Analysis: Fatah Divisions Deepen After Hamas Takeover in Gaza

Analysis by Amani Soliman of BBC Monitoring,

As Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas wins the lifting of the Western government aid freeze in an attempt to further isolate the Islamic Movement of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, he also has to deal with internal rifts within his own Fatah party.

The United States and Europe quickly showed their support for Abbas’s emergency government by promising to restore direct aid to the Palestinians on 18 June. However, there are signs of deepening political divisions within the Fatah ranks in the West Bank and Gaza.

Fatah divisions

A senior Gaza-based Fatah leader who witnessed the fighting with Hamas last week called for an inquiry into how President Abbas’s forces lost control of the strip to Hamas.

Ahmad Hillis is seen by the mainstream Fatah members as an arch- rival of the president’s national security adviser, Muhammad Dahlan, who is also from the Gaza Strip.

In a press conference in Gaza on 18 June, broadcast on Doha- based Al-Jazeera TV, Hillis said: “A serious investigation must be conducted so that those who made mistakes can be held accountable.” He said both Abbas and Dahlan should be included in any inquiry.

Hillis was sidelined by Abbas earlier this year for calling for dialogue with Hamas instead of head-on conflict. Many loyalists of secular Fatah regard Hillis a Hamas ally.

“Hillis did not fight and is trying to win dividends from what happened in Gaza to impose himself as the leader,” an unnamed Abbas loyalist in the West Bank told news agencies when asked for reaction to the call for an investigation. However, Hillis is respected by many of Fatah’s armed splinter groups.

Hillis said Hamas had now closed all doors to dialogue with Fatah. “Let the Hamas-led authority collapse. Let the ministries collapse,” said Hillis. “This era will not last long.”

More divisions

Earlier, the Palestinian Ma’an News Agency website on 18 June carried details of another call by a number of Fatah figures in Gaza calling for the trial of Muhammad Dahlan.

The group called for a trial of all the “leading figures” whom they considered responsible for the fall of Fatah in Gaza, starting with Dahlan, whom they said “must receive the maximum punishment”.

Prominent leader and former Fatah secretary in the Gaza Strip, Husam Udwan, appealed to fellow Fatah leader Ahmad Hillis “to take the initiative and begin forming an emergency committee in order to protect the Fatah Movement.”

Udwan warned that the same “mutiny trend”, which led to the fall of Fatah in Gaza, could spread to the West Bank. He appealed for the “dismissal of everyone who exhibits that trend before it is too late,” according to the Ma’an website.

“All those Fatah members present affirmed that the only unchangeable Palestinian principle is resistance against occupation,” Ma’an reported.

In response, mainstream Fatah leader Samir Mashharawi said “I believe this was a forestalled step by a group which betrayed Fatah years ago and was attached to Hamas, so they are a Hamas-of-Fatah or a Fatah-of-Hamas and any decent Fatah member cannot say what they said about the movement.”

Dahlan Reaction

From his refuge in the West Bank, Fatah strongman, Muhammad Dahlan has challenged Hamas to provide for the impoverished strip from his refuge in the West Bank.

Dahlan had moved to the West Bank political capital of Ramallah after Hamas trounced pro-Fatah security forces in a five-day battle that ended last week.

In an interview with the Dubai-based Al-Arabiya satellite channel, on 17 June, he justified the poor performance of the pro- Fatah security men, who outnumbered Hamas fighters by thousands, explaining they were “exhausted and destroyed” following years of Israeli-Palestinian violence, and unprepared for war with Hamas.

Dahlan, currently a security adviser to Abbas, was Fatah’s hope to crush Hamas. But during the fighting, he was in Egypt and not in Gaza.

During the battles, Hamas quickly seized Gaza’s security compounds. Many pro-Fatah fighters surrendered after Hamas’s decisive victory against their colleagues.

Many Fatah loyalists said they felt betrayed by Dahlan for not personally leading the battle against Hamas.

“Gaza is now under Hamas’s responsibility, and it has to provide for it. It has all the legal, moral and political responsibility for what could happen in Gaza,” Dahlan said.

Dahlan defiantly taunted Hamas from his Ramallah refuge.

“Let Hamas provide solutions and declare a historic empire, and call it what it wishes. It has to pay the political price.”

Dahlan’s house was looted and burnt during the fighting. Hamas blames Dahlan for provoking bitter infighting with rival group Fatah, and accuses him of overseeing the crackdown and torture of its members when he oversaw Gaza’s security years ago.

(c) 2007 BBC Monitoring Middle East. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.