The man widely expected to succeed Yasser Arafat in next year’s Palestinian elections, Mahmoud Abbas, on Monday appeared to win a power struggle in the dominant Fatah movement after a bloody gun battle in Gaza City.
The Fatah secretary general in Gaza, Ahmed Hillis, led dozens of armed men in storming a mourning tent for Arafat on Sunday shortly after Abbas (69) arrived with the former Gaza security chief, Mohammed Dahlan.
The gunmen shouted ”Abbas and Dahlan are agents for the Americans” and opened fire. Two members of the Palestinian security forces were killed and three of Dahlan’s cars burned.
Supporters of Abbas, who replaced Arafat at the head of Fatah in the occupied territories, described Hillis as a member of the ”old guard” who was appointed by the late Palestinian leader because of his loyalty not his competence or struggle credentials. They said he feared for his position with the shift in power.
Fatah officials said Hillis tried to appeal to other armed groups, particularly in the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, to join him in driving Abbas out of Gaza. But the brigades rejected his call and accused him of ”crossing a red line” by spilling Palestinian blood.
”These acts were committed by a marginal and small group,” said Dahlan. ”These people are known. We have the evidence. We will take them to court. These people did not like the democratic shift in power and I want to assure the Palestinian people we will take all the necessary steps to protect it.”
Abu Ali Shaheen, a Palestinian MP and a member of Fatah’s highest body, the revolutionary council, saw the shooting. He said it was prompted by a Fatah leadership decision to try to regain public support lost to groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad by quietly purging unpopular and corrupt figures.
”Fatah’s central committee met after Arafat’s death to decide one thing — if they will be or not be,” said Shaheen. ”They realised they had one option. They were clerks under Arafat. Now they must be leaders. Arafat dropped in people like Hillis by parachute. They didn’t come from the ground. They were not fighters. No one likes them. It was decided to replace them.
”We are in a new era and some who think they won’t get a piece of the cake wanted to send a message that they are here. In the past they have their money and they have their protection from Arafat. Now they don’t.”
But the shooting highlighted the difficulties Abbas faces if, as expected, he secures Fatah’s nomination as its candidate for president of the Palestinian Authority in January’s election to replace Arafat.
Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, is regarded with suspicion by some in Fatah and its rivals, and among ordinary Palestinians, because he is favoured by the US and Israel as a successor to Arafat. The US secretary of state, Colin Powell, and the British foreign secretary, Jack Straw, are expected to make separate visits to the West Bank next week in an effort to bolster the new Palestinian administration. But, as the slogans chanted at Sunday’s shooting demonstrate, that may also reinforce the scepticism in parts of the Palestinian power structure.
”Fatah is divided and there are people who disagree with Abu Mazen,” said Abed Raziq Walli, a local Fatah leader in Gaza City. ”He can get rid of people like Ahmed Hillis who represents the old guard but Abu Mazen does not yet have the Palestinian people with him.” – Guardian Unlimited Â