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Ex-Fatah strongman: Israel won't live securely until occupation ends
By Avi Issacharoff / Bethlehem, Ramallah
Tags: Jibril Rajoub, West Bank 

At every home game of the Beitar Jerusalem soccer team at the Teddy Stadium, one ritual is observed repeatedly. During the warm-up, while the players are stretching and other exercises, the fans in the eastern bleachers call out the names of the players one after the other. "Baruchyan, come over here," "Yitzhaki, come over here." The players leave the warm-up and, while advancing at an easy jog toward the spectators, also applaud them. This ritual, it turns out, is also practiced by the fans of Shabab al-Khalil, the Hebron soccer team, which are known for being fanatic. Last season, spectators went wild at the game between that team and the one from Jabel Mukaber in East Jerusalem. The match ended with several dozen injured, some of them seriously.

Less than two weeks ago, as part of the Ramadan League, about 5,000 fans of Shabab al-Khalil filled the Al Khader stadium near Bethlehem. Their rivals, Shabab Tul Karm, arrived with only a few hundred fans. While the players were all warming up on the field, the Hebron fans began to call their team members. "Ali Ayash, come over here." Ayash obediently trotted over to the spectators and applauded them. It was 8:45 P.M., and more and more people were filling the stands. The ticket costs only NIS 5, and the road to Hebron is open these days, without Israel Defense Forces checkpoints. Only a short while beforehand everyone had finished the Iftar - the meal that breaks the Ramadan fast - and now they wanted to enjoy some good soccer.

There were quite a number of billboards and notices on the field. One of them bore the image of the commander of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Abu Ali Mustafa, who was assassinated by Israel in 2001. Flanking it was a picture of the late PLO leader Yasser Arafat on one side, and a photo of the chairman of the Palestinian Football Association, Jibril Rajoub, on the other. The wheeler-dealers in the stadium, the players and also the fans from Hebron all knew that Rajoub, former commander of the Palestinian Preventive Security forces in the West Bank and national security adviser, was supposed to attend the game, in his current capacity as chairman of the Palestinian Football Association. They couldn't begin without him.
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A few minutes before 9 P.M. Rajoub arrived. He was accompanied by his faithful escort of many years, Ihsan, but without his luxury car and the armed guards who used to accompany him when he held in security positions. The gate to the honorary seats in the bleachers was immediately opened and Rajoub climbed up to a room where several representatives of the teams awaited him. While the various wheeler-dealers on hand tried to explain that the prices of tickets at the box office should be increased, Rajoub, aka Abu Rami, claimed that first of all it was important to ensure that the spectators filled the stadiums.

It is hard to believe that only a few years ago Rajoub was still commander of the strongest Palestinian security apparatus, and on the eve of the outbreak of the intifada was considered the No. 1 security chief on the West Bank - someone who held critical discussions with senior American, Palestinian and of course Israeli officials. In January 2006 he was roundly defeated in the elections to the Palestinian parliament. He had headed the Fatah slate in the Hebron district, where Hamas won five out of nine seat. Rajoub was forced to deal with a stinging defeat to his brother Naif, of all people - a Hamas leader.

But unlike many other politicians, Rajoub quickly drew conclusions. He retired from the post of national security adviser and went to study. When he was appointed to his post at the football association about a year ago, quite a number of commentators saw that as tantamount to an admission of the end of his political career. But in elections about a month ago he was elected to the sixth-highest place on the important Fatah Central Committee, leaving behind many leading political figures and rivals. It's possible that his affiliation with sports, which kept him close to the hearts of the fans and away from the security realm, helped him in this achievement.

Minutes before the start of the game Rajoub went down to the playing field to shake the players' hands. Abu Rami, born in 1953 near Hebron, first approached Shabab al-Khalil - which is, after all, his home team. After the photo ops with both teams, the fans began to sing out: "Abu Rami, come over here." The game began.

Hebron was applying pressure; it was sitting at the Tul Karm goal and the spectators were ecstatic. "Pray to the prophet, in the name of God - play," exhorted the fans. Rajoub moved away from the upholstered seat of honor that had been prepared for him and sat on an ordinary one, behind the VIP table. Apparently past criticism accomplished its aim: He avoided making superfluous gestures of honor.

He was born in the village of Dura, which was occupied by the IDF in the Six-Day War in 1967. About a year later he had already become familiar with the Israeli occupation first hand. At 15 he was arrested for the first time by the Shin Bet security services and the IDF. He will never forget the Shin Bet agent who arrested him back then - Gideon Ezra, who eventually became the deputy chief of the service and a minister. Rajoub was then accused of helping several Egyptian officers who had fled from Gaza to the West Bank and had found refuge in the Hebron hills.

