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**The Pagan, Criminal Cowardice Of 'Hamas' Way To Go, Islam!**
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 | WHO WILL CATCH THE HAMAS MURDERERS?
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Dahlan: Hamas are murderers Tens of thousands of Fatah supporters gathered for a mass rally in Gaza Sunday, held against the backdrop of an ongoing violent struggle between the group and the rivaling Hamas movement in the last few weeks. -------------------------------------------------------
Jan 7, 2007 16:32 | Updated Jan 8, 2007 1:45
Six Palestinian armed groups in the Gaza Strip on Sunday threatened to assassinate "collaborators and traitors" in response to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's decision over the weekend to outlaw Hamas's "Executive Force." The groups warned Abbas and senior Fatah leader Muhammad Dahlan against trying to implement the decision which, they claimed, was taken at the request of Israel and the US.
Dahlan, who according to Palestinian sources has been asked to head the PA security forces in the Gaza Strip, responded by issuing a threat to eliminate Hamas leaders. One of the six groups that issued the threat belongs to Abbas's own Fatah party. The five others are: Izzadin Kassam, the Abu Rish Brigades, Sword of Islam, the Brigades of Unification and the Salah Eddin Brigades.
For a Jerusalem Online video of events click here Three killed in Hamas-Fatah flare up Abu Obaidah, a spokesman for the six groups, told reporters in Gaza City that Abbas's security forces were not carrying out their duties to restore law and order. It was a mistake to hold the Executive Force responsible for the anarchy, because it had existed long before the Hamas force was established, he added. Obaidah said a "rebellious" group inside Fatah was trying to topple the Hamas-led government with the help of the US and Israel. He criticized Abbas for the move against the Hamas force, branding him the "President of the Oslo Accords."
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians braved torrential rain and the cold to participate in a rally marking the 42nd anniversary of the founding of Fatah. The rally, the largest of its kind since 1994, turned into a show of support for Abbas in his power struggle with Hamas. Chanting "Long live Fatah" and "Death to the Hamas murderers," many of the demonstrators carried pictures of Yasser Arafat and former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
The main speaker at the rally, which was held at Yarmouk Stadium, was Dahlan who, along with other Fatah officials, used the platform to launch a scathing attack on Hamas. Condemning Hamas as a "bunch of murderers and gangsters," Dahlan said: "They are murderers. If they harm one of us, we will harm two of them. If the Hamas leaders think that they are immune, they are mistaken."
"Today you have come to respond to the murderers who are shedding Palestinian blood," Dahlan told the crowd. "As the Israeli army was raiding Ramallah, the forces of disgrace were attacking the home of Palestinian security officer Muhammad Gharib last Thursday [in the northern Gaza Strip]. If they think that the murderers will go unpunished, they are mistaken."
But Dahlan stressed that Fatah was still interested in forming a unity government with Hamas. "Our hand remains extended for national unity," he said. "The rifles of Fatah are used against the occupation, but they will also be used to protect the sons of Fatah." Dahlan drew thunderous applause when, at the beginning of his speech, he asked his bodyguards to step aside, saying: "I don't need bodyguards to separate me from these Fatah masses. If Hamas wants, let them shoot me."
Hamas legislators in the Gaza Strip issued a statement in which they described Abbas's decision to ban their Executive Force as illegal. They said the force had been subjected to "a campaign of incitement that began in the US State Department."
In a related development, Hamas threatened to avenge the killing of three of its supporters in Gaza City late Saturday night. The three, members of the Diri family, were killed in a confrontation with members of the Daghmash clan.
"This crime will not pass unpunished," Hamas said.. "We will rid our people of these murderers." The three were killed in retaliation for the kidnapping and murder of two members of the Daghmash clan last month. The Daghmash clan has accused Hamas's Executive Force of cold-bloodedly murdering the two.
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 Abbas outlaws Hamas after swearing in emergency gov't Jun. 17, 2007
khaled abu toameh, jpost staff and AP , THE JERUSALEM POST Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday outlawed Hamas, his office said. A formal announcement was to be released shortly, said aides in the PA chairman's office. The statement came as a new PA cabinet headed by former finance minister Salaam Fayad was sworn in.
In taking office, Fayyad said the new government would work to end the chaos and provide security for the Palestinians. Analysis: Israel's ongoing Gaza connection "We are going to work with clean hands, systematically," he said. Addressing the Palestinians in Gaza, he said: "You are in our hearts, and the top of our agenda. The dark images, the shameful things that are alien to our traditions ... are not going to stop us." It is "time to work together for Palestine," he said.
Hamas said it considered the new emergency PA government illegal. "The Islamic Resistance Movement considers this government illegitimate and illegal," said Hamas spokesman Ismail Radwan. "We will not recognize it. We will not work with it." Despite its opposition to the government, Radwan said Hamas will not punish ministers in the new government who come from Gaza.
