Political Crisis in the Palestinian Territories, Ted Thornton, NMH, Northfield Mount Hermon

In mid December, 2005, HAMAS posted big wins in West Bank Palestinian municipal elections. In Nablus, HAMAS won 73% of the vote while the ruling party Fatah scored only 13%. Just before the elections, Fatah rival leader Marwan Barghouti (an imprisoned leader of the al-Aqsa Intifada) split with the ruling coalition and formed a rival faction called al-Mustaqbal ("The Future") .(BBC, Dec. 16, 2005) Writing in al-Sharq al-Owsat on December 17, Abd al-Rahman al-Rashed wryly predicted that if Fatah were to be defeated in the parliamentary elections scheduled for the following month, it would not be by HAMAS or al-Jihad, its main rivals, but by itself! All of this took place against a background of increasing lawlessness in the Gaza Strip and the inability of the Palestinian leadership to stem it. Some were predicting eventual civil war between Fatah and HAMAS (see New York Times, Jan. 11, 2006).

On January 25, 2006, HAMAS scored a surprising landslide win over the ruling Fatah Party in parliamentary elections in Gaza and the West Bank. Robert Malley, nine months later, called it, "the most radical shift on the Palestinian scene since Yasser Arafat and his Fatah movement took over the Palestine Liberation Organization." ("A New Middle East,"New York Review of Books, vol LIII, no. 14, Sept. 21, 2006, 83) HAMAS took 76 out of 132 seats in the legislature. Prime Minister Ahmad Qurei (Quraya) resigned and President Mahmoud Abbas asked HAMAS to form a new government. Obstacles to stability included the facts that HAMAS was committed to Israel's destruction (the best HAMAS had to offer Israel was a long term ceasefire if Israel withdrew to the 1967 borders), that Fatah had said it would not join a government with HAMAS, and that the EU, USA, and Israel had all sworn not to deal with HAMAS and pledged to withhold financial aid to the Palestinians as long as HAMAS refused to renounce violence and failed to recognize Israel's right to exist. Reaction in the Israeli and western press generally was surprise or shock. Reaction in the Arab press generally was cautious and subdued. By the 28th, there were reports of unrest and exchanges of gunfire between Fatah and HAMAS adherents. U.N. General Secretary Kofi Annan urged HAMAS to renounce violence, and by early February intense pressure on HAMAS to comply with Western demands was also being applied by Egypt. By mid March, food shortages were being reported in Gaza due to Israel's closure of the Karni border crossing (Israel cited security concerns). On April 7, the EU and the U.S. suspended financial aid payments to the HAMAS led government. Prime Minister Ismail Haniya labelled the suspensions "blackmail" and vowed that he would not submit to international pressure to recognize Israel. President Mahmoud Abbas said, "The Palestinian people should not be punished for their democratic choice." (John Kifner, New York Times, Apr. 9, 2006) Whether punishment or not, it appeared that international opinion seemed to be on the side of holding the Palestinian electorate responsible for their choice of HAMAS to lead them. On May 10, an agreement was reached by which the U.S., the E.U., Russia, and the U.N. would channel humanitarian aid directly to the Palestinians bypassing the Palestinian government.

On May 17, 2006, the HAMAS Palestinian government increased tensions by deploying its own security forces into Gaza in defiance of President Mahmoud Abbas, to whom Fatah security forces were loyal. The first two weeks of May generally saw increased fears that significant civil strife in Gaza was underway with pitched battles taking place between gunmen loyal to either HAMAS or Fatah. On May 25, President Mahmoud Abbas gave HAMAS ten days to commit itself to a two-state solution living side-by-side with Israel or, he said, he would call for a referendum on the matter (Abbas had inherited the leadership of Fatah upon the death of Yasser Arafat). Adding to the tension, another Fatah official, Farouk Kaddoumi, presented himself at a Non Aligned Movement in Malaysia as the legitimate head of the Palestinian delegation attempting to supplant the Foreign Minister, HAMAS member Mahmoud Zahhar. Kaddoumi added insult to condescending injury by publicly announcing he would "train" Zahhar in how to conduct diplomacy. Zahhar, for his part, dismissed Abbas' call for the referendum saying, "Nobody will recognize Israel." (BBC, May 29, 2006) On June 12, Fatah security men numbering in the hundreds set fire to Parliament buildings in Ramallah ("desire of God") in retaliation for attacks by HAMAS loyalists on Fatah security headquarters in Gaza. On the 14th, Palestinian civil servants, who had gone without pay since funding to the PNA was cut off, stormed the Parliament demanding their back wages. The following November, Qatar pledged $22 million per month for several months to pay the salaries of 40, 000 Palestinian education workers.

The political crisis took a new and much more dangerous turn when a three-way war between Gaza, Israel, and Lebanon broke out in June, 2006.

In early September, 2006, tens of thousands of Palestinian civil servants went on strike to protest the failure of the HAMAS government to pay their wages since the elections in January. On September 8, the U.N. warned of an acute humanitarian crisis looming in Gaza stemming from Israel's economic blockade during the summer war. On September 12, 2006, HAMAS and Fatah announced they were trying to form a Palestinian unity government in order to break the political gridlock and cutoff of Western funding that began with HAMAS' electoral victory in January. But, the initiative fizzled out, and, on September 22, HAMAS member and Prime Minister Ismail Haniya formally announced in a mosque at Friday prayers that his government would not recognize Israel. On October 1, gun battles erupted between HAMAS and Fatah members. And, on September 27, John Dugard, a UN lawyer, called the humanitarian crisis in Gaza "intolerable," noting that three-fourths of the population had become dependent on food aid in the wake of the cutoff of funding by American and European sources.

