| Palestinian National Authority on the brink of chaos The struggle for power in the Palestinian Authority has escalated into a violent political crisis, accompanied by high-profile resignations, unrest and even kidnappings of high-ranking officials. Even part of the Palestine Liberation Movement (Fatah), which he heads, spoke out against the head of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), 74-year-old Yasser Arafat.
The situation has become especially aggravated in the Gaza Strip. It is noteworthy that all this is happening against the backdrop of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plans to withdraw Jewish settlers and military personnel from the Gaza Strip in 2005 as part of the Middle East peace project. However, the events of recent days in the Palestinian Authority demonstrate that the departure of the Israelis in itself does not guarantee the advent of peace on Palestinian land.
Participants in mass demonstrations in the Gaza Strip yesterday protested against the reform of the security forces of the PNA. The opposition did not like the appointment of the head of military intelligence, 64-year-old Musa Arafat Kidwi, Yasser Arafat's cousin, as head of the National Security Directorate. Radicals consider Musa Arafat "a symbol of corruption and an opponent of the intifada (popular uprising against the Israeli presence - Ed. )." It got to the point that yesterday militants from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a paramilitary wing of Arafat's Fatah group, burned down the headquarters of Palestinian military intelligence in the city of Khan Yunis in the south of the Gaza Strip.
On Saturday, Yasser Arafat agreed with the proposal of the four international mediators (Russia, the United States, the UN and the European Union) to reduce the number of PNA intelligence services from eight to three. The Ministry of Internal Affairs (police, preventive security service and civil defense forces) and two departments - general intelligence and national security - will remain. This is the requirement of the Road Map, the settlement plan developed by the four.
Reform of the Palestinian intelligence services has begun, but somewhat belatedly. In fact, the Old Man (as Palestinians call Arafat) tried in this way to put an end to the most acute political crisis that erupted these days against the backdrop of hostage-taking by Palestinian militants. These seizures showed that the security services in their current form are not in control of the situation. Let us recall that on Friday, militants from a previously unknown group, the Jenin Martyrs' Brigade (a city in the West Bank where bloody clashes often occur - Ed. ) made their way into the Gaza Strip, where they took hostage the chief of the entire Palestinian police, Ghazi al-Jabali, and along the way, four Frenchmen - employees of a charitable organization.
The brigadiers demanded that Arafat investigate al-Jabali's involvement in corruption. The kidnappers claimed that during their interrogations, al-Jabali confessed to the theft of $8 million, as well as rape. Arafat went along with the brigadiers and fired al-Jabali, after which he was released on Friday. Nevertheless, the next day, the Palestinian National Security Council declared a state of emergency in the Gaza Strip, as radicals also took up arms against al-Jabali's successor, Brigadier General Saeb al-Ajiz, also Arafat's nominee.
But the matter did not end there. On Saturday, Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmad Krea, who came to power last September and is seeking to expand his influence over the security forces, called the situation in Gaza "a disaster, a catastrophe and unprecedented chaos." After the administrative shake-up carried out by Arafat, the prime minister submitted his resignation to the Old Man. Together with Crea, the head of Palestinian intelligence, Amin Hindi, and the head of the preventive forces in Gaza, Rashid Abu Shabak, requested the resignation. They explained their step by “the lack of adequate actions by the Palestinian authorities to implement the planned reforms.”
Arafat did not accept the resignations, but Crea says he will insist on leaving. The unprecedented decline in the influence of the Old Man was summed up by the deputy head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the autonomy, Sufyan Abu Zaid, who said in an interview with Israeli radio: “Although Arafat is still a symbol of the Palestinian struggle, his methods of governance have completely outlived their usefulness.” Alexander SAMOKHOTKIN, Stanislav LYUBIMOV |
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