On Saturday, Abbas rejected an offer by Arab League Secretary-General Amr Musa to arrange a meeting between him and Mashaal in Cairo on the crisis, a PA official told the Post. "President Abbas believes that there is nothing to talk about with Mashaal after the military coup that Hamas staged in the Gaza Strip," the official said. "We will not talk to these Hamas murderers." Abbas aide Yasser Abed Rabbo said the PA leader would not engage in a dialogue with "killers."
Arab League foreign ministers who met in Cairo over the weekend expressed support for Abbas's authority and called for a commission of inquiry into the latest events in the Gaza Strip. Hamas responded by welcoming the Arab League's call for a dialogue with Fatah. The Islamist movement also expressed readiness to cooperate with an Arab League commission of inquiry. Meanwhile, Abbas got a major boost in his increasingly bellicose showdown with Hamas, with a US diplomat saying he expected a crippling 15-month-old foreign aid embargo to be lifted once he appointed an emergency government without Hamas.
Also Saturday, a senior Hamas official in Gaza City said his men had captured more than 50,000 rifles and pistols during raids on the headquarters of the Fatah-controlled security forces. Hamas also seized dozens of vehicles and "important" military equipment, according to the official. "You can say that Hamas is much stronger than it was last week," he said. "We have also captured tons of ammunition and thousands of mortars and rocket-propelled grenades."
The Hamas-Fatah fighting in the Gaza Strip ended late Thursday after Hamas completed its takeover of all the important PA institutions there, including Abbas's local headquarters and the offices of all the PA security forces.
Scores of Fatah security commanders and political leaders fled to the West Bank and Egypt as Hamas announced that it had taken full control of the Strip.
Fatah's swift collapse drew sharp criticism from some of the faction's representatives. Hatem Abdel Kader, a top Fatah operative in the West Bank, called for a commission of inquiry to determine who was responsible.
Another senior Fatah official in the West Bank launched a scathing attack on Abbas and the Fatah leadership, holding them responsible for the Hamas victory. "We want to know why we lost the battle in the Gaza Strip," he said.. "Those responsible for the defeat must pay the price." In response to Abbas's decision to fire him, a defiant Haniyeh said: "Abbas and his advisers did not consider the consequences [of the decision] and its effects on the situation on the ground. They made a hasty decision... We will continue our relations with all factions and continue with a national unity government."
Haniyeh rejected the possibility of a separate Palestinian state in the Gaza Strip, without the West Bank.
In Gaza, Deputy Parliament Speaker Ahmed Bahar of Hamas called Abbas's attempt to form an emergency government illegal.
The US consul general in Jerusalem, Jacob Walles, met with Abbas at his headquarters in Ramallah on Saturday, and said the embargo is set to be lifted once the new government is sworn in. "I expect that we are going to be engaged with this government," Walles said after the meeting. "I expect that early next week. There will be some announcements in Washington, specifically about our assistance and about the financial regulations."
But the money is unlikely to reach Gaza, now controlled by Hamas and cut off from the world. In Gaza, panicked residents lined up at bakeries to stock up on bread, fearing growing shortages of food, fuel and other staples as the crossings of the fenced-in strip with Israel and Egypt remained closed. Hundreds of other Gazans rushed to the border crossing with Israel to try to escape Hamas rule, but found gates locked. Israeli troops briefly fired warning shots.
Senior officials of Abbas's Fatah movement, who had fled Gaza, started reaching the West Bank over the weekend. The head of Palestine TV said he had crawled for several hundred meters to evade gunfire at the Gaza-Israel crossing before making it to safety.
Across Gaza, Hamas cemented its control. Haniyeh replaced Abbas-allied security commanders with his loyalists, and Hamas gunmen searched homes and neighborhoods to round up their opponents' weapons.
AP contributed to this report. -------------------------------------------------------------------------Carter meeting Hamas disgraces presidency
By DIANA WEST
Published Thursday, April 24, 2008
In mustering arguments against Jimmy Carter’s head-to-head, if not heart-to-heart, get-togethers with the arch-murderers of Hamas - the Iranian-supported, Muslim Brotherhood-linked terror organization openly dedicated to the annihilation of the state of Israel - it becomes clear that these disastrous meetings aren’t a question of misunderstood or overlooked facts, or a matter of persuasion based on such facts. They come down to a stark choice between evil and good: to meet with Hamas, or not to meet with Hamas; to lend legitimacy to a terror group, or to shun it; to degrade the office of the presidency, or to honor it. Jimmy Carter has made all the wrong choices. The horror of it all comes from the fact that Carter, as a former president of the United States, doesn’t choose in the anonymity of a private person. With lifelong recognition for his permanent, if dubious, place in American history, he makes his immoral choice as a venerable representative of the presidency, indeed, as an enduring symbol of the nation.
It was as such a symbol that the former president hugged a former Hamas official at a reception Tuesday in Ramalla. Unfortunately, Carter didn’t arrive in time for last Friday’s sermon, delivered by a Hamas cleric and MP, and translated by MEMRI. It called for Islamic conquest, first of Rome - "the Crusader capital, which has declared its hostility to Islam and planted the brothers of apes and pigs in Palestine’ Koranic motifs describing Jews "in order to prevent the reawakening of Islam," and then "Europe in its entirety … the two Americas and even Eastern Europe." He could have hugged that Hamas official, too.
