About 150 Fatah supporters marched in the center of this city on Thursday to express support for Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in his confrontation with Hamas. Carrying pictures of Abbas and his predecessor, Yasser Arafat, the demonstrators shouted slogans against Hamas and its leaders, specifically Damascus-based Khaled Mashaal and Ismail Haniyeh, one of two competing PA prime ministers.
"Mashaal, Haniyeh, go away from the Gaza Strip," they chanted. "The Hamas leaders are clowns. Islam is not about slaughtering people. Await the response from [Fatah's] Aksa Martyrs Brigades." The demonstration came a day after Abbas said Hamas had tried to assassinate him by detonating explosives under his car. It also came as Abbas's security forces and Fatah gunmen continued their crackdown on Hamas representatives and institutions in the West Bank.
(…)
But Thursday's midday march at Manarah Square in downtown Ramallah failed to attract large numbers of Palestinians. "What are they celebrating, their defeat in the Gaza Strip?" asked Hisham Atiyeh, a 29-year-old shopkeeper. "The people here don't like Fatah because they are corrupt and because they have many thugs on the street." Atiyeh said he was "100 percent sure that if elections were held tomorrow morning in the West Bank, Hamas would win. I'm not a religious person, but I will certainly vote for Hamas, because I don't like what these Fatah guys are doing."
Asked if the resumed US and EU financial aid could boost Fatah's standing among West Bankers, he said: "Fatah does not need money and weapons. It needs reforms and change. Fatah must do something good to convince the Palestinians that they are not corrupt and bad. Otherwise, the people will never support them."
In the 2006 elections, Hamas won 74 seats and only 24 of those seats came from the Gaza Strip electoral districts. The bulk of Hamas’ support came from the West Bank and I suspect if elections were held tomorrow, Palestinians would continue to support Hamas even in the Fatah stronghold of the West Bank.
1 comment:
I suspect if elections were held tomorrow, Palestinians would continue to support Hamas even in the Fatah stronghold of the West Bank
Of course they would. Hamas took over Gaza first, because Fatah had fewer thugs (er, security troops, terrorists, well, you get the idea) there.
Hamas leaders have already said that as soon as they challenge Fatah in the West Bank, they'll take that over, too...
There's no point trying to "prop up" Abba; he's useless.
The PA areas need to be sealed off, and thrown on their own resources. What happens in them should no longer be seen as Israel's responsibility. If they want things like utilities (gas, water, electricity), food, and medicines, they should remember that they have perfectly good borders with Egypt and Jordan, and can get these things from their "Arab brothers."
Post a Comment