The recent raid on the home of Mohamed Dahlan on the West Bank has upped the stakes in the conflict with PA President Mahmoud Abbas, writes Khaled Amayreh in Ramallah In a surprise pre-emptive move against former Gaza strongman and rival of Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian security forces have raided the luxurious Ramallah home of Mohamed Dahlan. During the raid, which took place on 28 August, 23 guards were arrested and 16 guns of various kinds and two vehicles were confiscated. Dahlan, who enjoys parliamentary immunity, was not arrested. The raid showed that Abbas was determined to silence Dahlan's "long tongue" and prevent him from morphing from a potential threat to an actual one. It also showed that Abbas had become fed up with Dahlan's "innuendos and insinuations" and that he rejected his rival's solicitations for a rapprochement. Dahlan had sought to meet with Abbas, insisting that his recent indictment by a Fatah court had been precipitated by rumours, inaccurate information and vindictive hear-say by his political opponents and detractors. He returned to Ramallah two weeks ago, reportedly to "refute the baseless allegations against him." Following the Ramallah raid, which seemed to have taken Dahlan and his supporters by surprise, the Fatah executive committee issued a statement saying that the expulsion of Dahlan from the movement had nothing to do with his political views, but rather with "serious excesses undermining Palestinian national security". "For many years, Dahlan indulged in acts that harmed Palestinian national interests and societal security. He also sought backing from foreign entities and was involved in acts of murder," the statement said. The statement, carried by the official WAFA news agency, further accused Dahlan of engaging in "unethical practices targeting public figures, notables, political leaders and business people, and using death squads as well as criminal and thuggish behaviour." "Our beloved people in the Gaza Strip have been eyewitnesses to the assaults [by Dahlan's men] on people's dignity, businesses, social status and even women's honour." The statement went on to accuse Dahlan of profiteering from the unlawful practice of levying commissions on goods coming into the Gaza Strip through border crossings with Israel. "He entered into an unholy partnership with a group of bloodsuckers who sought to take advantage of their positions in order to suck our people's blood to make money," the statement said. Dahlan was also accused of having tried to break the national will of Fatah. "Even martyr Yasser Arafat was not spared," said the statement, in what might be an insinuation of a possible Dahlan involvement in the death of the former Palestinian leader. Sounding defiant and unrepentant, Dahlan responded by lambasting Abbas, accusing him of "dictatorship, despotism and tyranny" and saying that the "shame" of the raid on his home in Ramallah would continue to haunt the Palestinian leader for years to come. "I am a member of Fatah, and I will continue to be a part of it," Dahlan said. "Fatah is not the private property of Abu Mazen [Abbas's nom de guerre ]. Fatah is the responsibility of its sons, and if Abu Mazen hates the movement and wants to leave, let him leave it." Dahlan, who was speaking in an interview with the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper, said his differences with the Palestinian leader did not have a nationalistic colouring. "He [Abbas] hasn't been able to bear seeing me criticise some of his policies, such as the use of Fatah's money and investment fund. In the final analysis, Abbas has founded a petty dictatorship for himself under the Israeli occupation." However, Dahlan denied that Abbas had been imposed on the Palestinians by a foreign entity, a possible allusion to the United States or Israel, saying such a thing would have been dishonourable for Abu Mazen. Accusing the Palestinian leader of "breaking all the lofty and noble values with which we grew up," Dahlan vowed to continue "to uncover the truth" about the Abbas regime. However, "I will do everything in accordance with the law, and I won't resort to revenge as Abbas has done," he said Finally, Dahlan accused Abbas of ingratitude. "I defended him when people were accusing him of being a traitor and an Israeli collaborator. I stood by him because I wanted to see a respected establishment take root in Palestine. I was with him when everyone else was against him," Dahlan said. Yet, "my impression now is that he wants to vent his frustration, having utterly failed in the peace process. Under his leadership, we have lost everything: we have lost Gaza; we have lost the elections; we have lost our political horizons; and the overall situation in Palestine is very bad. The man simply hates Fatah and wants to dismantle it in a systematic way," he said. In the wake of the raid on Dahlan's home, the showdown between the Dahlan and Abbas camps seems far from over. Dahlan, people close to him say, is confident, ambitious and defiant. He has a hardcore of supporters in the Gaza Strip, as well as a few hundred Gazan followers who fled to the West Bank after Hamas took over the coastal enclave in the summer of 2007. According to some commentators, Dahlan is hoping to retain his ability to make things hard for Abbas, eventually forcing the Palestinian leader to mend relations with him on a favourable basis. "Dahlan will never give up, and he will never abandon his quest for leadership. He is willing to do anything to realise his goals," said one Gaza journalist familiar with Dahlan's way of thinking. "He thinks that by being vociferous, he can make things hard for Abbas, who is now an old man." Nonetheless, Dahlan's quest for the leadership may turn out to be his own worst enemy, and the former Gazan strongman, once thought to be the likely successor to Yasser Arafat, does not necessarily read the Palestinian political map well. For one thing, he seems oblivious to the deep political changes that have taken place in Occupied Palestine since the death of Arafat seven years ago, and for another his popularity in the West Bank is probably quite weak.