And it was as such a symbol that the former president, along with wife, Rosalynn, the former first lady, visited the grave of Yasser Arafat, the founding father of global terrorism, who, in his time on Earth, watered it with the blood of innocents, including that of two American diplomats he ordered assassinated in 1973 in Sudan. Did the thought of all this blood temper Carter’s enthusiasm? Hailing Arafat’s "historic role," the 39th president of the United States laid a wreath of red - red - roses on the terrorist’s grave, calling him a "dear friend." Too bad a column can’t come with a sick bag.
This laying of the wreath seems to have particularly thrilled Abdel Rahim, a top aide to Palestinian Authority Holocaust denier - I mean, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Arafat’s longtime associate and successor. The Jerusalem Post reminded readers that this presidential salute was a first, given that "U.S. President George W. Bush and other top administration officials had refused to honor Arafat during their visits to Ramallah." Rahim was positively brimming with enthusiasm, burbling on to Carter about the day Arafat’s tomb would be moved to Jerusalem, "the capital of the Palestinian state." And these - Abbas & Co. Fatah - are the "moderates."
More such moderation came out in recent news reports that Abbas had to be convinced by Israel not to carry out plans to bestow official honors next week on two female accessories to Israeli murder, including the driver of the bomber of the infamous 2001 Sbarro pizzeria massacre. Maybe Carter can arrange recognition for these women. Having honored the PLO murderer Arafat, Carter surely would like to honor others from his terrorist camp. Oh, I forgot. The former president is already doing just that in meetings with Hamas murderers even as they continue to kill. This would seem to register high on the outrage meter, but, for the most part, what is audible from the White House, the Department of State and Congress is so much tepid background noise to the effect of, "We wouldn’t do that if we were you, sir." Not much else. At least not until Rep. Sue Myrick, North Carolina Republican, got involved.
Because Carter’s meetings with the Hamas leadership run counter to international agreements to isolate Hamas, and to U.S. policy and international policy regarding this terrorist group, Myrick has publicly called on Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to revoke Jimmy Carter’s passport. Hallelujah.
With this request, an American leader has actually taken a stand for American security interests, for victims of terrorism, for the principle of not bargaining with terrorists, for an important ally, and, perhaps most important, for a grown-up, restorative moral order. Jimmy Carter should certainly lose his passport for his shameful and degrading and harmful Hamas overtures. And preferably before he flies back home. -------------------------------------------------------------------------
Abbas warned: "Hands off Hamas forces"
(Article by Semadar Peri, 'Yediot Ahronot', September 2, 1994, 'Saturday Supplement', pp. 10-11)
THE HEADS OF THE PALESTINIAN SECURITY SERVICES, WHO ARE SUPPOSED TO CONDUCT THE HUNT FOR THE MURDERERS OF THE YOUNG MEN IN RAMLE THIS PAST WEEK, ARE FIGHTING AMONG THEMSELVES: THEIR MEN ARE DISGRUNTLED AND SEARCHING FOR DIFFERENT WORK. ARAFAT HIMSELF IS NOT ENTHUSIASTIC ABOUT DISTURBING HAMAS BEFORE ELECTIONS IN THE TERRITORIES. HE FEARS THAT THE ORGANIZATION WILL INCITE AGAINST HIM IN THE MOSQUES AND BRING MASSES OF PEOPLE INTO THE STREETS. A TOUR IN THE LABYRINTH OF THE PALESTINIAN HIERARCHY.
In the middle of the week, Brig.-Gen. Dubi Gazit, the senior liaison officer to the Palestinian Authority, delivered an official request on behalf of the State of Israel for the extradition of the murderers of Gili Revach and Shlomo Kapach, who were fixing the elevators in a residential building in Ramle. The Israeli request included the names of four suspects in the murder.
The Palestinian liaison officer, Abd A-Razak Yehyeh, undertook to pass on the information to his superiors, and to make sure that the issue was dealt with. Shortly afterward, Israel Radio broadcast an interview with the commander of the Palestinian Police, Nasser Yusuf, who volunteered the following: I know the identity of the murderers, and I have no problem in arresting them. However, I have not received any instructions [to do so].' When Arafat stood in front of the cameras and termed the murder 'a workers' dispute,' it was impossible to continue with business as usual. Rabin was outraged..
At the time of this writing, not one of the Palestinian suspects has been extradited to Israel. There is also no information which would indicate that the Palestinian Police has initiated action to locate the murderers' tracks. The procedure which Israel and the PLO agreed to, establishes that in the event that a severe criminal offense is committed against Israelis, the Palestinian Authority undertakes to locate the suspects, arrest them, interrogate them and if it becomes clear that they are responsible for the offense, they would be handed over to Israel to stand trial.
