• by Mel Frykberg (ramallah)
• Tuesday, May 12, 2009
• Inter Press Service

Yet another sign of the growing unpopularity of the Western-backed Palestinian Authority (PA) was evident on the streets of Ramallah last weekend.

Demonstrators ripped apart hundreds of posters of PA President Mahmoud Abbas that were plastered on walls and buildings along the street leading to the heavily fortified compound known as the Muqata, the PA government headquarters.

All this was done within spitting distance of the heavily armed soldiers who patrol the sidewalks and roads leading to the Muqata.

The popularity of Mahmoud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, has plunged to an all-time low in the wake of allegations of corruption, and of collusion with Israel during its bloody January offensive in Gaza which killed more than 1,400 Palestinians, most of them civilians.

PA security forces have carried out mass arrest campaigns against political opponents mostly from Hamas and the Islamic Jihad. Those arrested have included sympathisers not attached to the military wings of either organisation. Human rights organisations have alleged widespread torture.

Recent polls have shown that the PA's popularity has dropped to an all-time low.

Hamas emerged from the Gaza conflict politically strengthened for having withstood the onslaught and sticking to its principle of resistance against Israeli occupation.

However, many Palestinians have had a gutful of both groups as once again Palestinian unity talks held in Cairo last week hit a deadlock. One major stumbling block is Abbas's insistence that PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad stay on, even though he tendered his resignation in March in a bid to help reconciliation attempts.

Hamas wants Fayyad, who it considers a U.S. stooge, out of any future government. This includes the new interim government that Abbas is expected to form within the next 48 hours.

The interim government will step aside if a unity government is formed. But not much hope is held out for progress during further unity talks which resume mid-May. New presidential and legislative elections will be held early next year.

Between them, Hamas and Fatah could both be sabotaging a possible breakthrough in their relationship with the new U.S. Administration.

Until recently the U.S. had refused to give aid to, or conduct talks with, a Palestinian government that included Hamas members. The group is classified a 'terrorist organisation' by the U.S.

However, President Barack Obama's administration recently asked Congress to amend a U.S. law to enable the Palestinians to receive federal aid if it forms a unity coalition with Hamas.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has argued that it is better to change Hamas's attitude rather than breaking off any possibility of dealing with the Islamic resistance organisation if it joined a unity government.

While Israel might be pleased at Palestinian disunity, the relationship between the PA and Israel is itself under significant strain.

The new ultra-right wing government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pushed the overly conciliatory Abbas to breaking point with his demand that the Palestinians recognise Israel as a Jewish state before peace talks can commence.

The PA has already recognised Israel and its right to exist, but refuses to comment on the character of the state, fearing that this would jeopardise the right of return for Palestinian refugees.

'I do not accept it,' Abbas said. 'It is not my job to give a description of the state. Name yourself the Hebrew Socialist Republic - it is none of my business.'

The PA argues that while Israel had recognised the PLO as the legitimate leadership of the Palestinians, it had never recognised the right of a Palestinian state to be established.

Tensions underlying the rift, between the Israelis and the Palestinians and among the Palestinians themselves, were further highlighted Monday with the arrival of Pope Benedict XV1 in the holy land.

The Papal envoy walked out of an interfaith meeting after the hard-line head of the Palestinian Sharia court, Sheikh Taysir Al-Tamimi, accused the Pope of failing to denounce 'the crimes of the Jewish state.'

Several extremist Jews, meanwhile, denounced the Pope for not apologising sufficiently for alleged Vatican collusion with the Holocaust during a talk he gave at Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust museum.

Hamas for its part wrote of the Papal visit as a public relations stunt to improve Israel's negative image abroad.

© Inter Press Service (2009) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

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