http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/09/07/america/gaza.php
Security forces from Hamas beating a member of Fatah on Friday. (Suhaib Salem/Reuters) Peace settles on Gaza, but economy crumbles By Steven Erlanger Published: September 7, 2007 GAZA: Nearly three months after Hamas conquered teeming Gaza, the streets are subdued. People stroll at all hours; car theft has practically stopped; even armed police officers are rarely seen. Following 18 months in which gun battles between Hamas and rival Fatah forces defined street life, Hamas has made it illegal to carry weapons in public or to fire them, even at weddings or funerals. Tamer al-Bagga, who manages a beachside café, said people now patronize his business until "all hours of the night." In June, people were hiding at home, keeping their children on the floor to avoid bullets. "Now we have security," he said, but with Gaza increasingly isolated, "we have no money." The Hamas charter calls for the destruction of Israel, and Hamas is classified by Israel, the United States and the European Union as a terrorist group. Consequently, Israel and much of the world are squeezing Gaza, with only goods classified as "humanitarian" or "essential" entering and no exports leaving at all. So an already-faltering economy is collapsing. According to the Palestinian Businessmen's Association, 75 percent of private factories and workshops have closed for lack of essential materials, throwing 70,000 more people out of work. Stores are half-stocked; cigarettes and spare parts have become very expensive; there are electricity cuts of up to eight hours a day. Vegetables and fruit, with no export possibility, are dirt cheap. "We have the best-fed donkeys in the world," said Fahed Khalifa, 19, who owns one. Gaza is isolated more now than ever, cut off not only from the West Bank but from the world. With the crossing into Egypt also closed, even ordinary Gazans are finding it almost impossible to get Israeli permission to leave the territory, even temporarily. Hamas controls Gaza, with a near-monopoly now on weapons. But its battle with Fatah, which largely controls the West Bank, continues. The fight is over personnel, employees, media and even when to take the weekend - with Hamas sticking with the traditional Thursday and Friday, and the West Bank government insisting on Friday and Saturday. While Hamas talks of restoring a unity government with Fatah, the rift appears to be deepening. Fatah is trying to regroup in Gaza, displaying its support by paying Palestinian Authority workers in Gaza but telling them to stay home. Most visibly, Fatah has organized protests on Fridays, asking supporters to demonstrate by praying not in the mosques but outside them, and then trying to provoke the Hamas police by chanting anti-Hamas slogans and throwing stones. Hamas itself seems confused about how to respond. Two senior Hamas officials, Mahmoud Zahar and Ahmed Youssef, said in separate interviews here that protests and free speech would not be punished, only rock-throwing and law-breaking. Asked whether that meant that the outdoor prayers could continue unpunished, Youssef agreed. Zahar, who has a tougher reputation and is more senior in Hamas, also agreed, but said that praying outdoors violated religious laws. However, the next day, Hamas issued a new decree, banning outdoor prayers altogether. (On Friday, Fatah held an outdoor prayer rally anyway, and up to 30 people were hurt in clashes with the Hamas police, and three local journalists were briefly detained. Three Fatah leaders in Gaza were arrested for "instigating riots," Hamas confirmed, but were later released.) Hamas insists that it respects the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, and that Hamas will continue to rule here under the political program of the unity government, which was negotiated under Saudi auspices in March and dismissed in June by Abbas. And Hamas has been careful in its language, talking of fighting American and Israeli agents and "corrupted elements" inside Fatah, but not Fatah itself. Even at the Soraya, the massive security headquarters overrun in the June fighting, Hamas has been openly respectful, leaving the murals of Fatah heroes undisturbed on the outside walls. But Youssef, one of the senior Hamas officials, also has a tough warning for Fatah and Abbas, known as Abu Mazen. "We could turn the table on Abu Mazen in Ramallah if we wanted to," Youssef said, "but we hope that in a few months we can talk together and solve our internal problems and find a solution on a new government." He asked Abbas to lift a ban on Fatah politicians in Gaza talking to Hamas, though he said that some Fatah leaders in Ramallah regularly consulted with Hamas, "trying to repair the damage and find a way to work together." The Hamas threats to Fatah are real. The crackdown on Hamas in the West Bank, with Israel's help, is severe. But Fatah is largely unreformed; Abbas is reported by those close to him to be tired of the pressures of the job and not respected by many in Fatah; and the Palestinian security forces are, even they admit, still too weak to take responsibility over even quiet towns like Jericho from the Israelis. Even the jailed Fatah figure Marwan Barghouti, whom some see as an Abbas successor, warned that Fatah should quickly hold new internal elections and not underestimate the threat from Hamas in the West Bank. Zahar said Hamas had corruption files on major Fatah figures, some of whom, he said, had spied for the United States on Hamas and the Arab world. He also said Hamas knew Fatah's plans for disruption in Gaza. "We're in contact with Ramallah and we're watching them," he said. "No one wants a new chaos in Gaza, and we will arrest them at a proper time, to face a fair trial." Youssef and Zahar are confident that Abbas's talks with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel will go nowhere, that the Israelis are not prepared for serious concessions, and that failure will only help Hamas argue that its path of self-reliance and struggle is superior. "All the Middle East experts say these talks are a mirage," Youssef said. "Abu Mazen can't bring us anywhere after he sold us Oslo for 15 years. If he acts as an enemy to Hamas, people see him as a friend of Israel. People don't like to see him hugging Olmert and nothing changes." But the struggle continues, and no one expects Hamas to give up what it has gained here, or Israel and the West to suddenly open its arms and let Gaza breathe and Hamas take credit. People fear another major Israeli incursion, prompted by Palestinian rocket fire into southern Israeli cities like Sderot. But Hamas still refuses to stop groups like Islamic Jihad or Fatah's Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades from practicing "resistance." Faysal Shawa, a construction engineer and Gaza City councilman, sees the situation as blocked and worsening. "Every day we lose," he said. "We lose our dignity and self-respect. Gaza is losing its best people, our smart people and our pioneers." He has mothballed his own business because there are no new construction projects, given the increasing shortage of building supplies. "I've decided to stay for now," he said. "But after a few months more of this, I'll ask myself, 'Stay for what?' " Israel, the West and Fatah "can't allow Hamas to succeed in Gaza," Shawa said. "And we're suffering. And Hamas will stay, even if they have to fight the Palestinians living here. They'll be OK, and we'll die." 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