Hamas versus Fatah: The Other Struggle for Palestine (1)

The conflict of brothers or the palestinian civil war began especially in 2006 after Hamas’s legislative victories and has continued till 2010. The conflict is between two main Palestinian parties: Hamas and Fatah. This strict conflict is by some scholars who are investigating on the Israel-Palestinian matter entitled as “the other struggle for Palestine” or “inside battle.” In order to assess and understand the entire picture, the actors should be taken into account and known which have tried to control within Palestine. In this regard, the aim of this paper is to make a comparison among Hamas and Fatah and to describe them.

Palestine is a country in turmoil. Within its borders the two political factions Hamas and Fatah are in conflict over the control of their country and its resources. The parties have shifted back from diplomacy to violence again and are confronting religious and territorial disputes with Israel and each other.

Hamas is a political and social organization with a violent militant wing and known as the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades which has gained the control of Palestine’s legislature by democratic elections and has came into force in Gaza Strip. With non trade flow into or out of Gaza, Hamas argues the popular opinion in the struggling region. As Hamas shows no signs of lessening its forceful control of the Gaza strip, the international community sees Fatah as a superior alternative.[1] With the backing of U.S. and Israeli, Palestine’s President Mahmoud Abbas has managed to maintain the control over the unstable West Bank and instate an interim cabinet, though the cabinet hasn’t been ratified by Hamas’s congress. With Hamas’s control of Gaza, Fatah’s control of the West Bank, no one in authority and neither party is negotiating. Therefore Palestine is maybe closer to civil war than ever.

The History of the Conflict

After the formation of the Hamas-led cabinet on March 20, 2006, tensions between Fatah and Hamas militants rose progressively in the Gaza strip. Fatah commanders refused to take orders from the government while the Palestinian Authority initiated a campaign of demonstrations, assassinations and abductions against Hamas which led to Hamas’s response. Israeli intelligence has warned Mahmoud Abbas that Hamas had planned to kill him at his office in Gaza. According to a Palestinian source close to Abbas, Hamas considers president Abbas as a barrier to its complete control over Palestine and decided to kill him[2]. In a statement of Al Jazeera, Hamas leader Mohammed Nazzal, accused Abbas of being a party of the besieging and isolating of the Hamas-led government.[3]

On June 9, 2006, during an Israeli artillery operation, an explosion occurred on a busy Gaza beach, killing eight Palestinian civilians. It was assumed that Israeli shelling was responsible for the killings, but Israeli government officials denied this. Hamas formally withdrew from its 16-month ceasefire on June 10, taking responsibility for the subsequent Qassam rocket attacks launched from Gaza into Israel. On June 25, two Israeli soldiers were killed and another, Gilad Shalit, abducted following a joint incursion by Fatah, Islamic Jihad, and Hamas. In response, three days later, the Israeli military has started the Operation Summer Rains, to secure the release of the kidnapped soldier, arrest 64 Hamas officials.[4] Among them were 8 Palestinian Authority cabinet ministers and up to 20 members of the Palestinian Legislative Council. The arrests, along with other events, prevented effectively the Hamas-dominated legislature from function during most of its term.

On February 2007 the Saudi-sponsored negotiations in Mecca produced an agreement on a signed by Mahmoud Abbas on behalf of Fatah and Khaled Mashal on behalf of Hamas. The new government was called on to achieve Palestinian national goals as approved by the Palestine National Council, the clauses of the Basic Law and the National Reconciliation Document as well as the decisions of the Arab summit. In March 2007, the Palestinian Legislative Council established a national unity government, with 83 representatives votes in favor and three against. Government ministers were sworn in by Mahmoud Abbas, the chairman of the Palestinian Authority,  at a ceremony  simultaneously in Gaza and Ramallah. In June that year, renewed fighting broke out between Hamas and Fatah. In the course of  June 2007 Battle of Gaza, Hamas exploited the near total collapse of Palestinian Authority forces in Gaza, to retain the control of Gaza, ousting Fatah officials. President Mahmoud Abbas then dismissed the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority government and outlawed the Hamas militia. At least 600 Palestinians died in fighting between Hamas and Fatah. Human Rights Watch, a U.S.-based group, accused both sides in the conflict of torture and war crimes.[5]

Human Rights Watch estimates several hundred Gazans were “maimed” and tortured in the aftermath of the Gaza War. 73 Gazan men accused of “collaborating”  because they had their arms and legs broken by “unidentified perpetrators” and 18 Palestinians accused of collaborating with Israel, who had escaped from Gaza’s main prison compound after Israel bombed the facility, were executed by Hamas security officials in the first days of the conflict. Hamas security forces have reportedly shot and tortured Palestinians who opposed Hamas rule in Gaza and openly supported Israel’s attack. One victim, recovering from multiple gunshot wounds in the leg, told Human Rights Watch he was “so happy they bombed when I was giving out sweets.” In another case, a Palestinian had criticized Hamas in a conversation on the street with some friends. Later in that day, more than a dozen armed men with black masks and red Kaffiyeh took the man from his home, and brought him to a solitary area where they shot him three times in the lower legs and ankles. The man told Human Rights Watch that he was not politically active. Hamas security forces attacked hundreds Fatah officials who supported Israel. Human Rights Watch interviewed one such person:

“There were eight of us sitting there. We were all from Fatah. Then three masked   militants broke in. They were dressed in brown camouflage military uniforms; they all had guns. They pointed their guns at us and cursed us, and then they began beating us with iron rods, including a 10-year-old boy whom they hit in the face. They said we were “collaborators” and “unfaithful”.They beat me with iron sticks and gun butts for 15 minutes. They were yelling: “You are happy that Israel is bombing us!” until people came out of their houses, and they withdrew.[6]

(To be continued)

1. Phillips Academy Model United Nations Conference 2007: Joint Cabinet, http://www.scribd.com/doc/21006446/THE-HAMAS-FATAH-CONFLICT, (15 December 2010)