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Last update - 10:06 14/11/2007
Like on the first Land Day
By Amira Hass
Tags: Yasser Arafat, Land Day 

"Armed Hamas policemen who were stationed in the streets and watching the masses of people marching toward the square, gazed down at the ground. Out of shame. They saw themselves the way the marchers to the memorial rally for Yasser Arafat saw them - like Israeli policemen on the first Land Day in Israel. It was women whose votes had led to the defeat of Fatah in 2006, so it was significant now that many women came to the rally. I saw one woman go up to an armed policeman and dare him: Kill me, you Shi'ite."

This was related by a devout Muslim, a Hamas adherent who left the movement because of disagreements over matters of principle. The killing on Monday of six participants in the Gaza City rally by gunfire from Hamas police immediately raised questions concerning the strength and weakness of the Gaza Strip government and its rival - the Fatah movement in Gaza. The extent to which this is not a matter of absolutes can be learned from the viewpoints of two devout Muslims.

"The masses who came to the rally did not come for Abu Amar [Arafat] or for Mohammad Dahlan, or because they were promised NIS 200 or a phone card. They came out of hatred for Hamas," says the former movement activist. A friend of his, who has remained a Hamas activist, agrees: "There has been a consolidation among some of the Fatah activists, because of anger and hatred for Hamas, after mistakes of ours that are impossible to ignore." He himself approached policemen and asked them to conduct themselves with restraint and not to react to insults. He is convinced that what happened was caused by a loss of control by inexperienced young policemen - not part of a policy. He swears that the leadership's intention is to reduce repressive ruling measures by the government. And he is convinced that Ramallah told Fatah supporters to initiate provocations and that the Hamas police indeed fell into the trap.
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It is all lies, says the former activist, like the claims that the first to have opened fire were Fatah supporters who had prepared for a confrontation. He supports his claim, inter alia, on the basis of a scrupulous examination of the direction in which the shots were fired. The Hamas police, he says, received a clear order to act with full force in response to any Fatah demonstration of strength.

The number of participants in the rally came as no surprise to Hamas, says the movement activist, nor is it worried by this: "We knew that there was a large public in the Gaza Strip that supports Fatah, which hasn't disappeared. But this is a public without a leadership. The leaders have fled. Hamas, as compared to Fatah, is a movement with a strong leadership that, contrary to the Israeli intelligence spokesmen, is not divided: It is more a question of style of speech than of disagreements between Ismail Haniyeh and Mahmoud al-Zahar. Both are interested in repairing the break between Gaza and the West Bank, both of them realize that it is necessary to return to dialogue with Fatah."

He is convinced that, taking the cruel conditions of siege into consideration, the Hamas government is functioning well and maintaining stability. The movement, he says, has young activists who see the siege as an opportunity for the Palestinian people to liberate themselves from an unfair dependence on Israel and the West.

