The domestic Palestinian crisis is now entering its third week. It is going nowhere, writes Graham Usher from Jerusalem One week after Palestinian Authority (PA) spokespeople pronounced the "internal" Palestinian crisis "over", the crisis smolders on, with one of the main protagonists issuing his fiercest denunciation yet of the Palestinian leadership and elements of Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement engaging in acts that have little to do with "reform" and much to do with patronage and who should receive it. The only novelty is that "chaos" is spreading from Gaza to the West Bank. On 30 July Palestinian militiamen briefly abducted three foreign nationals working as volunteer English teachers in Nablus. Over the next two days fighters from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades (AMB) laid torch to the governor and PA General Intelligence (GI) offices in Jenin. The first was an act of protest by men finding themselves off the PA payroll due to recently instituted reforms at the Finance Ministry. The motivation in the second case was similar, combined with accusations that the GI in Jenin was fingering AMB fugitives for arrest or worse by the Israeli army. Arafat allayed the various crises by paying or promising to pay or address the various ransoms, sources say. Perhaps by way of gratitude, on 1 August 20 or so Palestinian armed men stormed a meeting of the local Fatah leadership in Nablus. "They claimed the meeting was held to demand reforms, but in fact it was directed against Arafat," proclaimed "Abu Jihad", leader of the Al-Awda Brigades, one of several Fatah militias in the city. "We are with President Arafat but, in light of the anarchy and lawlessness, we called for a meeting to demand reforms and elections in Fatah," answered Bilal Dweikat, a Fatah civilian leader in Nablus. The same day thousands marched in Jenin in defence of the AMB. The several hundred militiamen who led the parade said their aim with the arson attacks was not to bury Arafat but to praise him. "Some claim this rally is against the president. But we want to affirm to President Arafat that we are with him," said Zakaria Zubeidah, AMB leader in Jenin. It was left to the PA's recently "un-resigned" prime minister to state the obvious. "We, the Palestinian people, are... on the verge of an unprecedented and unacceptable disaster," said Ahmed Qurei, in an interview with the Palestinian Al-Quds newspaper on 1 August. It is perhaps one of the few sentiments he shares with Mohamed Dahlan, former PA security minister and the man most Palestinians believe was behind the recent spate of violent protests against Arafat's patrimonial rule in Gaza. Making a rare public appearance, on 1 August Dahlan spoke to newspaper editors in Jordan. He did not mince his words. "Arafat is sitting on the corpses and destruction of the Palestinians at a time when they are desperately in need of a new mentality," he said. "The Palestinian situation cannot tolerate any more corruption. There is no escape from implementing reforms that Arafat himself has authorised." Nor did he try very hard to deny that he and his men were behind the unrest in Gaza. "We decided to take action. What happened in Gaza is a reflection of our demand for reforms. The secret of the reformists' power is that they carried on their backs the two intifadas". He promised more of the same unless real change was instituted, "especially the issue of illogical appointments" like Arafat's promotion of his nephew, Musa, as head of the PA's powerful National Security Forces in Gaza. It was that move -- more than any other -- that lit the fire. For Arafat -- and much of the mainstream PA leadership in Ramallah -- Dahlan's "public criticism" has steeled their conviction: Dahlan, in collusion with "foreign powers" (Israel, the US and Egypt), is now planning for a coup, first in Gaza ahead of the putative Israeli withdrawal but ultimately in the West Bank. Other more sober Palestinians insist that Dahlan -- perhaps coaxed by outsiders but fuelled by the massive discontent within Fatah -- is trying to impose change on the leadership for want of more democratic avenues. They also point out that Dahlan's "democratic reformist wing of Fatah" has yet to fly in the West Bank. While some AMB cells have echoed his call for change, this "did not represent Fatah cadre in Jenin, Nablus, Hebron and Ramallah", says one PA source, one sympathetic to Dahlan's call for reform but not the means he has chosen to realise it. The result is a snarling and potentially mortal power struggle, fracturing Gaza from the West Bank and pitching "reformist" Fatah cadres against "loyalist" ones. It has little to do with building a genuine movement for institutional, democratic and national renewal. It is also leaving a dangerous political vacuum. On 2 August a grenade was tossed into cell housing Palestinians charged with "collaboration" in Gaza's main Shuraya Prison. One inmate was killed and several wounded in the blast. They were taken to Gaza's Shifa Hospital. Hours later, gunmen shot two of them dead in their beds. Now was this a "reformist" act or a "loyalist" one? Neither, say Palestinians. Hamas claimed the killings as retribution against those who aided in Israel's assassinations of their leaders. And the message is clear: the more the PA and Fatah fail in delivering governance, the more other Palestinians -- including Islamists but not only them -- will deliver their own.
