Here's a bit of soul searching normally not found in the Arab press. At least they recoginze that Arafat and the Palestinian leadership are to blame for the current conditions.
Gaza mirrors Palestinian and wider Arab failures
Rami G. Khouri
The rapid deterioration of the domestic political order in Gaza and the West Bank reflects a range of underlying tensions, problems and failures that have manifested themselves for over a decade; most of them are self-made Palestinian failures. They also mirror similar dilemmas that plague most of the Arab world, largely revolving around a single common practice: the tendency of small power elites or single men to monopolise political and economic power in their hands via their direct, personal control of domestic security and police systems.
The Gaza chaos, therefore, is really about two issues: first, the clear failure of the current Palestinian leadership under Yasser Arafat to achieve its people's national rights to statehood, security and a normal life, and the consequent need for a combination of new leadership blood and better policies; second, Gaza is yet another warning about the failure of the modern Arab security state and the need for a better brand of statehood based on law-based citizen rights rather than gun-based regime protection and perpetual incumbency.
It is not surprising that the catalyst that sparked the current tensions in Gaza is the issue of who controls the security forces in Gaza and the rest of the Palestinian territories. Many younger Palestinian activists and militia members revolted against Arafat last week when they briefly kidnapped the Gaza police chief and Arafat crony Ghazi Jabali. They wanted to make the point that Palestinians are fed up with the prevalence of corrupt, ineffective politicians and security appointees. Arafat made things worse when he consolidated 12 security services into three and then appointed his cousin Musa Arafat to head them in Gaza. This sparked street demonstrations and attacks against Palestinian police posts, and Arafat had to retract the appointment of his cousin. The resignation of the Palestinian prime minister, Ahmed Qureia, only added to the political chaos and highlighted the ineptitude of Arafat's rule.
In this ongoing and evolving situation, the many underlying failures of the current Palestinian leadership coalesce into a simple single fact: Arafat has led the Palestinian national movement for nearly 40 years now. While his policies have kept alive the Palestinian cause, they have done so at a very high cost. Both he and his people live in miserable, often pathetic, conditions today and Arafat, incredibly, has alienated virtually every potential partner, including many of his own political party activists and his own people, the Arab regimes, the Israeli left, the US, and now even the UN special envoy to the Arab-Israeli peace process.
The current revolt in Gaza against Arafat and his failed men and policies is no surprise. It reflects the Palestinian quests for better domestic governance and a more effective war-or-peace policy vis-à-vis Israel. The Palestinian National Authority that Arafat heads is more vulnerable to popular rebellion, in part because Israel and the US have isolated and imprisoned Arafat in his Ramallah compound, and have systematically degraded the Palestinian security and police services. Israel's announcement that it plans to unilaterally withdraw from Gaza next year has also prompted the various political forces in Gaza to start competing for their share of power when the time comes for the Palestinians themselves to run the place again.
This also reflects the steady fragmentation of Palestinian political life that has occurred in the past two decades. Palestinian national institutions continue to fray under the constraints of the Israeli occupation and are being replaced by a combination of new forces: Hamas and other Islamist movements, local militias and warlords, freelance gangs and local thugs, regional or breakaway factions of the leading Fateh movement that Arafat founded four decades ago, armed resistance movements to fight Israel, and grassroots movements for democracy and human rights, to name only the most obvious. The Arafat-led Fateh movement remains the core of Palestinian political life, but because of its repeated failures to deliver national rights and a better life to its people it has lost much credibility and is vulnerable to the multiple challenges it faces these days.
The lightening rod for such challenges — no surprise in the Arab world — is the police and internal security system that many Palestinians accuse of being autocratic and corrupt. With around two-thirds of all Palestinians in Gaza living below the poverty line, such homegrown abuse of power on top of the indignity of occupation and poverty has become too much to take. Some of those who challenge Arafat — Hamas elements, former security officials and local militia chiefs, such as Mohammad Dahlan, younger Fateh activists, breakaway Fateh groups such as Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades — seek a share of power. But most ordinary Palestinians and political activists are not in revolt because they want to rule, but because they want to be ruled by an efficient, humane government — something that Arafat and his men have failed to deliver.