In three months since the IDF's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and Jericho, 40 (!) firing incidents from the direction of the territories evacuated have been registered, and four cases of Israelis being murdered. Up till now, no one has been extradited to Israel, except for three Palestinians from Jericho, who were accused of committing 'light offenses.' There have been instances where suspects were detained, but then released several hours later, due to 'lack of evidence.' This week, the Prime Minister threatened to postpone the transfer of authority in the territories to the Palestinians, until the murderers of Revach and Kapach in Ramle are extradited. He also said that the Palestinian Police is not doing enough to suppress terrorism and violence.
There are two prevailing views in the Israeli security establishment, regarding the handling of Palestinian terrorism. The first says that Arafat, who employs his security services like marionettes and uses them according to his interests, is conspicuously ignoring Israel's demand that he be tough in suppressing terrorism. In Gaza homes, for example, there are are still large quantities of weapons. Arafat, according to the agreement, was supposed to send his police to collect the weapons. As of now, he is still delaying.
Last Friday, shots were heard fired in the Sabra camp in Gaza, for nearly half an hour. The 'shabab' fired pistols and rifles into the air. It appears that this is the current 'fad' in Gaza at weddings, and also in skirmishes and arguments between local clans: shoot first. Stunned residents hid in their homes and hysterically phoned for help. Who did not come? The Palestinian Police.
Another position prevalent in the security establishment and especially accepted among GSS circles actually tends to go easy on Arafat. According to this position, it is still impossible to demand of the Palestinians what Israel would vigorously demand of a proper, sovereign state. 'It is impossible to know today whether the Palestinian Police is, or is not, doing anything to investigate the terrorist incidents against us. They are not as efficient as we are, and it is difficult to judge their war on terrorism according to accepted standards. Meanwhile, we will have to suffer attacks, and learn to restrain ourselves.'
Three months ago, when Arafat received the keys to Gaza and Jericho, and began the process of putting together the Palestinian Police, a security official in Israel gave the Palestinian Police a grade of 'good,' for its initial activities. This week, the same officials was prepared to give them, at best, a grade of 'pass.' He pointed to internal rivalries, a reduction in the standing of those responsible for the Palestinian Police, intentional compartmentalization and to an effort by Palestinian police, and senior officials in their security establishment, to seek other livelihoods.
An Israeli leader, who met with Arafat this week, returned to Tel Aviv with a harsh impression. The man termed what he saw in Gaza to be a 'mess.' According to him, Arafat this week in the midst of the affair over the visit to Gaza by the Pakistani prime minister, Benazir Bhutto appeared to be tense, quarrelsome, angry. While issuing instructions to his people, he kept rummaging through the pockets of his uniform suit. Little notes, written in a dense scrawl, fell out of each pocket. Even after he put on his glasses, he had difficulty in reading what was written. He shouted at his people and stamped his feet.
In the three months which have passes since the deployment of the Palestinian security forces in Gaza and Jericho, their disposition has changed. On the face of it, they are organized according to a pyramid of functionaries, headed by Arafat. In practice, each of those responsible, including at a relatively low level, is required to report directly to Arafat. This is the reason for the accumulation of notes in the pockets of the chairman, who is always eager to receive 'operational gossip.'
In contrast to early Israeli projections, according to which Arafat would arrive in Gaza to the sound of drums and dancing, and become a flying leader across the world the chairman is 'stuck' in Gaza. He is being revealed as someone who has harnessed himself, through his own methods, to to the task of building a Palestinian state for himself.
Arafat's priorities are, of course, different from ours. For now, combatting terrorism and violence will not help him reach his immediate goals within the Palestinian population. If he is interested in getting a majority in elections in the territories a majority which is not based on fabricated voting results he must not only show leadership and performance ability, but also reach a rapprochement with his rivals in Hamas.
If it depended solely on Arafat's activity, more Hamas attacks can be expected in the near future. Though he is doing everything to foil them in advance, fearing Israel's response, he will not lose his temper. Until elections are held, Arafat will refrain from engaging in a confrontation with Hamas. For now, he continues to enjoy the grace period which Hamas has granted him.
Both sides are 'learning' one another. This is a game whose rules are fairly simple: if Arafat sends his police to harass Hamas, Hamas will make sure to incite against him in the mosques and will bring the masses out into the streets. A planned operation to collect weapons from Gaza residences would be enough to light the fire.
The attempt to clarify what happened this week to the extradition request for the murderers of the Israelis in Ramle, leads to a twisted puzzle within the recesses of the Palestinian services. Amin al-Hindi is the head of the Palestinian security service. He is supposed to employ 200-300 men, who are under his direct command in the Gaza Strip, in order to search for the murderers of the Israelis. One echelon below him is an anonymous figure: Musbakh Saker, who boasted that he had succeeded in escaping from the long arms of the Israeli security services for the 27 years of the occupation in Gaza.
No one can point, exactly, to the precise role which Saker fills, except for the fact that the he bears the title of 'responsible for counter- intelligence.' Below him is Muhammad Dahlan, a member of the Palestinian delegation to the talks with Israel, who, as far as is known, ignores the fact that he is subordinate to Saker (like his counterpart in Jericho, Jibril Rajoub). The two men bypass Saker and report directly to Arafat or to Nabil Sha'ath.
