The Foundations of Infighting in Gaza

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

Every time observers think the infighting in Gaza has ended for good, events surprise them, and they realize their calculations were imprecise. Gaza calms down for a while and rests a little, then clashes erupt again between the Fatah and Hamas factions. The leaders of the two factions appear before us in the media with statements about an agreement to withdraw gunmen from the streets, and no sooner do they conclude their conference or their statements than the bullets start flying again.

Where is the flaw? Is the Palestinian people so careless with the sanctity of its cause, and with the blood of its own sons?

There are clear, evident reasons leading to this infighting, and even if it were not between Fatah and Hamas, it would be between Fatah and other factions. The reasons can be summarized as follows:

First: the Oslo Accords and the Taba Agreement, which serves as an elaboration of Oslo, establish the foundation for Palestinian infighting. Palestinian infighting is built into the agreements with “Israel,” because they pit Palestinian against Palestinian — indeed, one of the conditions for the success of these agreements is that Palestinian confronts Palestinian. The Oslo Accords state that security coordination aimed at fighting terrorism will take place between “Israel” and the Palestinian Authority, while the Taba Agreement obligates the Palestinian side to pursue terrorism and terrorists, and also obligates it not to hold agents and collaborators with “Israel” accountable. Based on this, the Palestinian Authority, in the 1990s, arrested people accused of belonging to Palestinian resistance factions, and I, the author of this article, was among those repeatedly subjected to arrest.

This alone is enough to create severe tension among Palestinians, and to create a state of vendetta. Had Hamas and Islamic Jihad not acted wisely at the time, choosing patience over reacting to the Authority’s practices, bloody confrontations would have erupted long ago. The Oslo Accords, and the agreements built upon them, cannot find a path toward implementation unless the Palestinian Authority carries out this security role.

Second: the Palestinian security apparatuses emerged from the agreements with “Israel,” and are responsible for pursuing terrorism and terrorists. These security apparatuses have previously announced foiling suicide operations and dismantling explosives-manufacturing workshops. This is why the Palestinian leadership was keen to install, at the head of these apparatuses, people with the will to implement the agreements. It was never expected that the Palestinian leadership would appoint people committed to the resistance to lead the security apparatuses, nor would “Israel” agree to anything but the appointment of those it saw as suitable for safeguarding its own security.

Third: the structure of the Palestinian factions itself establishes the foundation for infighting. The Palestinian factions are not, strictly speaking, resistance factions — they are closer to tribes than to political organizations. These factions are characterized by a closed mentality, a sense of superiority over others, and a belief that they alone possess the absolute truth. Members of each faction are culturally steeped in a chauvinistic mentality that glorifies the self and demeans the value of other factions, cultivating within them resentment and hatred toward others. Factional upbringing is built on tension against others and refusal to accept them, and dealing with them with extreme caution. Such an upbringing cannot lead to civil peace, or to cooperation among factions, and it tends to attach the homeland to the faction, so that national values become identical to factional values. Each faction defines the national interest in whatever way it sees fit, perfectly aligned with its own vision and private interests. I have noticed that factional members build mutual hatred within themselves that is sometimes even fiercer than their hatred of the Zionist occupation.

Fourth: since 1994, the Palestinian Authority has opened the door wide for Zionist intelligence to send weapons and ammunition into the West Bank and Gaza market, to the point that weapons came to be sold on street vendors’ stalls in public places. The ignorant and the thuggish (the “za’ran”) in the Palestinian arena rushed to buy these weapons, and it became clear the Palestinian people was heading toward a genuine tragedy concerning civil peace. It has happened repeatedly that these thugs opened fire on people, killing and wounding them, without facing punishment from the Palestinian Authority — some of them even received promotions or favor.

Fifth: the Palestinian Authority, which supports the Oslo Accords, cannot cooperate on security matters with any Palestinian interior minister who wants to establish security peace independent of the Oslo Accords. If he wants to do so, he must first dismiss the leaders of the Palestinian security apparatuses, and open the way for new leaders who believe in the necessity of correcting the Palestinian security situation.

Sixth: “Israel” and America incite Palestinian infighting, and we know America supplies certain Palestinian parties with money and weapons, and “Israel” has not hidden this matter.

For it to be possible to stop the Palestinian infighting, there is no escaping addressing the causes. Televised or ceremonial treatment has no value, and our experience with the Mecca Agreement, which addressed the matter of the shooting but left the underlying ground of the blaze unexamined, ended in failure. This means the road ahead is long, and conditions do not indicate that the faction leaders possess the balance required to achieve calm and cooperation.

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “أسس الاقتتال في غزة” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.