Article on Uri Davis' election to the Fatah RC

His presence on the 120-member council, sometimes referred to as the Palestinian parliament, is unlikely to make a significant difference to Fatah's policies, which will continue to be largely dictated by Mahmoud Abbas, the president, and his inner circle. But it does have huge symbolic significance.

His polling in the 31st place for one of 80 seats contested by more than 600 Fatah members, he said in an interview, challenged Israel’s suggestion that the Palestinian people and its leaders regard the Jews as their enemies.

Or as one local Palestinian pundit noted of the vote's message: "It is not Judaism that Palestinians are fighting, it is Zionism."

It also finally puts Dr Davis in a position from which he hopes to shake up the complacency that has bedevilled the Fatah leadership and the PLO in their neglect of supporters outside the Palestinian fold.

"In my view [Fatah] is conducting a struggle with one hand tied behind its back," he said, sipping Arabic coffee in the garden of St George’s cathedral in East Jerusalem.

"The PLO represents a democratic alternative for all, including the current coloniser people, the current perpetrator of war crimes and crimes against humanity," he said in reference to Israel and its Jewish population. "In the 25 years since my joining the Fatah and PLO, this message has been marginalised. The mainstream went another direction, the Oslo accords direction."

[...]

His chief task, he said, will be to push Fatah to become a broad-based resistance movement modelling itself on the African National Congress, which brought down apartheid in South Africa.

The reference to South Africa is not unexpected. Dr Davis started describing Israel as an apartheid state in the early 1980s, long before it had become fashionable even on the far left.

His most recent book is Apartheid Israel: Possibilities for the Struggle Within, published in 2003, in which he argues that discrimination against Palestinians is embedded in Israeli law and sets out what he regards as the four classes of citizenship established by Israel's parliament.

full text at Ramallah Online

PFLP slams Fateh and Hamas for their inability to achieve reconciliation

"Gaza - paltoday - The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) slammed on Thursday Fateh and Hamas movements for failing to achieve reconciliation, and demanded the two factions achieve a deal that ends the internal rifts and restores unity."

Read full article at Paltoday.

PLO list wins UNRWA union election in Gaza

This week, a list of four PLO factions (Fatah, PFLP, DFLP and the Palestinian People's Party) won the UNRWA union elections in the Gaza strip. The PLO list won control over two of three unions (Employees and Service unions) as well as the Executive Committee of the General Workers Union, defeating the incumbent Hamas leadership. Hamas, retained control over the Teachers Union (a position it has held for 16 consecutive years).

There were also some independents and minor factions in the fray.

UNRWA is the most important employer in Gaza, employing some 10,100 Gazans. Turn-out at the union election was high, 97% of employees participated.

Interestingly, whilst Arabic media has highlighted that Hamas was defeated in 2 out of 3 unions and lost control over the union executive, Jerusalem Post ran the headline "Hamas wins teachers union elections for UN schools in Gaza".

Sources: Jerusalem Post, al-Hourriah, Palestinian People's Party, Wafa

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Update: Haaretz has an article on the post-election scenario, written by Amira Hass.

Uproar over death of Hamas activist in PA prison

Several Palestinian organizations have protested the death of Hamas activist Abd aj-Jamil al-Haj in a PA prison on the West Bank. According to some claims, his death was result of torture. His family claims that he had been arrested for political reasons, and that no charges had been made against him.

The National and Islamic Forces (a broad coalition including both Hamas and PLO factions) has issued a call for forming an independent committee to investigate the circumstances of al-Haj's death. The PFLP has urged, supporting the call of the NIF, both the Hamas and Fatah movements to uphold the National Accord and Cairo Declaration. Secretaries of the Fatah movement in the West Bank has also called upon the PA to open an investigation into the matter.

On Opinion Polls

The Israeli media (such as Jerusalem Post, Haaretz) and some Hasbara bloggers has taken notice of a recent opinion poll by the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion. The poll shows a sharp decline of support for Hamas after the Gaza massacre. Moreover the study shows an increase in support for Fatah in the Gaza strip.

Notably, the same Israeli media and Hasbara bloggers declined to show any major interest in the JMCC opinion poll published last week (which would almost diametrically opposite trends in shifts in support of Hamas and Fatah). It should be noted that the JMCC poll had 1,198 respondents whilst the PCPO had 673 respondents. No opinion poll is 100% accurate, but I'd say spontaneously that the JMCC poll had a far wider sample and is thus more credible. The JMCC poll also had more concrete questions, than the vague 'identification' of political parties used in the PCPO poll. In 2006, the PCPO underestimated Hamas vote level by 15%.