This week, there was a rumor circulating in Gaza that Arafat intends to oust Abu al-Hula who is Bassal al-Abd a member of Force-17, who is in charge of the elite unit of the 'presidential guard.' According to rumors spread by circles close to Arafat, Abu al-Hula is suspected of collaborating with 'foreigners.'
To all of these was recently added Hakem Bilawi, who served as head of the Palestinian internal security service in Tunis, and who has now returned to the territories. Bilawi, in whose offices the 'mole' Adnan Yassin was exposed as working on behalf of the Mossad, is waiting for a senior post in the Palestinian internal security service in the territories. Will the slick Bilawi be appointed over Amin al-Hindi? Will he only receive control over the Palestinian internal security service in the West Bank?
The Palestinians also know that the real problems in the West Bank have yet to reach the surface, and the expected confrontations with the Israeli settlers have yet to begin. According to various assessments, the situation in the West Bank could be much worse than that currently prevailing in the Gaza Strip, because of the physical proximity between the Palestinians and the settlers. Arafat's various security apparatuses are stepping all over each other. While the senior commanders quarrel among themselves, the junior policemen seek alternatives in the local employment market. Arafat uses the 'divide and rule' method on them as well. The commander of the Palestinian Police, Nasser Yusuf, nearly lost his post when he took an independent initiative and doubled police salaries. Instead of $150-200, he suddenly paid police who arrived from the various Arab countries $400.
Arafat was outraged, and threatened to dismiss Yusuf and appoint Col. Ziyad al-Atrash in his place. The result: foreign intervention. A Norwegian police officer was stationed in Gaza and is now responsible for distributing police salaries from the funds granted by the 'donor countries..' Up till now, the PLO has not fully utilized the quota of policemen which was set for the Palestinian Police. Of the 9,000 police in the Gaza Strip and Jericho which were discussed in the agreement, only 6,500 currently serve in those areas. Most 5,200 police are stationed in Gaza. The rest were deployed in Jericho, where they serve under two commanders: Haj Isma'il and Jibril Rajoub, each of whom reports directly to Arafat.
Though the Palestinian Police do indeed have uniforms, police vehicles and weapons, and even coastal patrol boats, their living conditions continue to be difficult. The prices of apartments in Gaza soared suddenly. The police, who arrived from Sudan, Algeria, Yemen, Libya and Morocco, are finding it difficult to have their families join them. Within the framework of his games of power and control, Arafat also ignored the request of 500 'Badr Force' troops to be stationed in the West Bank, close to their families. He purposely ordered that they be stationed in Gaza. Today, they live in camps or relatives' homes in Gaza, disgruntled and frustrated.
By the way, King Hussein took care to adopt 2,000 'Badr Force' troops who remained in the Hashemite Kingdom, and announced that he would pay their salaries and attach them to the Jordanian Army as an independent unit.
The Israeli security establishment is following a worrisome phenomenon in the territories: the forging of permits to work in Israel. The small printers, who acquired expertise in printing forged 'exit permits' and 'documents' for income tax, continue to operate clandestinely. Until the IDF withdrawal from Gaza and Jericho, it was possible to raid such underground printers and confiscate their equipment. Today, those operating the primitive printing machines are no longer forced to work under cover of darkness: the pace of production stands at 10 forged documents a day. A forged authorization form for income tax costs NIS100. A forged permit to work within the Green Line costs a bit more, NIS150.
In general, leaving the territories for Israel is more complicated than is entering. It is enough for the fleeing murderers to hide inside one of the dozens of the cement or vegetable trucks, in order to easily pass through the roadblocks and disappear into Gaza, Rafah or the refugee camps. At the crossing points, there are also indications of bribes being paid to the Palestinian Police. Officials in the Israeli security establishment were not convinced this week that the Palestinians, even if they made an effort, could capture the murderers within 3-4 days. Though Arafat is indeed interested in postponing the confrontation with Hamas for as long as possible, Rabin is breathing down his neck, mainly when he threatens to put off planned moves, such as suspending the transfer of authority, postponing the release of prisoners, or cancelling plans for the 'safe passage' from Gaza to Jericho.
Arafat, pressed from all sides, expects a softening of positions primarily from Rabin. 'Rabin continues to treat me like an enemy,' he says repeatedly, 'and prefers King Hussein.' On this, Arafat is right.
EXPOSE: HAMAS MURDERERS UNDER ARAFAT'S AEGIS
(Analysis by Roni Shaked, "Yediot Ahronot", 15.10.97, "Sukkot Supplement," pp 2-5) DETAINEE COL. MASSIMI, WHO SENT PALESTINIAN OFFICERS TO CARRY OUT AN ATTACK, HAS TRANSFERRED HIS OFFICE TO THE PRISON AND GOES AROUND NABLUS WITH BODYGUARDS.
