• by IPS Correspondents (london)
• Saturday, November 26, 1994
• Inter Press Service

LONDON, Nov 26 (IPS) - The peaceful passing of Friday prayers in the Gaza Strip has allowed both the Palestinian Authority and the Islamic 'Hamas' opposition to claim victory. But what was witnessed on Friday is nothing more than a fragile truce.

The violence of last week which led to at least 12 Palestinians being killed by police firing changed the political landscape in the Gaza Strip irreversibly.

It ended the repeated hollow declarations of Palestinian unity by both sides -- and drew up future battle lines.

By holding a rally of the revived 'Fatah-Hawks' -- the armed militia of the Fatah organisation led by PLO chief Yasser Arafat -- the hardliners in the Arafat camp meant to cow Hamas supporters.

The fact that there was no violence after the prayers on Friday is construed by them as evidence that the tactic worked. Hamas sees it differently. Peace on Friday proved that Hamas controlled the street, and confirmed the moral high ground that the Palestinian's violence on the previous day had conferred upon it.

In the Islamic culture of the Arab Middle East, acquiring martyrs in a cause enhances the moral and popular standing of an organisation. And Hamas has the largest number of them so far.

Even without the aid of recent events, Hamas was well poised to gain ground at the expense of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), charged with running the Gaza Strip according the Israeli-PLO Accord of September 1993.

By giving up its right to struggle against the Israeli occupation, the PLO created a political vacuum. And this provided an unprecedented opportunity to Hamas and the Islamic Jihad to fill the vacuum and enlarge their support.

Having suffered oppression and exploitation for 26 years under the Israeli occupation, a whole generation of Palestinians has grown up on resistance and defiance.

The replacement of the Israelis with a weak Palestinian Authority in Gaza -- where parts of the Strip are still under Israeli control -- has proved insufficient to bring about fundamental change in the attitudes of many young Palestinians.

All the promises of rapid, dramatic change in the economy of the Strip have proved a sham. If anything, the situation is worse than before due to the restrictions on the Palestinians to work inside Israel.

© Inter Press Service (2014) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

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