Palestinian Opinion Poll: Increasing support for Hamas, Haniyeh the most trusted Palestinian politician, majority now supports rocket launches

In the wake of the Gaza massacre, the Jerusalem Media and Communications Center has released an interesting opinion poll. The polls consists of 1,198 interviews with randomly selected residents in the West Bank and Gaza, and is a follow-up on earlier political opinion polls.

The poll shows that 28.6% of respondents said that they intended to vote for Hamas in Legislative Council elections (if held today), as compared to 27.9% for Fatah and 14.6% for other parties. In November 2008 a similar question had been asked, then 36.8% had said they would have voted for Fatah (40% in Gaza) and 19.5% said they would have voted for Hamas (22.5% in Gaza).

A slightly differently worded question asked which political faction had the most trust amongst the respondents. In November 2008 Fatah had led with 31.3% of the respondents having most trust in them, followed by Hamas (16.6%), Islamic Jihad (2.4%) and the PFLP (2.3%). In January 2009 Hamas has overtaken the leading position, being the most trusted party amongst 27.7% of respondents. The runner-up is Fatah (26%), followed by the PFLP (3.3%) and Islamic Jihad (2.8%). Trust for Hamas has more than doubled in the West Bank.

In November 2008 the most trusted politician was Mahmoud Abbas, having the support of 15.9% of the respondents. In January 2009, the most trusted politician is Ismail Haniyeh. Haniyeh gets the trust of 21.1% (up from 13.8% in November 2008), compared to 13.4% trusting Abbas. In both the November 2008 and January 2009 surveys, Marwan Barghouti is the third most trusted politician.

50.8% of respondents (52.8% in the West Bank, 47.3% in Gaza) said that rocket launches from Gaza into Israel helped the Palestinian cause, whilst 20.8% (16.2% in the West Bank, 28.6% in Gaza) considered them harmful. In April 2008, 39.3% (34.6% in the West Bank, 47.4% in Gaza) of respondents had stated that rocket launches from Gaza was a useful form of resistance, whilst 35.7% (38.3% in West Bank, 31.2% in Gaza) considered them futile.

89% of respondents said that they were satisfied with Turkey's role during the bombings, whilst 80% were satisfied with the role of Venezuela. 96.3% were dissatisfied with the role of the United States.

News links: 1, 2, 3, 4

PFLP condemns Hamas' "repressive practices of intimidation" in Gaza

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine has issued a statement today, calling on Hamas to end its "extrajudicial repressive practices of intimidation exercised by the organs of the Hamas movement in the Gaza strip". According to the statement, Hamas has attacked the PFLP cadres, subjecting them to kidnappings, severe beatings and shootings. The statement appealed to Hamas to immediately end its repressive actions against other Palestinian factions, and that all Palestinian groups should unite against the enemy.

The statement follows a statement issued on January 26 by the PFLP military wing, the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, which denounced Hamas forces for having opened fire on a group of AAMB fighters whilst they were in the process of firing a rocket against the enemy.

The PFLP has also rejected calls for exiled Hamas leader Khalid Meshal to sideline the PLO.

PFLP has condemned the policy of political arrests by the Abbas regime in the West Bank as well.

Ibrahim Abu An-Naja, a senior official of the Fatah movement, on its behalf, has sought to downplay claims of Hamas executions of Fatah militants in the Gaza strip during the bombings. An-Naja confirms that there were cases in which Fatah militants had been targetted by Hamas forces in the Gaza strip, but that number were far lower than the internationally widely circulated claims.

Links: Notice at Maan News Agency, LV

Nayaf Hawatme, DFLP General Secretary calls for a United Resistance Front

In an interview to al-Arabiya December 28, 2008, posted at the al-Hourriya website, veteran Palestinian leader and DFLP general secretary Nayaf Hawatmeh outlined the need for a United Resistance Front against the aggression.

"We we have held a series of meetings between the Democratic Front, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front with this purpose before the start of Israeli military operations over the previous ten days, we had meetings yesterday under the shelling in Gaza. We have also held meetings with our brothers in Fatah in more than one location in the Gaza Strip, West Bank, Lebanon and elsewhere, and the answers were positive that people are ready for such steps,"