Ghazi Jabali, the Commander of the Palestinian Police, recently informed the trainees at the Palestinian Police Academy that more than 150 members of the Hamas and George Habash's PFLP are serving in the Palestinian Police. Jabali did not bother to remind his listeners that at least 25 of these men are wanted terrorists, who have carried out attacks against Israel, and for whom the Israeli Justice Ministry has issued official extradition requests. There are among them men who have been sentenced in the Palestinian courts, so as to prevent their transfer to Israel, and who shortly afterwards, "escaped from jail". When it seemed that Israel had forgotten them, they joined the Police, or the Palestinian GSS.
Osama Abu Tayeh, from Rafiah, is a senior Hamas activist, who has carried out a series of murders, among them the murder of soldiers Ehud Rot and Ilan Levy on 24 October, 1993 in Gush Katif, and the murder of Guy Ovadiah on July 19th 1994 in Rafiah.
On September 6th 1995, Israel issued a request for his transfer. A week later he was tried in a special Palestinian security court, and was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment. 5 weeks later, on 22 October 1995, the "door revolved", and he succeeded in escaping from jail. When his escape was reported, Israel demanded to arrest him again.
"Forgot" to Return to Jail at Night
The Police and Palestinian GSS did not need to look far. Abu Tayeh did not flee and hide as other wanted men had done. He strutted proudly around the city. On November 3, after protracted negotiations with the Palestinian police, he gave himself up, and received luxurious prison conditions: wandering freely by day, and at night returning to sleep in jail. After a few months, Osama Abu-Tayeh "forgot" to return to his cell. In March, 1996, after the wave of bus-bombings in Jerusalem, and at the Dizengoff Center in Tel Aviv, Israel demanded that he be re-arrested. Three or four months later Osama Abu Tayeh was once again free. Once more Israel protested, and once more the PA made excuses. In October, 1996, the Palestinians decided to put an end to Osama Abu Tayeh's unclear status. He was recruited to the Palestinian Police, donned uniform, and was issued a Kalashnikov. This all took place in accordance with the law, and under the auspices of Ghazi Jabali, whose transfer Israel has also requested, after he instructed his policemen in Nablus to carry out terrorist attacks against settlers.
"Operations on the Colonel's Orders."
On 14 July, 1997, at 9 in the evening, a civilian car was making its way from Nablus to the settlement Har Bracha. The junior Palestinian officers were sitting inside: Fawaz Tirawi, 23, a resident of Balata refugee camp near Nablus; Shaher Dawikat, 24,, and Munjad Juda, 23, residents of the village Irak Altaiya on the foothills of Mount Ibal. They wore civilian clothing and carried rifles and pistols that were not registered with the Palestinian Police.
The three officers encountered an Israeli patrol en route, and were captured after a short battle. "We were operating on the orders of Colonel Jihad Massimi Deputy Commander of the Nablus Police, who received the order from General Ghazzi Jebali," the three told their interrogators. The three admitted to the interrogators that they had fired upon the car of Rabbi Elyakim Lebanon of the settlement Elon Moreh.
Colonel Jihad Massimi, 37, is a veteran Fatah activist. He was arrested by the Israeli GSS in the late 1970s, charged with membership in a Fatah cell, and sentenced to seven years in prison. After his release, he was appointed Fatah commander in the refugee camps in the Nablus area. Massimi was expelled to Lebanon on the eve of the Intifada. From there he went to Iraq, where he joined the "Western Front" command, which was the Fatah's strike force, headed by Abu Jihad. In 1994, he returned to the West bank as part of the PLO quota, where he joined the Fatah command in the Nablus area. He was drafted into the Palestinian police a year ago.
He was arrested after heavy Israeli pressure. "Arrest? You make me laugh," a journalist close to the Palestinian Authority in Nablus told me. "These are luxury conditions. I think that he actually runs the prison. His jail cell has become a work room. He receives mail there, holds consultations, staff meetings, and signs warrants. He visits his family in Balata refugee camp whenever he wants. He moves around Nablus in his car, always with bodyguards."
Why does he need protection?
"The Palestinian Authority says that he is not under arrest, but is in prison for protection. The Palestinian police claim that it has information that Israeli agents are scheming to liquidate him, and that prison is the safest place for him." The Palestinian journalist told me, "You must remember, that Colonel Massimi is a Fatah man, not Hamas, and he thus must be treated differently."
"Just like any other prisoner."
This week, I asked to speak with Colonel Massimi. "He is under arrest," I was told by one of his aides, and asked me to leave my telephone number, so that the Colonel could call me. To my surprise, the phone actually rang, and Colonel Massimi was on the other end. "I have the status of a prisoner, in a cell just like any other prisoner, with three hours liberty to walk in the yard every day, for the sun. This is a prison for all intents and purposes. Come, see, and get an impression," he told me.
