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Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
Fruits of evil that caused Gaza refugee death |
2008-08-05 |
IT BEGAN with a mango three years ago. A member of Gaza's powerful By the end of last year, the ensuing feud had claimed the lives of 29 people - 10 from neither clan. Sixty had been wounded and homes and This is the feud that is thought to have claimed the life last week of Akram al-Masri, 31, who was denied refugee status in Australia in 2002 and then deported. There was no need for al-Masri to commit any particular offence to become an assassin's target in Gaza. His membership of the trouble-prone Masri clan was reason enough. Tribal clans such as his are powerful players in the inter-factional cauldron of Gaza politics. The mango row was just one of hundreds of feuds caused by the slightest transgression. In 2006 the Masris went to Under Yasser Arafat's rule, the Masri clan had control of the General Intelligence Department, or Mukhabarat, through the appointment of General Mohammed Masri. Interclan rivalry over the appointment and the power and resources that flowed to the Masri clan as a result has been cited as a cause of the enmity between the Masris and Kafarnehs. Their ongoing feud prompted the Masris to erect a four-metre-high wall around their enclave in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis. But the clan is fighting on other fronts. It has vowed to inflict death on the Dogmush clan, which was responsible for the abduction last year of the BBC reporter Alan Johnston, and it has made threats against Hamas since the party took control of Gaza last June. Many clans have struggled to come to terms with the new power structure in Gaza and Hamas is trying to bring them to heel. "There are about 6000 men in the Masri family, and The Masri leadership refuses to co-operate with the new state of affairs. A clan leader said it needed to avenge the death of three of its fighters during the Hamas takeover, and said "the vendetta remains outstanding". But allegiance is a murky issue in the new Gaza. Another member of the clan complained that some of his relatives had joined Hamas and refused to act by the traditional practice of family loyalty. Focusing on one of his own brothers who had joined the Islamist movement, he said: "Hamas members are standing with the movement against their family - their loyalty is to their paymaster, Hamas." |
Posted by:Fred |
#4 An enemy of Clan Dogmush is...prolly still my enemy, but, y'know, possibly a *useful* enemy. |
Posted by: Hupomonger, Scourge of the Hapsburgs 2008-08-05 12:33 |
#3 So ya got 29 people dead over a mango? About par for the course in Gaza... |
Posted by: tu3031 2008-08-05 10:06 |
#2 How about a six meter wall around Gaza, 10,000 AKs, 300,000 rounds of ammunition, and a starting bell with a six month time limit. Oh, and $10 on Dog Mush in the third. |
Posted by: Steven 2008-08-05 10:03 |
#1 Sounds like if there is a lack of Israelis around, they are just as happy to murder each other. |
Posted by: bigjim-ky 2008-08-05 10:02 |