-Caveat Lector- The Tanzim helps lead new intifada http://www.nationalpost.com/news/world/story.html?f=/stories/20001017/431425 .html Task is to adjust tension: Front-line troops battle Israeli soldiers every afternoon Patrick Graham National Post RAMALLAH - The Israeli army calls them terrorists, but on the streets of the West Bank they are known simply as "the organization." The Tanzim, the largest of many armed factions leading the new intifada, or uprising, are considered the front-line troops among the rock and Molotov cocktail throwers who do battle with Israeli soldiers every afternoon as regularly as a daily factory shift. Yesterday, their faces hidden under black balaclavas and carrying assault rifles, they accompanied the body of one of their comrades in a funeral procession through the streets of Ramallah, the unofficial Palestinian capital. According to the Israelis, the Tanzim was responsible for the mob that attacked a police station last Friday, killing two Israeli soldiers and setting off a series of retaliatory missile attacks that put both sides on a virtual war footing. That appears to be its job -- raising and lowering the level of tension according to the political demands of the situation. Shortly after the bombings, hooded members of the Tanzim were standing in the ruins of the levelled police station, cheering. A youth movement cum militia within Yasser Arafat's Fatah party, the Tanzim appears to be under the control of Mr. Arafat and is thought to have chapters in most villages as well as many neighbourhoods in the larger cities. Unlike terrorist campaigns of the past by groups such as Hamas, the street fighting of the last few weeks has been an effective way of uniting the Palestinians and focusing world attention on their grievances. "Tanzim is an expression of anger," said Mahmud Barghouti, a member of the Tanzim, after returning from his friend's funeral yesterday. "You don't have to carry a gun or anything -- you can fight with your hands." The Israelis, he said, pin all the violence on the Tanzim because they fear it will be as effective as the last intifada, which broke out in 1987 and lasted until 1993. "The Tanzim comes out of Fatah and they were the ones who started the last intifada, so everybody tries to blame them. Hamas did not start this one." Mr. Barghouti, like many Palestinians, dismissed the generally held Israeli view that the Tanzim is doing most of the shooting. "Right now, it is very hard to tell who is shooting. The Israelis say that it is the Tanzim. But anybody can get a gun and go out there and start shooting. They don't have to be Tanzim. They could be from Hamas, they could be from any other side. At this moment everybody is trying to unite with each other. We can't say it's Tanzim, Fatah or Hamas." Like a later generation that glorifies a war it missed, Mr. Barghouti and other Palestinians were too young for much of the original intifada and the Tanzim provides the opportunity to make up for it. An MBA student, the 24-year old Mr. Barghouti speaks with an American accent, having moved to the United States for four years after being shot in the leg during a protest in 1993. "Anybody can get involved in the Tanzim," he says. "You go out on the street on the borders and throw stones and you become one of them. You don't have to have a lot of experience ... if you were 10 or 12 years old back in the intifada in '91 and '92 you couldn't do much. Right now it's the right time for all the people who didn't do much in the past to show their anger." Asked if he just throws stones, Mr. Barghouti equivocates. "There are many things you can do beside throwing stones, which I don't have to say." On the street, protesters are reluctant to admit any association with Tanzim, which Israeli troops say they are targeting, often with snipers. During a protest yesterday, a young man looking to wash the soot from burning tires off his hands indicates to his friends not to answer when asked whether they are part of the Tanzim. "We're just demonstrating against the peace talks," he says. Nearby, a machine gun opens up on Israeli troops from a half-built building. As the protesters flee, television crews hide behind short palm trees lining the main street. A helicopter flies past, but with the talks on, retaliation is unlikely. The Israeli troops withdraw and the protest peters out. Armed with a cellphone, walkie-talkie and pistol, Halil, a plain- clothes member of the Palestinian "preventative security" who has come to report on the demonstration, radios to his headquarters that there are more television crews than protesters. Asked who is shooting and whether anybody will stop them he says, "I don't have any orders." A short while later, Halil visits the Ramallah hospital where the final act in the day's protests is played out. After a few days of calm, the emergency room is back in business. Empty wooden stretchers covered with sheets lie in rows between large green oxygen bottles. Seventeen wounded have been admitted this afternoon. Ten are released and three are in critical condition. "We are closing up the last patient now," says Dr. Fawzi Salameh. "One was shot through the liver, then through the chest and the abdomen. Another one was shot through his penis and into his left femur. He is in a very stable condition, no problem. Another one, a big American chap, was shot three times in the abdomen. He's OK, too. He has an American accent and he just said, 'Please let me be potent,' and we said 'OK, no problem.' There was a guy shot from the left side and into his abdomen and he's OK. And another one shot in the leg. "All of them are in their 20s. We operated for only 1 1/2 hours. The last two days were nothing really, but now we are getting back to our usual work in the afternoon and the nights. "I think it's an ordinary day," says the doctor. <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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