"The revolving door" - an arrest of Hamas activists related to one of the attacks in Israel, and release after two or three weeks far from the eyes of the media has become Arafat's methodology. Fighting Hamas is not his objective. The method is used by him as a lever on Israel to achieve political goals. The arrest of activists is carried out by the Palestinian Authority on Arafat's instructions following attacks in Israel, and after pressure by Israel the U.S. or European states. After the wave of bombings of bus 18 in Jerusalem and Dizengoff Center in Tel Aviv, then Prime Minister Shimon Peres applied intense pressure on Arafat to act seriously against Hamas throughout the autonomous areas. At that time there was still trust between the leadership of the Palestinian Authority and the leadership in Israel. Arafat believed that serious action against Hamas would placate Peres and yield political fruits. Jibril Rajoub and Mohammed Dahalan arrested then over 1000 Hamas activists and closed their mosques and institutions The blow to Hamas was painful. Three months later, the political change in Israel and the breaking of the trust between the leaders, caused the release of the Hamas activists from prison. Arafat left behind lock and bar only dangerous Hamas activists, who might cause his regime trouble.
The mass arrests carried out by Arafat were not accompanied by investigations. The detainees were held in different regional prisons, in the West Bank or Gaza. Prisons in Rafiah, Khan Yunis or Tul Karm, Jenin, Ramallah, Nablus, Hebron and Bethlehem were also used by Israel. The detainees received unlimited visitors. Their families even provided meals. The "serious" detainees, members of the military wing, were held in central prisons: The central prison in the Gaza Strip, in Gaza city, and in Jericho prison in the West bank, used as the central prison of the Palestinian Authority.
According to the Palestinian Interest
Arafat is prepared to fight against the military arm of Hamas, but not against Hamas the political movement. The Palestinian Authority want to bring Hamas closer to it, to turn it into a legitimate politcal party, that would be a loyal opposition to Arafat's regime. Hamas' treatment is, therefore, dictated by the Palestinian interest. In the context of drawing together, Arafat wants to coopt Hamas activists, or those identifying with the movement, to his regime. Thus, for example, he added Imad Faluji, who was one of Hamas' leaders in Gaza, as the Minister for Postal Affairs, and he appointed Sheikh Talal of Hebron, who is identified with Hamas, as Minister of Youth and Sports to his government..
But the lower levels, the activists in the field, had their concerns as well. The Palestinian Police, and the Palestinian GSS no less, serve as havens for wanted men in their cities of refuge. After the opening of the Hasmonean Tunnel and the "War of al-Quds", as Palestinians nicknamed the subsequent events, in October 1996, a wholesale release of prisoners wanted by Israel took place. The most senior among them were recruited into the Palestinian Police and GSS. A glance at the list is enough to inspire shock: Kamel Khalifa, from Khan Yunis, was recruited to the Palestinian GSS. He is a member of the Izz a-Din al-Qassem Brigades, who began his bloody career on 16th May 1993, with the murder of the two vegetable sellers Nissim Falas from Dimona, and Avshalom Halfon from Ofakim, outside Moshav Gadid near Gush Katif. Members of Khalifa's cell approached in a Peugeot 404, and at short range opened fire with automatic weapons at the two traders. On 6th August 1993, Khalifa took part in the killing of two I.D.F soldiers, Tomer David and Lev Pisahov at the Dir Balout checkpoint, outside Ramallah.
Salem Abu Marouf, from Khan Yunis, is a veteran Hamas member. He took part in the murder of Doron Shushan at the Morag Junction, on January 1st, 1992, and has taken part in the killings of at least ten collaborators. He is currently serving in the Palestinian GSS. Ataf Hamdan, from Khan Yunis, took part in the kidnapping of soldier Ilan Caravani. He currently serves in the Palestinian GSS.
Mahmoud Abu Samra, and Riad Atar, both veteran Hamas activists from Rafiah, carried out a number of shooting attacks, among them an attack on an IDF patrol on 19th July 1994, in which Lieutenant Guy Ovadiah was killed. The two of them currently serve in the Palestinian Police in Gaza.
Imad al-Din Aql, from Gaza, who was one of the assistants of the "Engineer", Yihya Ayyash, took part in shooting attacks on IDF patrols throughout 1994. He currently serves in the Palestinian GSS. The list of prisoners released from Palestinian jails in the last half-year includes the names of arch-terrorists, who, in any properly ordered state,would have spent many years behind bars: Mohammed Kawajah, from Gaza, a leading figure in Islamic Jihad, who planned the attack at Beit Lid in January, 1995.
Nabil Sharihi, an Islamic Jihad member, who helped prepare the explosive device for the attack at Kfar Darom in April 1995, in which seven Israelis and an American were killed. Imad Hinawi, a Hamas member, who took part in the murder of soldier David Boim in Beit- El in May 1996. In February 1997 he was granted leave for the Id al-Fitr holiday, and did not return to jail. Mohamed Badran, an Islamic Jihad member, took part in the shooting attack outside Beidiya village in Samaria, in which Police Sergeant Meir Alush was killed. Shahadi Abed al-Rahim Kahlout, an Islamic Jihad member from Gaza, was intended to be the third suicide bomber at the Beit Lid attack in January, 1995.
