From: "Stasi" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Peoples War] Palestine: Islamists Fill Vacuum Left By Arafats Waning Star - Guardian Islamists fill vacuum left by Arafat's waning star ================================ To the outside world Hamas spells terror: to Palestinians it means food and shelter Suzanne Goldenberg in Jerusalem Thursday December 6, 2001 The Guardian Four of Mohassin Abu Ayshi's nine children huddle around the single red coil of a tiny electric fire on a day when icy winter rain seeps through the stone walls of Hebron's old city. The family lives on 350 shekels a month - less than �60 - and if an Islamic charity had not stepped in they would have gone hungry. "Since the Palestinian Authority came to power we have been living in hell," she said. "Since the start of the intifada, they have done nothing for us. But we have to give a lot of credit to the Islamic Youth Society. They really care about us." The object of her gratitude is a rich and powerful organisation closely identified in Hebron with Hamas, the radical Islamist purveyors of the suicide bombs that have brought carnage to Israel. Since the intifada began 14 months ago the IYS, which operates from a three-storey building in the most prosperous district of Hebron, has been distributing food parcels to 4,500 families, doling out rice, sugar, lentils and coffee to 30,000 people every month. Charities It is by far the biggest charitable organisation in the city. "You can say that we are reaching every single house in Hebron," the organisation's spokesman, Hathem Kaffishi, said. The same thing is happening elsewhere. "In every single village, in every single town, these activities are going on," Mr Kaffishi said. That is precisely the problem as Islamist charities, many of which serve as front organisations for Hamas, deepen their hold on Palestinian society. With the Palestinian Authority paralysed by Israeli military strikes and punitive economic measures, Hamas is emerging as a parallel administration, providing the most comprehensive social safety net in the West Bank and Gaza. Such largesse does not come cheap. Mr Kaffishi estimates that each box of provisions costs as much as $30 (�21), making a grand total of $135,000 a month. The organisation's ambitions do not stop at food parcels. It runs a primary school, six kindergartens, sports teams and youth groups: potential venues all of them for the indoctrination of the younger generation. Mr Kaffishi is coy about funding, but he admits taking money from local businessmen and charities in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf. Six of Ms Abu Ayshi's children switched to the trust's school last year because it waived fees for text books and other supplies. "There is not really that much difference from the old school, but there are a lot more classes in religion," the 11-year-old Aya Abu Ayshi said. Tension Speaking only days after Mr Arafat declared a state of emergency in the West Bank and Gaza and promised the US and Israel that he would crack down on Hamas militants, Mr Kaffishi was careful to disavow any political association. The tension has been further increased by President Bush branding Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist organisations and freezing the assets of charities he says have channelled money to the groups. But Mr Kaffishi did defend the Texan organisation Holy Land Foundation of Relief and Development, one of two overseas groups accused of funding Hamas. "We have heard that Holy Land is financing the families of martyrs. What is wrong with that?" he said. Ms Abu Ayshi, whose husband works one day a month as a labourer, says: "I don't care about politics. All I care about is enough food to get by." The increasingly impoverished population shares her view. Diplomats estimate that Hamas social welfare groups such as the Islamic Youth Society have received $140m in grants since the uprising began, channelled from charities in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries, including Qatar. The flow of funds, at a time when the Palestinian Authority is tottering on the verge of bankruptcy, has made the failings of Yasser Arafat's regime all the more obvious. "By our estimates Hamas-based charitable organisations are an increasingly significant supplier of social services, welfare payments, food distribution and job creation," a senior foreign diplomat said. "They have the largest job creation in Gaza." That is the public face of Hamas. The military wing of the organisation, called the Izzedine al-Qassem brigades, has been the leading supplier of suicide bombs to Israeli cities. Since March the Hamas bombers have struck at shopping malls, seaside discos, pizza restaurants, pedestrian malls, and city buses, killing 92 Israelis. Hamas politicians, including the group's spiritual leader in Gaza, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, routinely deny any connection to the military brigades. But Israeli security officials say the group's public personalities have a direct connection to the bombers, and cryptic comments by Sheikh Yassin and other leaders have presaged suicide attacks in the past. Although there has been near-universal revulsion abroad at the suicide bombers, whose nail-studded devices are deliberately constructed to kill as many civilians as possible, the despair that rules the lives of ordinary Palestinians has given such attacks a measure of respectability. In the West Bank and Gaza people now routinely talk of martyrs. Teachers ask their pupils to write compositions on dead Palestinian militants, and middle-aged men express their frustrations by saying they are thinking of blowing themselves up. An hour after Israeli F-16 jets pounded a security compound in the centre of Gaza City on Tuesday, Rafiq Musabeh, 48, a once-successful building contractor who has watched his business wither away over the last 14 months, declared he had had enough. "I have 12 kids at home, and I can't feed them," he said, crunching over the shattered window panes that blew into his flat. "I have no taste for life. I am ready now to explode myself at an Israeli tank, and I am someone who has worked in Israel, and had friends among Israelis." Popularity The combustible mixture of politics and cash has been a godsend to Hamas and other radical Islamist groups, driving their popularity ratings among Palestinians up to 27% as support for Mr Arafat's Fatah movement and his administration dwindles. For the first time in the seven years since Mr Arafat's administration came into being, popular support for Hamas and other opposition groups is greater than that for the mainstream Fatah movement and its allies. Observers now fear that if Israel continues its relentless pressure on Mr Arafat's administration, Hamas will be in a position to mount a real challenge to his authority. Hamas was founded in 1988, a product of the first intifada against Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. Five years later, when the Olso peace accords were signed in 1993, its popularity began to ebb as Palestinians turned away from its rejectionist policies. The organisation does not recognise Israel's right to exist. In 1996 Hamas suffered a further blow when Israel assassinated Yahya Ayash, its most skilled bomb maker, thereby delaying its deadly entry into this intifada until the spring. But Hamas has made the most of the Palestinian revolt, recouping its strength after Mr Arafat opened his jails last October and freed leading militants. In Gaza its armed wing has operated in tandem with other militias, and siphoned off their expertise. While Mr Arafat appears to have no idea at all where the uprising is leading his people, Hamas has spoken with utter clarity: the uprising must go on. "It is a question of who is best able to provide to the Palestinian people a sense that they can take care of their interests - political and economic," the diplomat said. "On the one hand, you have the Palestinian Authority saying 'Let's negotiate as Israel is dropping bombs on people and cutting back on social services'. On the other, you have Hamas saying 'These guys are killing us. We have to struggle, and here is a handout'. The combination is much more credible." Guardian Unlimited � Guardian Newspapers Limited 2001 ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Break free. Great American Smokeout http://us.click.yahoo.com/3vN8tD/.pSDAA/ySSFAA/XcSolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. 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