The former Hamas activist thinks otherwise: "Hamas remains strong among the public. What happened on Monday does not testify to the strength or the weakness of the movement. It testifies to a lack of leadership." For quite some time he has been saying how dangerous it is that Hamas clings to rule over the Gaza enclave, while it is unable to satisfy basic social and economic needs (let alone its promises of independence). An Islamic leadership has redoubled responsibility if it wants to rule, he says. It must be committed not only to the people, but also to Islam. Therefore, in his assessment, the international Muslim Brotherhood movement will reconsider its position regarding the Hamas regime in Gaza. It will not allow that regime to sully so badly the reputation of either its mother movement, or worse, of Islam itself.
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  1.   PALESTINIAN GET KILLED AND DAHLAN IS GETTING RICHER 10:48  |  indrajaya 14/11/07
  2.   its acase of out of the frying pan into the fire 11:11  |  victor hardman 14/11/07
  3.   Hamas will always be strong 11:36  |  Dany 14/11/07
  4.   Hello Amira, A volatile situation 11:59  |  Dutch 14/11/07
  5.   Hamas created a totalitarian state 12:23  |  Nik "Banned" Miller 14/11/07
  6.   dutch`s no-brainer - blames Israel of course 13:02  |  CK Tan 14/11/07
  7.   "Kill me you Shiite"........ 13:31  |  Lynn 14/11/07
  8.   WHERE IS "green and clean" Lakshmi?Hamas apologist extraordinaire 13:37  |  PETER SM 14/11/07
  9.   doris and jimmy what acombination 13:39  |  victor hardman 14/11/07
  10.   Dutch, do you mean this Jimmah? 13:52  |  Judith, Haifa 14/11/07
  11.   Amira apparently doesn`t like Hamas 14:02  |  Margie in Tel Aviv 14/11/07
  12.   CK Tan how can you ask such a thing? 14:07  |  Margie in Tel Aviv 14/11/07
  13.   Amira & Hamas 14:41  |  Miriam M 14/11/07
  14.   FATAH/MODERATES Must Win/Prevail! Hamas, Etc. Must Lose. 14:47  |  Proud Pal Defender 14/11/07
  15.   SOLUTION: Hamas, Etc. In Gaza And Fatah In The West Bank. 14:49  |  Proud Pal Defender 14/11/07
  16.   Hamas has made mistakes 15:51  |  Mark Lincoln 14/11/07
  17.   Congrats ! Gaza is Now Officially a Police State ! 16:19  |  Klaudia 14/11/07
  18.   Congrats ! Gaza is Now Officially a Police State ! 16:19  |  Klaudia 14/11/07
  19.   Kik "Banned" Miller, I pity your blindness... 16:36  |  Dutch 14/11/07
  20.   Hamas are not the root of the Palestinians problem 16:40  |  Natallie Durson 14/11/07
  21.   Judith, There is no escaping Jimmy Carter`s truth 17:00  |  Dutch 14/11/07
  22.   Like the wind 17:01  |  KUTW 14/11/07
  23.   The Lesson of FEAR 17:01  |  Klaudia 14/11/07
  24.   Amira this is the stew you cooked 17:05  |  zeidan 14/11/07
  25.   pals wished hamas were like Israeli policemen 17:06  |  KUTW 14/11/07
  26.   Fatah incitement 17:11  |  KUTW 14/11/07
  27.   Strategy for success 17:16  |  Boruch 14/11/07
  28.   KUTW 17:19  |  Arab 14/11/07
  29.   Klaudia 17:22  |  Arab 14/11/07
  30.   Ck, Tan RE : Getting the full perspective 17:27  |  Dutch 14/11/07
  31.   # 21 Klaudia 17:29  |  Lynn 14/11/07
  32.   Congrats ! Gaza is Now Officially a Police State ! 17:29  |  Klaudia 14/11/07
  33.   # 19 Dutch on Carter 17:32  |  Lynn 14/11/07
  34.   Mark Lincoln 17:36  |  Lynn 14/11/07
  35.   #19 doris in fantasy again "israels" borders are guaranteed 17:51  |  victor hardman 14/11/07
  36.   to indrayjawa 17:52  |  issa 14/11/07
  37.   Margie... 18:03  |  Dutch 14/11/07
  38.   "Kill me, you Shi`ite", the build in sickness of their belief 18:24  |  Johnny 14/11/07
  39.   Dutch, you should see as well as Nik 18:34  |  Polybios 14/11/07
  40.   #18, Natallie Durson. re: `10 year truce`, you say... 18:35  |  Jacques 14/11/07
  41.   Dutch 19:03  |  Tired of the lies 14/11/07
  42.   But Amira, you promoted Hamas 19:21  |  Jake 14/11/07
  43.   4 Dutch,greetings! quite right,add to it the vile siege ! 19:37  |  lakshmi 14/11/07
  44.   Dutch 19:44  |  Margie in Tel Aviv 14/11/07
  45.   israel playing "divide and conquer" methods 19:56  |  donnie 14/11/07
  46.   # 27---JACQUES---MEET NATALLIE 19:59  |  zayda 14/11/07
  47.   ARAFAT LEGACY, BENEFITING VULTURES AND UNDERTAKERS IN GAZA. 20:08  |  Gabriel 14/11/07
  48.   its really not about the land , its about the highest bidder! 20:11  |  Gabriel 14/11/07
  49.   if HAMAS cared ,gaza would have been like Dubai.. 20:14  |  Gabriel 14/11/07
  50.   #27..Natallie Durson 20:16  |  Nemesis 14/11/07
  51.   # 1 INDY....spin, spin, spin 20:30  |  Lynn 14/11/07
  52.   The Pals are starting to wise up about Hamas 20:32  |  Jay 14/11/07
  53.   Narrative for the future 20:57  |  USA Observer 14/11/07
  54.   Unbelievible 20:58  |  Adrian de Klerk 14/11/07
  55.   # 11 Re Amira 21:25  |  Bamber G 14/11/07
  56.   28.Arab 21:39  |  KUTW 14/11/07
  57.   HAAS Bias 21:53  |  Joseph 14/11/07
  58.   Thanks Dutch for being a Poster Child for modern antisemitism 22:58  |  Daniel 14/11/07
  59.   Polybios, The roots of the conflict... 23:14  |  Dutch 14/11/07
  60.   Daniel, I am not here to be a poster child for anti-Semitism 23:35  |  Dutch 14/11/07
  61.   This outrage was perpetrated by the zionist mosssad! 23:43  |  Pssd off Arab 14/11/07
  62.   INDRAJAYA.Arabs pay you &you get richer talking nonsense 03:06  |  PETER SM 15/11/07
  63.   59 Dutch,you have the patience of Job trying to explain 03:29  |  lakshmi 15/11/07
  64.   On whose side... . 04:13  |  Harry 15/11/07
  65.   Now crimes against Nature! What`s next? 04:36  |  Robert 15/11/07
  66.   Dutch, you may deny it but you are one 04:50  |  Daniel 15/11/07
  67.   Maybe prefer Jewish rule? 08:24  |  Jeff 15/11/07
  68.   #1 Indra 08:25  |  Willy 15/11/07
  69.   LAKSHMI.@62"Dutch"said she had lost patience with Israel 08:33  |  PETER S .M. 15/11/07
  70.   dutch speaks the truth from one side of his mouth 09:25  |  CK Tan 15/11/07
  71.   You know, Zionists poisoned Profet and kidnapped Al-Mahdi too 17:57  |  Pssd of Pssd off Arb 15/11/07