6-28-07, 11:45 am

After the tragic events in the Gaza Strip, and the complete takeover of Gaza by Hamas in a military coup, we think that it is important to stress on the following points:

1) We condemn the military coup by Hamas and its ramifications of tearing Gaza away from the West Bank. This new situation will eventually complete the process begun by Israel in 1991 to disintegrate the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), and create two separate entities. And this action by Hamas put into jeopardy the political and geographical unity of the OPT.

2) Its obvious now that the bloody infighting was a direct and indirect consequence of Israel's long-standing policy of siege, closer, expropriation of lands, and settlements, etc., which led to high poverty and unemployment rates as well as devastated trading opportunities since Israel as an occupying power has strictly limited Palestinian movement within the west bank and with the Gaza Strip.

3) The international community – mainly the US and the European Union – is also to blame for exacerbating the distress and agony of the Palestinians by the imposition of political sanctions and an economic blockade on our people since early 2006.

4) We agree that a state of corruption in the Palestinian Authority, security failures, and the lack of measures to remedy this situation has contributed to generating tension and hostilities.

5) The huge bi-polarisation of the Palestinian society by Fatah and Hamas, and their policy, before and after the Mecca accord, to bisect and monopolize power paved the way towards excluding all the political factions and the civil society from being real partners. This negatively complicated the internal scene and encouraged infighting.

Therefore, we express serious concerns about the following four outcomes:

(1) The assault on the legitimate authority and the military takeover by Hamas in Gaza.

(2) The complete separation of the Gaza Strip from the West Bank.

(3) A wide scale humanitarian crisis in Gaza if Israel implements its threats to cut off vital services and supplies.

(4) The upcoming situation under Hamas control, and what will happen in regard to secular civil society and individual and public freedoms as well as women's rights, etc., taking into consideration certain declarations by Hamas leaders that they are going to establish an Islamic Authority in Gaza.

Now if there is a lesson from what happened in Gaza here it is: Starving, drying up and blocking a whole population do not change consciousness or weaken political or ideological movements. On the contrary, after one year and a half of the policy of international boycott on the Palestinian Authority, Hamas has become stronger, and the boycott policy has failed. The American notion that it is possible to topple an elected government by applying external pressure on the population suffered a complete failure.

On the other hand, it was unwise behavior by certain elements in Fatah and the Authority to count on the external pressure and to follow certain policies that depends completely on the American and the Israeli good wishes.

The question now is where to go from here? To continue the boycott policy by the US, Israel and the European community will lead to more disasters. The international community needs to change direction, and it has to deal with one legitimate authority and with one legitimate government without preconditions. The international community should from now on deal with the Palestinians through their government and not on a personal level as it had before, through the so-called temporary international mechanism. It should help the Palestinian government to deal with its people in the West Bank as well as in the Gaza Strip, and not to go over its head or by imposing conditions and giving instructions.

Only through giving the Palestinian Government and President Abbas the full responsibility for his people on the political, financial, economical, and security levels without any external intervention, can he succeed in making a breakthrough and to go back to the status quo ante in the Gaza Strip.

The so-called policy of strengthening President Abbas, should be based on a real political approach and substantial steps towards a final solution to the Palestinian problem and not only financial aid and the removal of some military check points.

As preliminary steps, there should be a complete and mutual cease fire, a full withdrawal from the Palestinian populated areas, removal of all the military check points, massive release of prisoners, and dismantling of the so-called illegal settlements posts. Such measures could create a new environment and give hope for the Palestinian population that the political path did not fail. All the efforts to confront Hamas, without undertaking a dramatic step such as pushing for an accord based on the Arab peace initiative will be meaningless. And without offering a genuine political alternative, extremism and fundamentalism will continue succeed.

--Hanna Amireh is a member of the Palestinian People's Party--Political Bureau and the Palestine Liberation Orgaization--Executive Committee.