Mahmoud Abbas is dancing with wolves, and they may swallow him

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Mahmoud Abbas is dancing with wolves, and they may swallow him

By Khaled Duzdar
Commentary by
Tuesday, November 01, 2005


A few months ago I warned about the lawlessness and anarchy in Palestinian areas. I said that if the Palestinian Authority (PA) would not take serious action immediately, the situation would deteriorate to the level of total chaos. Today the situation has reached a quandary; Palestinian areas are living in anarchy leading to a situation similar to what happened in Somalia: political factions and militias do as they please; cities and towns are divided into areas controlled by feudal lords behaving as vandals, and there is an absence of law and order.

The worst in this situation is when the Palestinian security forces carry out acts that violate laws and contravene their responsibilities and duties. A case in point is when members of the security forces recently broke into a session of the Palestinian Legislative Council in Gaza City to protest the absence of security, in the process behaving like what they were denouncing. There is no excuse for this kind of behavior. The security forces are supposed to prevent armed protest and anarchy. They are supposed to protect the immunity of the Legislative Council. A few days later members of one of the security forces broke into a house, where they shot and injured civilians and threatened women and children because of a minor dispute regarding the parking of a car.

Anarchy in Palestine has reached its highest level of chaos. Armed forces in Gaza are even adopting the behavior of some Iraqi security forces, kidnapping people and failing to distinguish between targets. Even foreigners working in assisting Palestinians are targeted. This is being done to blackmail the PA. There is absolutely no justification for the claim of "armed resistance" when Palestinian arms are used to target the Palestinian people.

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The Fatah movement is the leading cause for the proliferation of these warlords. The gangs, using Fatah's name, have turned into gangsters. The situation in the Palestinian cities has descended to the level of a gangsters' battlefield. The PA must begin dismantling and disarming these so-called Fatah-affiliated armed groups. The PA must enforce the law by banning all those who are committing crimes against the Palestinian people and those who challenge the PA on a daily basis. They are not defending Palestinians by killing, wreaking havoc on Palestinians, and engaging in racketeering and extortion, acting illegally as both judge and executioner.

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Khaled Duzdar is the Palestinian co-director of the Strategic Affairs Unit at the Israel-Palestine Center for Research and Information in Jerusalem. THE DAILY STAR publishes this commentary in collaboration with the Common Ground News Service.

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