| Shooting on the threshold of Palestinian independence The threat of anarchy and even civil war in Palestine appears very real after Musa Arafat, the 65-year-old cousin of the late Yasser Arafat, was shot dead in his home in the Gaza Strip early Wednesday. For about a year, General Musa Arafat served as a nominal military adviser to Mahmoud Abbas, the current leader of the Palestinian Authority. However, during Yasser Arafat's lifetime, the general's powers were much broader: Musa Arafat led the Palestinian General Security Service for more than ten years, earning a sinister reputation in this post. His 30-year-old son Mankhal, a special services officer, was kidnapped by the attackers and, according to some sources, shot, and according to others, taken hostage.
The Popular Resistance Committees claimed responsibility for the murder. Their representative, a certain Abu Abir, promised to issue a detailed statement later, but for now he announced on behalf of the organization that Musa Arafat and his son “were executed for attacks on Palestinian fighters, murder and corruption.” This group includes former Palestinian police officers who left the ranks of the ruling Fatah (Palestine Liberation Movement). The Popular Resistance Committees are believed to include members of other groups, including Islamic Jihad and Hamas (Islamic Resistance Movement). Among the leaders of the “Committees” was Muhammad Kamal al-Baba, a former employee of the preventive security service (counterintelligence) in the Gaza Strip.
It is noteworthy that Musa Arafat was one of the founders of Fatah. Since the early 1960s, he carried out the most sensitive assignments of his relative Yasser. From 1967 to 1968, Musa Arafat underwent military training in China, after which he began creating the Palestinian secret services. In autonomy, he headed military intelligence. At the same time, he was engaged in business and, according to rumors, controlled many retail outlets in the Gaza Strip, owned restaurants through intermediaries, and was even involved in smuggling. He had enemies among local merchants and among other heads of special services.
There have been multiple attempts on Musa Arafat's life. Thus, in July 2001, fighters from the same “Committees”, together with Hamas militants, fired at his guarded villa in Gaza. Then they announced that they were taking revenge on Musa Arafat for persecution by the intelligence service he headed. In July 2003, Musa Arafat's office in Gaza was attacked with a rocket-propelled grenade. But the attackers made a mistake and struck a nearby prison, injuring several prisoners and guards.
This time, about a hundred opponents of the influential general arrived in 20 cars. They surrounded the house of Musa Arafat, located only 300 meters from the residence of the head of the Palestinian National Authority in the Gaza Strip, and fired at it with grenade launchers and machine guns for almost an hour. The general's guards and he himself fired back, three of them were wounded, and he himself was taken to the hospital already dead.
One of the Hamas leaders, Mahmoud Zahhar, condemned the killing of the Arafats. Although it is possible that his opinion does not reflect the unified position of this group.
Such reprisals can destabilize the situation in the autonomy and lead to a series of acts of revenge. The Palestinians have no use for this: after the Israelis leave the Gaza Strip, the Arabs must prove that they are able to control the situation. The murder also shows that Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas is finding it difficult to keep various factions and clans from fighting. Moreover, members of various Palestinian organizations are very well armed.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs and the special services of the autonomy were put on high alert yesterday, Mahmoud Abbas ordered an urgent search for the killers. He also ordered the preparation of a legislative program for the disarmament of radical groups in the Gaza Strip so that “no one except representatives of the security services would have weapons there.” Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres called on Abbas to "put an end to the chaos and anarchy in the Gaza Strip." According to the Palestinian-Israeli disengagement plan, Gaza must be transferred to full Palestinian control by September 15. Israeli soldiers still remain in the settlements of Gaza, from which the Jewish inhabitants have already left.
The assassination of Musa Arafat caused a squabble within the leadership of the PNA security services. The director of military intelligence of the PNA, Mager Faris, accused the Ministry of Internal Affairs and intelligence services of negligence. He said that the “Committees” themselves are not capable of “an essentially military operation,” and the militants who attacked Arafat’s house “were acting undercover.” This is a hint that Musa Arafat had more powerful enemies in Palestine than the armed activists of the Committees.
The Russian Foreign Ministry, concerned about what happened, called yesterday for strengthening “intra-Palestinian unity.” And the deputy director of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Vladimir Isaev, in an interview with Vremya Novostey, noted that such events will slow down the movement of the Palestinians towards independence: “Of course, this movement will continue, but it is a pity that the Palestinians cannot agree among themselves on the key points of creating their statehood.” The situation will worsen even more, he believes, on the eve of the parliamentary elections in Palestine on January 25.
However, it is worth recognizing that after Yasser’s death in November last year, his relative Musa Arafat quickly turned into a role-playing political figure, and his tarnished reputation (accusations of corruption and ill-treatment of prisoners in the prisons under his jurisdiction) worked not only against him, but also against the Palestinian leadership as a whole. The time of the Arafats in Palestine is over. Alexander SAMOKHOTKIN, Elena SUPONINA |
|