"I remember the night they came to arrest me very well," he told Haaretz. "A major named Eli slapped my father before my eyes. That was the first time I encountered Israelis."

For four and a half months he was held in the Hebron Prison. "They beat us constantly, prison guards, policemen - anyone who came across us beat us. Even a group of settlers who were staying at headquarters in Hebron participated in the beatings. There was a prison guard named Haim with a huge mustache, who enjoyed beating the prisoners. On the day I was released a Druze officer names Firas didn't stop kicking me until I left the prison."

"In prison I met Abu Ali Shahin, then considered to be the head of Fatah in the Hebron district," Rajoub continued, refering to a member of the founding generation of Fatah, who educated generations of prisoners in Israeli prisons.

"He was a kind of counselor, a teacher, and he was apparently the one who recommended me to the Fatah members then. You have to understand that acceptance to the organization was quite a big deal. They spoke to you, persuaded you and checked to ensure that you won't break down at the moment of truth. And because I behaved like a 'man' during those interrogations and in prison, the Fatah people came to me that same year. At the time, [making it through] the interrogation was an important test for acceptance into the organization.

"The situation was different from today. The Israeli army was not everywhere and Fatah operated as an underground organization, to all intents and purposes. Membership in it was secret. In the Hebron hills there were several Fatah squads and my job was to help those fighters. After less than two months, at the end of 1969, I received my first rifle, a Kalashnikov, and became a fighter. In December 1970 I was arrested and convicted of membership in an armed squad, and of throwing a grenade at an IDF patrol. At the age of 17 I was already sentenced to life imprisonment and a new path started for me."

Last month, you said at the Sixth Fatah General Conference that armed struggle is an option for the organization and caused a major uproar. Was that an election ploy or what?

Rajoub: "The armed struggle is definitely an option for us. We won't raise a white flag. If the Israelis think that we'll accept the occupation, they're mistaken. I'm addressing the Israelis, looking them straight in the eye: You won't live in security as long as the occupation and the settlements continue. It doesn't go together. If you want stability, good neighborly relations, stop the settlements and the occupation, which is the worst terror in the world. I have fought all my life, but I'm a big believer in peace. Although a right-wing government was elected in Israel, I know the majority [of the public] favors coexistence and recognition of Palestinian rights. But you have gangs of crazy people who have grabbed the decision away from the public and are dictating facts to it."

Rajoub's history in Israeli jails sounds almost incredible. For 17 years he skipped among the various institutions and became one of the more prominent prisoner leaders. "For us the prisons became schools. We were not allowed to have written documents in our possession and nevertheless we managed to study, to receive an education. After a year and a half in Hebron Prison, I was transferred to Beit Lid. There things were very well organized. We ran study programs for young people, there was a command hierarchy. I also met Abu Ali Shahin there for the second time."

Until 1980 he managed to serve terms in another three prisons (Tul Karm, Be'er Sheva and Nafha) after quite a number of hunger strikes. The Israel Prisons Service was trying to break the "organizational spirit" of the prisoners and disperse wayward ones among the various institutions.

"Nafha Prison [a top security facility for Palestinians] is one of the darkest places I have ever visited. Ten rooms, small windows, doors closed all day long. In the center of the room there were toilets, eight prisoners to a room. Abu Ali Shahin argued there with a prison guard and we began another strike. They took us for an interrogation to break us. Two prisoners died and others had their arms broken. They transferred us to a detention center run by Roni Nitzan, who was later assassinated by the Mafia in Israel. After protracted negotiations with him, they agreed for the first time to put beds into the rooms. Until then we slept first on mats and later on mattresses. In July 1980 I was interviewed for the first time in prison by [Haaretz commentator] Akiva Eldar."

The manner in which Rajoub describes his past in Israeli prisons reveals how proud he is of those days. Perhaps like senior Israeli officials who regale people about their military prowess - this was for him an important service.

The two teams did not play great soccer during the first half. While Hebron was pushing forward, Tul Karm tried to fob off the attack. In the 32nd minute Ali Ayash missed a golden opportunity for a goal and the half ended with a tie: 0:0. Rajoub was about to go back up to the room in the stands when he heard one of the Hebron fans call out to him: "We don't want a state. We have shitty players."

Rajoub now had some time for a few questions.

What do you say about all the Hamas accusations against the security forces, about the latter's cooperation with Israel, about the arrest of about 1,000 Hamas members?

"I support their [the Palestinian security forces'] activity. Today we are dealing with professionals, who make a clear separation between their job and politics. I'm in favor of continuing this separation; they must be subordinate only to the political echelon of decision makers. It's a lie that they're holding 1,000 Hamas members. But show me a single political authority in the world where there are no arrests."

You are known as one of the Fatah leaders who is closest to Hamas, who at every opportunity makes a point of emphasizing the need for reconciliation with them. Has the upheaval in Gaza taught you anything?