During the first week of November, 2006, the Israeli army launched Operation "Cloud of Autumn" in northern Gaza, including the town of Beit Hanoun. It was an effort to stop Palestinian rocket attacks on towns in southern Israel that had been going on since the Israelis withdrew from Gaza the previous year. Stray Israeli artillery shells that Israel said were the result of "technical failure" missed their target (rocket launch sites) and killed eighteen Palestinians in a residential area. The United States used its veto power to prevent passage of a UN resolution condemning Israel's attack on Gaza. In mid-November, Palestinians began using "human shields" to surround buildings targeted by Israel. In late November, both sides tried to pull back from the brink by announcing a new truce.

In mid December, 2006, civil unrest loomed again when the two largest rival factions - HAMAS and Fatah - clashed. President Abbas called for fresh elections as the fiscal crisis prompted by the cutoff of Western aid deepened: by some reports Palestinian incomes had been cut in half on average. Many of the arms used in the fighting were coming across Gaza's southern border with Egypt, smuggled in with the help of North Sinai Bedouins whom Egypt historically had had a difficult time managing.

2007 By late January, 2007, street fighting between the main factions HAMAS and Fatah had broken out in Gaza. On February 8, Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah summoned the leaders of the warring factions to Mecca and brokered a deal on a unity government, hence referred to as "The Mecca Declaration" ( full text at Middle East Online). However, HAMAS' continuing refusal to recognize Israel's right to exist left doubts about whether the "Quartet" sponsors of the peace process (Russia-EU-USA-UN) would resume funding the Palestinian government.

On May 13, 2007, new fighting broke out in Gaza between the two factions prompting worries that the Palestinian Authority might collapse altogether leaving Israel, still the power legally responsible for policing the Palestinian territories, no choice but to resume doing so. There were signs throughout the spring and early summer that Jordan was preparing to step in to help oversee Palestinian affairs (see Hassan Fatah, "Growing Talk of Jordanian Role in Palestinian Affairs," New York Times, July 10, 2007).

Into the growing political power vacuum the struggle between Fatah and HAMAS was creating new, radically jihadist groups of armed militants had begun to pour. One such group was Jaish al-Islam ("Army of Islam"), which had kidnapped a BBC correspondent in mid-March. The initial targets of these new militants included video stores and internet cafés. Palestinian society was showing signs of serious dysfunction and unraveling (see Steven Erlanger and Hassan Fatah, "Jihadist Groups Fill a Palestinian Power Vacuum," New York Times, May 31, 2007).

In mid May, Israel launched air attacks on HAMAS targets in Gaza in retaliation for its Qassam rocket attacks against Israel.

Speaking on the fortieth anniversary of the 1967 War, President Mahmoud Abbas said that Palestine was on the verge of civil war and that factional infighting was as dangerous as the Israeli occupation had been. Palestinian writer Bassem al-Nabris estimated that as many as 70% of Gazans favored living under Israeli occupation to the current conditions (see Isabel Kershner, "Anniversary of 1967 War Shows Lasting Divisions," New York Times, June 6, 2007). Some had begun to predict a split polity with theocratic HAMAS controlling Gaza (or "Hamastan," as some were calling it) and the more secular Fatah movement the West Bank.

By the evening of June 14, 2007, after a week of fierce fighting between HAMAS and Fatah forces, Gaza had fallen under the sole control of the theocratic HAMAS movement. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, a Fatah member, responded by dissolving the unity government and declaring a state of emergency. He appointed an independent - Salam Fayyad - Prime Minister and asked him to form an emergency government. HAMAS' Ismail Haniya, however, refused to recognize Abbas' decision and vowed to stay on as PM. After Fayyad's new government was sworn in, the EU announced it was resuming economic aid to the Palestinians (which had been cut following HAMAS' 2006 election win). And, Israel, in an effort to bolster Abbas and further isolate HAMAS, released 255 Palestinian prisoners in July.

On August 2, 2007, the United States signed an agreement with President Abbas in the West Bank giving his government $80 million to reform security forces under his control. One week later it was discovered that his government had mistakenly issued paychecks to 3,000 members of rival HAMAS forces in Gaza.

On November 12, 2007, at least six were killed and 100 wounded when gunfire broke out at a rally in Gaza commemorating the third anniversary of the death of Yasser Arafat. Reports had it that Fatah supporters taunted HAMAS security personnel who responded by shooting into the crowds (BBC).

2008 In January, Israel sealed the borders around Gaza in retaliation for militant Palestinian rocket attacks. Power was cut, and a humanitarian crisis developed. Gazans stormed a border wall at Rafah and poured into Egypt to purchase supplies. Egypt began arresting HAMAS and Islamic Jihad militants taking advantage of the border breach to smuggle fresh supplies of arms back into Gaza. (BBC coverage)

Was Iran involved in these troubles?

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email: tthornton@nmhschool.org

Last Revised: February 2, 2008