To war-weary Palestinian eyes in this, the largest of the West Bank cities, it is hard to tell the good guys from the bad any more. Palestinians know the nearby Israeli army is the enemy. But as for those among their own people who can be counted as Palestinian patriots, few could say with conviction. Such is the dissolute state of Nablus, where more than 30 Palestinians have died in recent months, the victims of bullets fired by other Palestinians. The killing spree has brought into high relief the existence in Nablus of the other Palestinian struggle, a hidden war that is as much about organized crime as it is about national resistance.
Ahhh... The joys of anarchy. Emma Goldman and Mikhail Bakunin are no doubt standing hand in hand, looking up down from their final reward and smiling in satisfaction. |
Buoyed by what is now a total absence of islah, or public order, a fragmented array of heavily armed criminal gangs has turned the intifada on itself. As many as eight separate factions in Nablus and the three refugee camps that ring the city lay claim to the title Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the radical offshoot of Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement. But the name doesn't mean much these days, not when so many who lay claim to it are fighting for the spoils of criminal racketeering, car thefts, drugs, gun running and extortion. "It is a mafia that controls our streets now," says Mayoub Abu Saliyeh, who last week witnessed a bloody turf battle from the vantage of the gas station he manages. "People get killed, nobody gets arrested, because there is no law, no security. I have never seen my city like this before, where any man with a gun can do whatever he wants. It is a dream for Israel, the way Palestinians quarrel with each other."
| No doubt. And it's all their fault, too, I'm sure... |
In a city ravaged by repeated Israeli armoured incursions since the onset of the September, 2000, intifada, few here hesitate to blame Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for the collapse of law and order.
But as the chaos deepens, many are beginning to point just as strongly at Palestinian Authority leader Yasser Arafat. A senior Western diplomatic source in Ramallah, the de facto capital of the Palestinian West Bank, likens the situation in Nablus to Afghanistan-style warlordism. "Basically, you've got competing factions so well armed, so beyond control and so preoccupied with each other, they are effectively doing Israel's job for it," said the source. "The danger to Palestinians is obvious. But the danger for Israel is there as well. People in Ramallah are complaining that Israel has been enjoying a kind of five-star occupation — having troops throughout the West Bank without the expense of being responsible for the people being occupied. The question is: How much more can Palestinians take before it all falls apart? If the Palestinian Authority collapses, Israel will have no choice to step in and take responsibility. That means hospitals, schools, policing, civil administration. The expense alone is a burden Israel can ill afford."
| Actually, the could probably afford it better than continuous warfare... |
Palestinian legislator Moawah al-Masri, an outspoken critic of Arafat's leadership, rattles off anecdotes he has witnessed from his office in downtown Nablus. "For the past two weeks," he says, "the Palestinian police have gone through the motions of spreading out in the streets to create the appearance they have things under control. But people make fun of them. Last week, one young man ran up to three of them and said: `Be careful, the Israeli army is coming.' They dropped their guns on the spot, tore off their uniforms and ran away, terrified. There was no army coming, of course. It was a ruse. And by the time they returned, their guns had vanished."
| Yet another tale of Arab heroism. And probably apocryphal... |
Masri holds Arafat directly responsible for the lawlessness, darkly suggesting the Palestinian leader is a direct beneficiary of the warring factions. "Arafat is not concerned with rule of law," says Masri. "He loves the fact that the leaders of the factions are beholden to him. All must beseech him, pay fealty. Because they know, if he truly had the will to do something about it, he could have the situation under control within 24 hours."
| I think al-Masri's dreaming. Yasser's the emperor of Paleostine, and he's got this spiffy new suit... |
Exactly who is fighting whom is a question few dare to answer on the record. Among the estimated 32 recent slayings were innocent bystanders, suspected Israeli collaborators and, in one particularly high-profile case, Ahmad Buraq Shaqa, the businessman brother of Nablus Mayor Ghassan Shaqa. The Nov. 25 ambush of Shaqa had all the earmarks of a gangland assassination. The fact that he was driving a car that belonged to his brother raised suspicions the mayor was the intended target. Both Mayor Shaqa and Nablus Governor Mahmoud Aloul, who survived a recent firebomb attack on his car, deny allegations linking them to the city's crime rings. The mayor now travels in an armoured car and is surrounded by gunmen day and night.
| "Chicago! Chicago! Dat's my wunnerful to-o-o-own!" |
Sources in Balata refugee camp on the southeastern outskirts of Nablus say the Palestinian police would fall short in firepower, even if they were backed by the political will to act. Various gangs operating in Nablus, they say, travel openly with German-made Heckler & Koch MP-5s, one of the world's most sought after sub-machineguns. Others carry M-16s — Israeli M-16s — smuggled and sold at prices upwards of 18,000 shekels ($5,500 Canadian) on the black market. Against such superior firepower, Arafat's Palestinian Authority policemen carry cheap, notoriously inaccurate AK-47s that are manufactured in Egypt. Small wonder the rank-and-file has no stomach for a confrontation. "This is supposedly a city under siege, with the Israeli searching everyone coming in at the checkpoint," says the Balata source. "Yet somehow, 20 to 30 stolen cars arrive from Israel every day. Somehow, guns come from Israel and land on the black market in Nablus. You figure it out.
| Y'think the Israelis are stirring the pot, do you? Could be... |
"There is a mafia in Nablus and it couldn't exist without help from the mafia in Israel. You have a war between the Israelis and Palestinians, but you have collaboration between the criminals on both sides." Masri's solution is as simple as it is drastic. If the Palestinian Authority is unable to restore law and order, he says, it has no other choice but to "liquidate itself."
| ... rather than continue rotting in the Mediterranean sun, fouling the air for miles outside its borders. |
"Why give Israel a free occupation? Why bother presenting to the world a picture that implies Israel is facing another country? I believe if Arafat really cared, he would show the moral authority to walk away and let Israel fix this mess. As long as the occupation continues, Israel would have no choice but to accept the responsibility for a civil administration like the kind they ran before the creation of the Palestinian Authority.
| ... when you had it better. |
"The financial aspect of this is in the range of 10 billion shekels a year ($3 billion). Israel would have no choice but to absorb the cost." The Palestinian Authority has been scrambling to address the criticism, which was capped yesterday when more than 300 angry rank-and-file Fatah members resigned en masse to protest internal strife and corruption. In an earlier telephone conference call with Canadian journalists, Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia acknowledged the restoration of law and order as an urgent priority, not only for Nablus but also for the other cities of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. And on Wednesday, PA national security adviser Jibril Rajoub told a press briefing in Ramallah about a wholesale reorganization of Palestinian security services, designed to unify nine disparate agencies under a unified command.
| Is it just me, or did C. Northcote Parkinson just start laughing hysterically? I thought he was dead... |
The Star obtained access to a sheaf of classified PA documents detailing the reforms later that day and, on paper, the changes are comprehensive.
| Most changes that take place in Paleostine do so on paper... |
A command flow chart indicates the heads of each Palestinian security agency are to be effectively removed from direct command, serving instead in an advisory capacity similar to that of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff. The real power would instead be disseminated from two new Central Operations centres — one each in the West Bank and Gaza — charged with co-ordinating all police activity in the territories. The document comes complete with an ambitious, 18-point task list addressing everything from car thefts to the seizure of illegal weapons. But will the paper translate into real change on the ground?
| Is my hair thick and curly? |
"The plan is comprehensive. It means it'll never happen in a million years big change," one Western diplomatic source told the Star." |