"I don't consider Hamas an enemy, but a political rival of Fatah. From this assumption I construct my view of them. Today we have to focus on building the Fatah institutions, deciding on a code of behavior for the organization, just as you have in the army. Hamas defeated Fatah in the elections. This is not a conflict that can be solved militarily, only through dialogue."

How were the relations at home when Naif, your brother, was a senior Hamas official and you were in Fatah?

"Each of us has his own political policy. We often laughed about that in the family, at meals, at meetings. We used to compare situations."

Still, how did you react to the accusations against you in Hamas in the 1990s and at the beginning of this decade about collaboration with Israel?

"The accusations of Hamas against me never constituted a source of concern. I'm interested in what they say about me in my organization. My friends in Fatah are the ones who judge me."

In 1985 Rajoub was released from prison as part of the Ahmed Jibril prisoner exchange. But just months later he was rearrested. "For three days I underwent a series of tortures and beatings and I declared a hunger strike. At that point I was already known as a political leader in every sense, and my arrest led to demonstrations calling for my release. I was transferred to solitary confinement cell No. 5 in the interrogation wing in Hebron. There were several interrogators who tried to break me. With [one of them], Abu Ayoub, the interrogation was sometimes amusing. He would bring me from the cell and then talk and talk and talk, and an hour would pass and suddenly he would remember that up until then I hadn't said a word. Abu Ali Mikha on the other hand told me at every opportunity: 'You Arabs are dogs.'"

Would you be interested in meeting these people again?

"No. I was a soldier and they were soldiers. The interrogators no longer interest me."

Rajoub said that his declaration of a hunger strike sparked a reaction: The chief interrogator appeared in his cell and informed him that when he decided that he didn't want to die, he should "'knock on the door, sign a confession and get food.' For 30 days I didn't see anyone except for the Russian prison guard they called Chakwa. He used to come every day with a bucket for my needs and a bucket of clean water. Each time he would open the door and curse at me in Arabic," Rajoub recalled, imitating Chakwa's Russian accent.

"On the 30th day the interrogator arrived. He opened the slot and asked how I was. I told him: 'Like iron.' A few minutes later he returned with Chakwa and they took me out of the cell. A military doctor came to check me and said I had to be hospitalized immediately. I was transferred to the hospital, where they said I would last for another 72 hours. They brought me back to the regular cell in Hebron Prison and Chakwa came to me and said: 'I thought you were going to die so I gave your blankets to other prisoners.'"

After another three days, during which he was hospitalized again and collapsed, Rajoub once again regained the status of an ordinary prisoner in Hebron Prison. But that was not the end of the story. Seven months later he was released, and in September 1986 he was placed under administrative detention until the following March.

"On November 13, 1987 I married Hiba, my wife and the mother of my four children, a resident of East Jerusalem. The intifada broke out in early December and already at the end of the month, I was arrested along with a large group of Fatah members, and they informed us that they were about to expel us. I stood before the Israeli judge and said that maybe they would expel us from Palestine, but they would not be able to expel Palestine from our hearts," Rajoub recalled. "On January 13, two months after the wedding, they took us to a heliport near Hawara (south of Nablus) and we were expelled to Lebanon."

The first injury of the game turned out to be Abu Rami himself, who stumbled when he went up the steps during half-time. The physiotherapist diagnosed a sprain.

The second half began in a frenzy, with both teams attacking and missing their shots. A few minutes went by and Tul Karm burst into the goal. 1:0. The Hebron fans were evidencing some initial signs of annoyance. Fistfights broke out and Palestinian police were deployed in the VIP stands to separate the two camps. The police were equipped with helmets, flak jackets and cudgels; several were even armed with Kalashnikovs. The IDF has allowed them to operate in the town of Al Khader although it is under Israeli control. That is one of the first signs of the new era that is dawning in relations between the PA and the Israeli security forces.

Rajoub did not look especially nervous, but at least to the Haaretz bystanders, it seemed preferable that the game should end with at least a tie, so that everyone would leave the place in one piece.

A minute before the stadium evolved into total chaos, the sought-after tie was achieved. Ali Ayash, the talented forward, dribbled the ball toward the net and scored; the volcano in the Hebron bleachers erupted. Ayash ran to the audience, waving his shirt around. The referee punished him and pulled out a yellow card. But everyone breathed easy.

Back to Rajoub. He was sent to Tunis in 1988 and appointed special adviser to Palestine Liberation Organization chairman Yasser Arafat for the occupied territories. In 1990, for the first time, he met an Israeli outside prison: Labor Party member Ephraim Sneh arrived at a conference in Granada that Rajoub attended, too - "but he refrained from greeting me because contact with the PLO was forbidden then."

