By Khaled Amayreh Palestinian Authority forces acting on direct orders from PA Chairman Yasser Arafat have arrested hundreds of Hamas rank and file, put the movement's founder and spiritual leader under house arrest and threatened to close several Islamist institutions. Although the crackdown, ostensibly precipitated by the suicide attack, was confined to Gaza, it was the most severe since Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu came to power more than two years ago. As well as taking unprecedented punitive measures against Hamas leader Sheikh Yassin, including cutting his telephone line, preventing him from receiving visitors and barring him from performing the Friday prayer at his neighbourhood mosque, Palestinian police arrested several top Hamas leaders, namely Mahmoud Al-Zahhar, Ismail Abu Shanab, Ismail Haniyya and Ahmed Baher. Hamas and human rights activists in Gaza reported that the arrests were carried out "arbitrarily" and "occasionally brutally". "They treated us as guilty from the very beginning," complained one Hamas activist during a telephone interview from his home in Gaza. Moreover, the arrests were accompanied by restrictions on the freedom of speech and expression, particularly press freedom, prompting charges from civic leaders and liberal-minded politicians that the PA was not only fighting violence, but also violating human rights and civil liberties. Furthermore, Gaza police chief Ghazi Al-Jabali issued a decree banning the public torching of Israeli and American flags, arguing that it undermines Palestinian national interests and harms PA relations with Israel and the US. Nevertheless, Al-Jabali's order was ignored shortly after it was issued: on Monday, hundreds of students at Hebron University set both flags on fire, advising Jabali not to be "more royal than the king". The students, who were marking the 3rd anniversary of the assassination in Malta of Islamic Jihad leader Fathi Shekaki at the hands of Mossad, warned the PA leadership against "succumbing to Israeli and American dictates". "Today they are targeting us, tomorrow it will be your turn," read one sign at Hebron University rally. Meanwhile, the "war of words" between Hamas and the PA escalated, with the Islamist movement accusing Arafat's PA of violating Palestinian human rights on Israel's behalf. "We have been criticising Israel's flagrant abuse of human rights expressed in the practice of long-term administrative detention; now, unfortunately, the Palestinian Authority is doing the same thing," said a Hamas official. For their part, PA officials accused Hamas of being "subservient to Iran" and "playing into the hands of Jewish settlers and Israeli extremists who oppose the Wye River agreement". Defending the stringent measures against Hamas, PA official Al-Tayeb Abdel-Rahim said the timing of the 29 October suicide operation was an attempt to corrode the Wye Plantation agreement and give the Israeli government "further excuses not to withdraw from Palestinian land". "How would the Palestinians have looked if the suicide bomber had succeeded in killing 40 Israeli schoolchildren?" said Abdel-Rahim. Hamas initially responded by arguing that the movement's political leadership is a totally separate entity from the military wing Ezzeddin Al-Qassam and, therefore, could not be held responsible for its actions. Indeed, several Hamas officials privately criticised the suicide attack, describing it as politically inexpedient and wrong in timing. "Those who planned and carried out the attack appear to have extended an open invitation to Yasser Arafat's police to come and arrest us," said one Hamas leader in Hebron on condition of anonymity. So far, all the signs indicate that Hamas's Gaza leadership played no part in planning, preparing and executing the 29 October attack. This suggests it might have been ordered by the movement's "outside leadership", probably without approval of the local leadership. This could explain why Islamist leaders in Gaza have remained tight-lipped about the attack. Although they have denied direct responsibility, they have refused to elaborate on who might have been directly responsible for its planning and execution. Hamas would be reluctant to draw attention to the divide between its leaders in Gaza and those outside. This would undermine the concept of unity Hamas projects in the face of relentless efforts by the PA to "Palestinianise" it by attempting to ostracise and de-legitimise Hamas leaders based in such Arab and Islamic capitals as Amman, Damascus, Beirut and Tehran. Notably, the PA does not completely reject Hamas's disavowals. PA officials, unable to produce conclusive evidence incriminating Islamist detainees, alleged that "an Iranian trend within Hamas" was responsible for the attack. The PA further alleged that the Iranian-backed group "was planning to assassinate PA officials". Most Palestinians, however, do not appear to take seriously talk about an Iranian-backed faction within Hamas. Moreover, the PA appears to be targeting Iran as much as, if not more so than, Hamas, especially after Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamene'i castigated Arafat for "signing this treacherous agreement, which compromises Muslim rights in Palestine and Al-Quds [Jerusalem]". Against this background, the PA decided to release several "moderate" leaders of Hamas, who, a PA communiqué said, had been cleared of charges of involvement in acts of violence. But the question remains: why target Hamas's local leadership and risk in-fighting and an even greater drop in the PA's popularity among ordinary Palestinians who are opposed to collective punishment along Israeli lines? The answer is simple: making Hamas leaders and supporters in Gaza suffer is the most effective way of deterring their allies abroad from carrying out attacks against Israel and, consequently, undermining the PA. Despite the mutual recriminations, relations between Hamas and the PA do not appear to have crossed the point of no return. One PA official, Imad Al-Faluji, who holds the communications portfolio in the PA government, held two meetings with Sheikh Yassin, later conveying "a message of goodwill" to the PA leadership from the Hamas leader. Faluji, himself a former member of Hamas, quoted Sheikh Yassin as saying that "Hamas was willing to have a meaningful dialogue with the Palestinian Authority" and that "Palestinians must never turn their weapons against each other." Yassin's statement coincided with the circulation of a leaflet, allegedly by Hamas, threatening to target PA police officers if the campaign of repression against the Islamists continues. Hamas leaders in Gaza and abroad were quick to distance themselves from the leaflet, saying "it was not authentic" and "didn't reflect Hamas's way of thinking". The PA reciprocated, quietly, by promising Hamas that most of the detainees would be released "when the storm is over". Abdel-Rahim said during a call-in programme on the "Voice of Palestine" radio station that the PA made it clear to the Israelis and the Americans that "Hamas' civilian infrastructure would not be touched." Needless to say, Hamas was satisfied with this assurance, which explains why the movement was reluctant to react strongly to the PA crackdown. It also bodes well with Fatah, which was worried it would be next on the list of an Israeli-instigated crackdown by the PA. On Monday Marwan Barghouthi, head of the Supreme Fatah Steering Committee in the West Bank said during a television interview that "Hamas and Fatah were in the same boat," and that "the two movements should coordinate for the common good of the Palestinian cause." Related stories: Hamas in their sights Worse than Oslo