Iyad Ali Hasani, from Gaza, a senior Islamic Jihad member, who was responsible for the Dizengoff Center bombing in March, 1996, in which 14 people were killed. In February, 1997, he was permitted leave by the Palestinian Authority for the Id al-Fitr festival. He did not return, and has not been returned, to jail. The colleagues of Hassan Salameh, the terrorist who planned and launched the suicide attacks on the 18 Bus route in Jerusalem, were also arrested, and have also been freed, among them Arafat Khawasme, Nabil Natshe and Jihad Sawiti, who have also served as aides to Mouhadin Sharif, the second "Engineer", and who were involved in the attempted kidnap of an Israeli soldier in Jerusalem in May, 1996.
An Impossible Escape
Hebron jail is known as one of the prisons from which escape is impossible. This is a guarded and reinforced prison, whose cell windows are especially small with wide bars installed. The prison building is located inside a fenced Palestinian army installation, the gate usually under a permanent guard. Despite all this, in early July 1997, the commander of the Kfar Zureif cell of [Hamas] Izz a-Din al-Kassam, Abd a- Rahman Ganimath, escaped from there. Members of this cell murdered the late soldier Sharon Edri, carried out the Apropo Cafe bombing in Tel Aviv, murdered the couple Unger, three members of the Munk family, IDF Dr. Oz Tivon and Sergeant Yaniv Shmil. Ganimath has never been tried. He was held in a Palestinian prison without a judicial order or arrest warrant.
It has become clear, that the doors of even Hebron jail do not stand firm on their hinges. On 2 July, 1997, Ganimath escaped from prison and freely walks around Hebron. Only after heavy Israeli pressure on Jibril Rajoub, was Ganimath "convinced" to turn himself in and return to prison. Another murderer, no less dangerous, is Abd al-Nasr Kisi, a member of the Popular Front, who participated in the murder of Ita Tzur and her son, from the Beit-El settlement, on 11 December, 1996. He was tried by the Palestinian Authority's night court and sentenced to life imprisonment. Six months later, in June 1997, he was brought to a Jericho hospital for medical treatment for leg pains. The pains did not bother him from jumping from the window of his room and easily walk away to his freedom.
Going Out for a Trip Around Town
Had the Nablus jail's "revolving door" been closed in September 1996, the attacks on Mahane Yehuda Market and Ben Yehuda pedestrian mall in Jerusalem might have been prevented. The four human bombs from the village of Azira Shamaliya, Bashar Zualha, Yosef Alshouli, Muwaila Jarara'a and Touwfik Yassin, were in the Palestinian prison in Nablus, where they were treated with respect. Their families said that they would sometimes come to the prison and take their imprisoned sons on walks through the city, meals at restaurants, visit relatives or simply stroll around. The four were not arrested; in August 1996, they turned themselves in after negotiations with the Palestinian GSS. The internment agreement determined easy prison conditions, including liberties. The four were held in the interrogation installation of the Palestinian Intelligence. In September 1996, Israel demanded their extradition, and in response, the Palestinian Authority swung the door, and the four went free, not through a window whose bars had been removed, but through the front door.
A senior security official said this week that, "The headlines and stories in the media regarding arrests of Hamas activists by the Palestinian Authority, are tales of the Arabian Nights. Prison is not prison, most of the prisoners have enhanced conditions, and there are prisoners who come to jail only for the night. The problem is that we have never witnessed hostility or difficulty on the part of the population towards the detainees. They live in a supportive environment, they do not fear the populace. The opposite: The street sees them as heroes." The senior official emphasized that the behavior of the Palestinian Authority, and its Chairman, Yasser Arafat, towards the arrest of suspects is two-faced.
"Don't be Impressed by Words."
According to senior security officials, shortly after standing beside U.S. Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, and declaring to the media that he would arrest suspects and fight terrorism, Yasser Arafat telephoned Dr. Abd al-Aziz Rentisi, the Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip, telling him: Don't pay any attention to my talk of arrests. "It is very simple and clear," says the security establishment. "Arafat does not believe that he has to arrest these people."
After the identities of the Jerusalem suicide bombers became clear, Arafat responded angrily: "We are disappointed with Hamas. They promised us that bombers would come from abroad. My trust in them is broken." He ordered his staff to launch an attack on Hamas. The Palestinian Authority closed 16 Hamas institutions in Gaza, and arrested 20 activists in the West Bank, based on lists provided by the Israeli GSS.. The Israeli security establishment was not impressed that a new policy had been initiated.
For now, detainees in Palestinian prisons number approximately 90 Hamas activists, mostly young, members of the military arm, arrested since March 1996. Some 20 of them were arrested in the Nablus area after the Jerusalem suicide bombers were identified. Hamas leaders demand their release at every meeting with Arafat or his representatives. The released Sheikh Yassin will also demand that Arafat release them. The release of prisoners, believes the Palestinian Authority, will improve relations with Hamas and lower intra-Palestinian tensions. The head of the Palestinian GSS in Gaza, Mohammed Dahalan, was quick to warn that "following the release of Sheikh Yassin, Hamas will pressure us to release its imprisoned people," and the security establishment says that the wave of releases of Hamas activists, and the reopening of the 16 Hamas institutions in Gaza, starting with the Islamic Mujama'a, founded by Sheikh Yassin, is only a matter of time.
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| anonymous | 1133 days ago |
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