Any Arab ruler who assists an American assault on Iraq in any way "betrays God and His prophet, violates Muslim law and will pay a heavy price," according to a recent religious ruling issued by a group of Muslim clerics affiliated with Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
The fatwa, issued two days ago by the Association of Wise Men of Palestine, also urges Arab businesses to cut all ties with such countries and to "boycott American products and withdraw their money from American banks."
"Muslims must prepare for a jihad [holy war] against the American, Zionist and British aggression toward Iraq," the fatwa concluded.
Ironically, most of the Arab assistance to the American war effort is coming from Qatar and Kuwait, which are two of Hamas' principal financial backers. This, however, did not deter the Hamas clerics from issuing the threat.
The Association of Wise Men of Palestine is headed by Sheikh Hamad Bitawi, a former leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood in the West Bank and a one-time preacher at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque. Bitawi is one of the 415 Hamas members whom Israel expelled to Lebanon in 1994, but the deportees were later allowed to return, and today Bitawi resides in Nablus.
The association's fatwa is only one element of a broad campaign against the expected war with Iraq that is currently being waged in the West Bank and Gaza. This campaign enjoys enormous support among the Palestinian public, whose traditional opposition to what it perceives as American and British imperialism has been strengthened in this case by Iraq's strong financial support for the intifada, particularly its payments to the families of suicide bombers and intifada victims.
However, due to pressure from the Palestinian Authority, which does not want to be seen as anti-American, this campaign has received little attention from either the Palestinian or the international press. The PA has even explicitly ordered Palestinians who work for foreign news agencies not to cover anti-American or anti-war protests. Under American pressure, it has also begun taking action against the Arab Liberation Front, a pro-Iraq faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization that is responsible for distributing Iraqi funds to Palestinian families.
Hamas, in contrast, is interested in publicizing its opposition to the expected war. The organization's Gaza branch has been holding anti-war marches every Friday that draw thousands of people. At some of these rallies, Hamas Spokesman Abdel Aziz Rantisi has called for volunteers to go to Iraq and carry out suicide bombings against the American forces if and when they invade.
In the West Bank, anti-war demonstrations take place almost daily at most of the universities. These demonstrations traditionally include burning Israeli and American flags; recently, British flags have also been burned. Demonstrations are also held almost daily in many rural areas of the West Bank, but in contrast to the Gaza rallies, these are often organized by local activists from PA Chairman Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction
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