sharon's government."
Halass also reiterated a long-standing Palestinian request for an international protection force to be dispatched "immediately" to the Palestinian territories.
The U.S. and Israel have been adamantly against sending any international observers to the region.
The secretary general of the Palestinian Authority, Tayeb Abdel Rahman, read a statement from Arafat urging the Palestinians to show steadfastness and close ranks.
"The situation is difficult and needs men," the statement said.
"You have launched the Intifada [uprising] and defended the Arab identity of your land and people, but now you must face another task in confronting aggression, and everyone who is trying to undermine our national goals and the sacredness of the decision of the Palestinian Liberation Organization," the statement added.
The remarks were a pointed message to Islamist activists who were locked in a standoff with Palestinian police since Wednesday evening when Arafat ordered the house arrest of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the spiritual guide of the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas.
Ironically, Israel was the original backer and supporter of Hamas and Yassin as a means by which to topple the PLO.
Israel on Wednesday gave Arafat a 24-hour deadline to round up Palestinian "terrorists" responsible for a spate of deadly bombings in Jerusalem and Haifa on the weekend, which was claimed by Hamas' military wing.
Don Peretz, Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Binghamton University in New York commented to IslamOnline on the effect the P.A.'s arrests of Hamas members will have on Arafat and the Palestinian Authority.
"According to polls, the Palestinian community is divided at roughly 30% backing Hamas and 30% behind Arafat," which is the first time the movements have reached the same level of backing as official Palestinian leadership and Arafat's Fatah movement, Peretz said.
Indeed, a recent poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy & Survey Research in Ramallah shows that Arafat's support has fallen to 33% from 46% a year ago, according to Khalil Shikaki, director of the center.
Shikaki seems to think that Arafat is likely to take limited steps aimed at temporarily reining in Palestinian resistance groups.
Peretz also wondered how Israel could call upon Arafat to successfully control the "militants" when all of his apparatus for doing so, e.g. his headquarters and police stations, are systematically attacked or destroyed.
"We in the Palestinian Authority are against terrorism but we are the people who have suffered the most from terrorism, that is why we stood against those" responsible for those activities, Abdel Rahman said.
"But the world too has to oppose Israel's terrorism aimed against us," he said.
He also reiterated that the Palestinian Authority and Fatah "are engaged in the ceasefire as long as the political process is aimed at ending [Israeli] occupation and at establishing a Palestinian state."
"But some voices have risen rejecting the decisions of the PLO and they are casting doubt over our people's unity," he said.
"These voices are claiming that the decisions were made out of weakness and they said they will not respect them," he said, adding that such positions were "un-nationalistic".
"There is only one authority and one leadership, and we reject any attempts from the Israeli side that speak of a change in the leadership of Yasser Arafat," he added.
However, Peretz is inclined to think that the recent attacks by Israel on the Palestinian Authority headquarters and the systematic destruction of its police stations were a bid by Sharon to topple the P.A.
"There are some in the Israeli government that specifically want to topple the Palestinian Authority and Yasser Arafat," Peretz told IslamOnline.
"However, Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and the Labor Party are opposed to the collapse of the P.A. as it would cause more turmoil in the region. But Sharon's recent attacks on the P.A. probably were a bid to topple it [the P.A.]," he further stated.
Mohammad Sid-Ahmed, political analyst and columnist with Egypt's Al-Ahram newspaper told IslamOnline that Arafat's clampdown on Hamas would reflect negatively on the P.A., supporting Shikaki's claim that the number of Palestinians supporting Hamas could possibly increase further.
"Sharon is trying to put Arafat in the most awkward position possible. To make him do exactly what he is doing, which is clamping down on Hamas and essentially do Sharon's bidding," Sid-Ahmed stated. "Arafat is put in a situation where he pressured to give in to Sharon, at the expense of his own credibility with the Palestinian population."
"No matter how many arrests Arafat makes it is not good enough and he is in a very precarious position," added Sid-Ahmed. "The U.S. has so far, even reluctantly, seen Arafat as a partner for peace, but there are signs that there is a rift in the Administration and that this vision of Arafat may not last much longer. It depends on whether Arafat will be able to respond to the requirements of Sharon."
Sid-Ahmed went on to state that he is not sure if the U.S. and Israel will see any of Arafat's actions, no matter how progressive, as "good enough."
"In the eyes of the U.S.," said Sid-Ahmed, "they are requiring that all Palestinians that have resorted to violence be put in prison. In practical terms this means that the Palestinians have given up their right to self defense and resistance against illegal occupation, which is their inalienable right according to the United Nations charter."
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