CPTnet
13 September 2007
HEBRON: An independent Palestinian view of Fatah and Hamas
by Lorin Peters
H. comes from a long line of independent activists. His grandfather was one
of the founders, in 1920, of the Palestinian Peoples (formerly Communist)
Party. He is critical of both Hamas and Fatah. But, he notes Fatah has had
much more access to power. And it has demonstrated that power indeed
corrupts.
The Palestinian Authority (PA) legislative elections do not use proportional
representation. Fatah, the political party in control of the PA wrote the
rules to favor itself. The party with the largest number of votes gets more
than its share of legislative seats. Two years ago, Mahmoud Abbas, the
leader of Fatah since the death of Yassir Arafat, saw that Fatah was losing
popularity. He asked the legislature to adopt proportional representation
-- each party receives seats in direct proportion to the number of votes it
gets. But most of the Fatah representatives refused, assuming they would be
re-elected.
In the January 2006 elections, Hamas got 42% of the popular vote; Fatah got
38%. But because of Fatah's rules, Hamas got 65% of the seats, while Fatah
got only about 25%.
H. claims that 30% of Fatah's own security officers voted for Hamas because
of Fatah's corruption. Palestine uses NIS (new Israeli shekels), but the PA
operates almost entirely on donations from outside nations. The value of
the U.S. dollar ranges from 4.0 to 4.5 NIS. H. explained that the heads of
the sixteen different Fatah security forces exchange the dollars, pay their
men 3.5 NIS per dollar, and pocket the difference (about 20% of their
payrolls). The International Red Cross delivers food aid to most families
in Palestine via the security headquarters during the day. By the time the
officers return to headquarters, half of the food, the best half, has
disappeared.
H. also noted the problem of weapons in Palestinian society. Some
Palestinian clans have better weapons than the security forces. The
Palestinian police arrested a clan member last winter. His clan attacked
the police station holding him and took twelve policemen hostage. They took
all the weapons in the station, including high-powered rifles and
riot-control gear. And they held the station for many days.
No one accuses Hamas of corruption. And it has experience running hundreds
of soup kitchens throughout Palestine. But H. says it has never run
anything as complex as the PA. Fatah has leaders who are quite capable of
running the PA. But Fatah has not reformed its corrupt practices. Not even
after losing the election.
_______________
To stop receiving messages from CPTNET on MennoLink, do NOT hit reply. Send
a message with only the word, "suspend," in the body to
server@MennoLink.org.
Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) seeks to enlist the whole church in
organized, nonviolent alternatives to war and places teams of trained
peacemakers in regions of lethal conflict. Originally a violence-reduction
initiative of the historic peace churches (Mennonite, Church of the Brethren
and Quaker), CPT now enjoys support and membership from a wide range of
Christian denominations.
To ask questions or express concerns, criticisms and affirmations send
messages to peacemakers@cpt.org.
To receive news or discussion of CPT issues by e-mail, fill out the form
found on our WEB page at http://www.cpt.org/subscribe.php
Donate to CPT on-line with your credit card! Go to
http://cpt.org/donate.php and click the DONATE button to make a
contribution through Network for Good, a secure way to help support CPT.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Sep 28 2007 - 16:22:16 EDT