Four years later Abu Rami had returned to the territories and was appointed chief of Preventive Security in the West Bank, while retaining his status in Fatah. Those were tough years of cooperation with the Shin Bet in the war against Hamas, particularly after the serious wave of terror attacks in 1996 and 1997, but also a time of quite a bit of friction and clashes with the Israeli side.

In late September 2000 the second intifada broke out and Rajoub became one of the few people on the Palestinian side who was who was vigorously opposed to the use of violence. He ordered his people in the security service to avoid participating in armed operations and was strongly criticized for that within Fatah. Yet Rajoub did not receive any special treatment from the Israelis: His house was shelled, apparently by mistake, at the order of an IDF officer, who recently was appointed assistant to the chief of staff.

During Operation Defensive Shield in May 2002, Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti hid in the headquarters of Preventive Security in Betunia near Ramallah. Although he left the site, his presence there served as a sufficient excuse for then-chief of staff Shaul Mofaz to take over and destroy the structure. Several Hamas prisoners who were inside the building fell into the hands of IDF soldiers like ripe fruit. A combined blitz launched in the media by both Hamas and Fatah leaders against Rajoub in the wake of that incident led to the famous rift between him and his friend and colleague Mohammed Dahlan, chief of Preventive Security in Gaza. Rajoub heard Dahlan's criticism and suspected he had coordinated his stance with Hamas members. Today the two are on speaking terms.

Rajoub has experienced quite a few clashes with other members of the PA leadership, such as the head of General Intelligence, Tawfiq Tirawi, who is considered his historic rival, and of course the former rais himself, Yasser Arafat. But the latter relationship was one of a father who is sometimes angry at his son.

In an interview conducted in the offices of the Palestinian Football Association in Ramallah, Rajoub explained that, "I agreed to take the job of commander of Preventive Security only because of Arafat. I had no security experience, but I believed in him. In spite of all the friction with him, I remained one of those closest to him. We had great chemistry between us."

How are your relations with PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen)?

"Very good. Abu Mazen is a decent and honest man who has never lied in his life. I support his political path and he has endangered himself more than once with things he said because he's honest."

For several years nobody heard from you. Where did you disappear?

"I didn't disappear. I had quite a few medical problems. I don't know how many people know this, but I had cancer. I underwent four operations - that's not a simple thing. I continued to believe in Allah. After the death of Abu Amar (Arafat) I went to elections and lost. I respected the results and went to study for a master's degree, with a specialization in Israel studies. As far as I'm concerned, the defeat in the elections means that I have to respect the results and return to the arena only through elections."

Yes, but after having been a political decision maker you took the job of chairman of the soccer association. Isn't that a demotion?

"I think that I've managed to create a great deal of interest in soccer in Palestine. I don't even have a problem being the head of the local council of a small village if that will serve my people. Abu Mazen officially offered me this job and I accepted."

Why did you lose to Hamas in the elections?

"There were several reasons. Some of the Fatah candidates were corrupt, others focused only on themselves and less on the organization, and in addition there were many Fatah candidates who were not on the movement's [official] slate. In Hebron 29 Fatah members competed for nine seats. Hamas had nine candidates. But you have to remember there was another reason: the collapse of the diplomatic process."

Rajoub received more votes in the recent elections for the Fatah leadership than his rivals Dahlan and Tirawi, or any of the members of the so-called intermediate generation of the organization - except for one, Marwan Barghouti, with whom he has an excellent relationship. Rajoub downplayed this most recent achievement: "I didn't campaign and I didn't even think of presenting my candidacy for the central committee. But they pressured me so I agreed. I believe that everyone reaps what he sows. The central stream of Fatah knows what's good for the movement and who will serve its interests."

Is there any leader today in Israel whom you admire?

"I respect anyone who is trying to achieve coexistence and peace on the basis of two states for two peoples. But there is nobody in the government at present who is demonstrating a desire for peace. In Israeli society there are many such people."

And what about the idea of one state for two peoples?

"I'm a great believer in the idea that two states is the only solution and that it should be achieved through negotiations or through a nonviolent struggle to achieve the goal. But we need an Israeli partner who will recognize the very existence of the Palestinian people."

After everything you have seen of the occupation and have experienced personally, you still talk about peace.

"All my life I have fought against the Israeli occupation, but I have always believed in peace between the two nations. Peace is not only a Palestinian interest but an Israeli one, too; you're not doing us a favor. The State of Israel was the result of a United Nations decision, but don't forget that that decision gave legitimacy to an additional state. In the final analysis, if the occupation continues the world is still liable to say that Israel no longer has legitimacy."

The game in Al Khader ended with a 1:1 tie. All the spectators went home in one piece.

Yallah Beitar. Yallah Shabab al-Khalil.
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