The street revolt against Arafat in Gaza should not be seen primarily as a local power struggle by groups competing to take over if the Israelis withdraw next year. It reflects a much deeper malaise in Palestinian society. Its consequences may prove to be as significant as the changes in Palestinian leadership and policy that occurred after the 1967 war. After that Arab defeat, a new generation of Palestinians took over from the traditional leaderships that had failed to meet the challenge of Palestine's dismemberment and Israel's creation in 1948. We are probably witnessing today the shift to the third generation of Palestinian leadership, as the generation that led the Palestinian national movement since 1967 succumbs to an increasingly vocal vote of no-confidence from its own people. The key moves will be visible in who controls the security services, and if political power is accountable to elected civilian institutions.
Surprisingly a good point from this website. I think that the picture is finally beginning to sink in among some Arab cultures. It’s not all Israel’s fault for their current conditions as it is bad leadership.
I think Gaza is the prototype of what would happen if suddenly Palestinians had statehood today. There is so much lawlessness in that territory that it hampers any peace processes from taking hold.
I think Israel has been reserved to the fact they have to get out of the disputed territories but there is no way to achieve it with the PA. I think the problem is bigger than Arafat himself. The corruption runs deep. Once Sharon is gone, Israel will be in a better position to negotiate peace. However, the likelihood of it succeeding is minimal until Palestinians gain some kind of law and order in their territories.
You're right. The picture is finally beginning to sink in among some Arabs. Faster than it is with some non Arabs in fact.
Here's an editoral from the Arab Times
Arafat should go Posted on 7/18/2004 8:40:31 AM
By Ahmed Al-Jarallah
Editor-in-Chief, the Arab Times
The Palestinian Authority under Yasser Arafat has started crumbling. With corruption pervading at all levels of the Palestinian Authority we don't see any reason for its continuation in power. The Palestinians themselves have started questioning the need for its existence. Arafat and other members of the Palestinian Authority are not willing partners in the Middle East peace process. On the contrary, they have become a burden on the Palestinian issue and Arab countries, especially Egypt, Jordan and Palestine itself. Arafat has invested the blood of Palestinians for his personal benefits.
Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have started dealing with Arafat's corrupt officials. They kidnapped Director General of Police Maj General Ghazi Al-Jabali and accused him of corruption, theft and exploiting his official position. In return for Al-Jabali's release the Palestinians demanded Arafat terminate him. Arafat has terminated Al-Jabali and has understood his corrupt edifice has started falling, stone by stone. Prime Minister of Arafat's government Ahmad Qorei - who also to submited his resignation although it was not accepted by Arafat - described the current position of the Palestinian Authority as a "tragedy." There are no laws in Palestine, which has become a jungle.
Arafat should quit his position because he is the head of a corrupt authority. There is no point for him to remain in politics, especially as the Al-Fatah group has accused him of being responsible for all the tragedies in Palestine. Arafat has destroyed Palestine. He has led it to terrorism, death and a hopeless situation. Arafat has also divided the country, as Saddam Hussein divided Iraq, heaping humiliation on the nation. Although he has become senile, Arafat still wants to retain the reins of Palestine in his hands. He has to be relieved of his responsibilities and should be forced to retire.
The whole of Palestine is under the occupation of Israel. The Palestinian Authority is more of a militia than a governing authority. While Palestine is in a free-fall towards death, Arafat is seeking the assistance of those who are driving the latest cars and troubling several capitals in the world. The fountain head of corruption in Palestine is Arafat. All Arab leaders know this fact. It won't be possible for us to gain from the Middle East road map for peace if this man remains in power
By Youssef M. Ibrahim
A UPI Outside View Commentary
Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Jul. 20 (UPI) -- It may be time for Yasser Arafat to fall on his sword or leave. The situation in Palestine is bad and getting worse. It is too easy to blame it one more time on Israel and the usual suspects -- the West, the Arabs, the others. But if you listened to Palestinians, they are saying their president for life -- Yasser Arafat -- is the problem along with his cronies who rule them, rob them and impoverish them.
Arabs have a responsibility here too. They can say "Israel" until they are all blue in the face, but it does not change the fact that a large part of the fault lies with the Palestinians and the Arabs .
