Hamas legislators are demanding a commission of inquiry into Tuesday's IDF raid on the Jericho prison, as many Palestinians expressed outrage over the "humiliating" way in which scores of Palestinian Authority policemen, stripped to their underwear, surrendered.
In a separate development, Hamas spokesman Salah Bardawil announced that the new cabinet could be announced on Thursday. He said Fatah would not join the cabinet, which would consist mostly of ministers who were not members of the Palestinian Legislative Council.
A general strike was declared in the West Bank and Gaza Strip on Wednesday in protest against the raid. Thousands of Palestinians took to the streets, chanting slogans against Israel, the US and Britain. Militiamen continued to issue threats against any American or British citizen who enters the PA territories.
"This is humiliation for all Palestinians," PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas told reporters during a tour of the Jericho prison on Wednesday. "This is an unforgivable crime and a violation of all agreements that we have signed." Abbas held both Britain and the US responsible for what happened. "The American and British monitors left the prison five minutes before the Israeli soldiers stormed it," he said. "This shows that they had colluded with Israel." Abbas, however, confirmed that the British government had informed him of its intention to withdraw its monitors. "But," he added, "they did not set a date. They surprised us by leaving very quickly."
Abbas and the PA leadership, meanwhile, have come under sharp criticism for failing to prevent the arrest of the assassins of tourism minister Rehavam Ze'evi. Many Palestinians said they were more disturbed by the humiliating way in which scores of PA policemen, walked out of the compound than by the arrest of the five members of the PFLP and Karine A bankroller Fuad Shubaki.
Dozens of Fatah activists in the Bethlehem area signed a petition on Wednesday calling on Abbas to resign and dissolve the PA. "The stripping of the PA security officers in front of the entire world is a disgrace for all Palestinians and Arabs," they wrote. "If the Palestinian Authority can't protect its prisoners, it might as well be dismantled." Mustafa Barghouti, head of the Ramallah-based Independent Palestine List, said most Palestinians were deeply offended by the pictures featuring the semi-naked policemen. "What is the value of all the PA security forces if Israel could force their members to strip any time?" he asked. "We have reached this situation because of the Oslo Accords and the imaginary arrangements created under them."
Hafez Barghouti, editor of the PA-funded daily Al-Hayat al-Jadeeda, described what happened in Jericho as a scandal. "This is a scandal for the Palestinian Authority because it proves that it is on the verge of collapse and that it is unable to achieve anything," he said. "Our government is behaving as if it were ruling in Finland and not in the Palestinian territories."
The world can only wish that the Palestinian Authority ruled like the Fins, and I would consider that a major step up and a quantum leap forward for the Palestinian Authority if they did so. But the real humiliation was not the Palestinian security forces surrendered and stripped down to their underwear but they did so to because the dreaded Zionists beat them on their home turf, again. This is the unforgivable humiliation and it would be germane of us not to lose sight of that fact.
The psychology of the average Arab has been so conditioned to believe that a Jew can never beat an Arab in a fair fight which is why the world is treated to the bizarre spectacle of the Egyptians celebrating their victory in the Yom Kippur War of 1973 with the Israelis every October. How one loses a war and still claim victory should be a psychological text book study on delusional thinking taken to the extreme of human possibility.
No comments:
Post a Comment