Last week, Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia resigned, saying he does not have enough power to exercise his job. He is the second Palestinian premier to resign in a year. Qureia helped negotiate the Oslo agreements.
Qureia, a respected leader and a loyal ally of Arafat, described the security situation in Gaza as "a real disaster," pointedly noting that "the very fabric of Palestinian society is coming apart."
Those are important and dramatic charges placed at Arafat's doorstep by a Palestinian patriot. They are also a call for help, underlining a tragic reality. Before and after Qureia resigned, the signs of unraveling were multiplying.
A senior corrupt security official in Gaza was kidnapped by Palestinian militants -- not by Israelis -- along with five French aid workers. The militants said they took Arafat's policeman to "protest corruption and lack of reforms." The hostages were released after Arafat promised reforms.
Arafat's idea of reform the next day, Saturday, was to appoint his own nephew, Moussa Arafat, as the supreme security chief for all Palestinians security forces, provoking a major outcry from all segments of Palestinian society. Another cousin of Arafat has been U.N. representative in New York for nearly a decade
This cronyism has become a hallmark of Arafat's rule for two decades. But Palestinians appear no longer willing to tolerate it. "It's not acceptable to fight corruption with more corruption," said Samir Mashrawi, a member of Fatah, Arafat's core political entity.
What the Palestinians are saying to their leader is that nepotism, bribery, and lying, are not to be confused with reform. Naturally, Qureia continued to insist on his resignation.
Then there was the United Nations episode. Terge Roed-Larsen, who served for over a decade as chief representative of U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan in Palestine, said the Palestinian National Authority was no longer in charge. This is the plain truth evident to all.
He told the U.N. Security Council that reforms were urgently needed simply to distribute food to hungry Palestinians without corrupt officials taking a cut or holding it up. The United Nations contributes $350 to the Palestinian per capita income of $1,000-- which is miserable to start with.
Larsen -- a tenacious Norwegian politician, a fervent supporter and friend of the Palestinian people -- had never spoken with such sadness and gravity.
His recompense was to be called an "insignificant liar and an imposter" by Arafat's chief spokesman Nabil Aburdeneh.
Aburdeneh said the PNA was in permanent session to resolve the crisis. This is a farce.
There is no more "Authority" left in the Palestinian National Authority to be in session. In fact there is no Palestinian cabinet to speak of, and no place for it to meet without Israeli approval.
Arafat has been under Israeli house arrest for nearly two years. It is evident to all that he is being used by the Israelis as the "master of terrorism" to freeze negotiations as they continue to confiscate land and build colonies. The setup is absurd, as Arafat's every communication is under Israeli surveillance. He knows that. The Israelis know it.
Arafat may be a patriotic man. But refusing out of misplaced pride to budge on serious reforms, on naming new leaders, and in rooting out corruption in his midst is doing irreparable harm to his people.
As for the Arabs, they can do more than pointing at Israel, America, the West, etc. Arafat should be counseled it is time to leave with whatever dignity is left to him. New leadership is required in Palestine. And corruption must stop.
Arafat, it is well known, has indulged some of his aides as a way of controlling them. What Larsen has said is that money is being taken from the mouths of Palestinian children at a time when the United Nations tells us nearly 70 percent of the Palestinian population now lives below the poverty line.
Palestinians are loudly proclaiming that the PNA is part of the problem, not the solution. Arafat has led a great revolution. But Palestinian voices big and small are now saying he is leading a corrupt Authority. It is time to do the right thing: Go with God's blessing.
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(Youssef M. Ibrahim, a former Middle East correspondent for the New York Times and Energy Editor of the Wall Street Journal, is Managing Director of the Dubai-based Strategic Energy Investment Group. He can be contacted at ymibrahim@gulfnews.com. This commentary originally appeared in Gulf News.)
Arafat has led the Palestinian national movement for nearly 40 years now. While his policies have kept alive the Palestinian cause, they have done so at a very high cost. Both he and his people live in miserable, often pathetic, conditions today
Arafat, has amassed about $1 billion in his 40 years. I hardly think that qualifies as living miserably.
