http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006\12\24\story_24-12-2006_pg4_10
Hamas-Fatah battle erodes Palestinian state hopes By Luke Baker 'There is a real danger that the current conflict could lead to a deepening of the territorial division... There is the risk that you will end up with rival movements predominating in each of the territories' THE intensifying political and physical battle between Hamas and Fatah is not only a fight between Palestinian power blocs and ideologies - it may also be eroding hope that Gaza and the West Bank can unite in one state. While the two Palestinian territories are only about 45 km (28 miles) apart, with Israel in between, they are increasingly very separate worlds. The Islamic militants of Hamas, who are sworn to Israel's destruction, hold sway in Gaza, while the larger West Bank is dominated by the more worldly and moderate Fatah, for decades unchallenged as the leading Palestinian faction. Since coming to power in March, Hamas has consolidated its influence in the Gaza Strip, where it has steadily built up its presence since it was founded there in the late 1980s. Meanwhile Fatah has sought to reinvigorate its support in the West Bank, where nearly two-thirds of the territories' 3.8 million Palestinians live. As well as competing for political sway, each movement has strengthened its military capabilities, not only on its home turf but also on its rivals' patch, making the gun battles in Gaza in recent days almost inevitable. The increasing difficulty - or near-impossibility - of travelling across Israel from one territory to the other only adds to fears that the goal of an independent Palestinian state spanning the West Bank and Gaza may soon be out of reach. "There is a real danger that the current conflict, if it persists, could lead to a deepening of the territorial division," said Mouin Rabbani, a senior analyst of the region for the International Crisis Group. "There is the risk that you will end up with rival movements predominating in each of the territories." Saleh Abdul Jawad, a political scientist at Bir Zeit University in the West Bank who has raised the issue of a West Bank-Gaza split in the past, is also growing more concerned. "It is becoming a very legitimate fear," he said. "What is going on deepens the possibility of a complete separation." Separate states?: In the early 1990s, it was possible for Palestinians in the West Bank to get on a bus and visit friends in Gaza without a second thought, or even to go to the beaches in Tel Aviv. But since the Oslo peace accords in the mid-1990s, and particularly since a Palestinian uprising resumed in 2000, Israel has steadily ratcheted up security, effectively fencing off Gaza, which it occupied until last year, and building a barrier around the West Bank, which it still occupies. Passage between the two is now almost impossible but for the most senior of Palestinian officials. Permission for others is hard to come by and very infrequently granted. A Palestinian colleague who recently left the Gaza Strip for the first time in years and was allowed to visit Ramallah, the main city in the West Bank, was stunned by the differences. As well as the fact that alcohol was available and that many women chose not to cover their heads with the traditional hijab, he said even the more religious people thought differently. Israel, via the US-backed "road map", is committed to a "two-state solution" - Israel living in peace alongside an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza. After pulling out of Gaza, it signed a deal brokered by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice allowing Palestinians "movement and access" between Gaza and the West Bank. But the deal never properly came into force. Instead, Gaza's geographical separation has been reinforced, which has hardened the economic separation and, since Hamas's rise to power, seen a political differentiation emerge too. "Israel has created the reality of two separate ideological entities and two separate economies," said Rabbani. "The prospect of (Gaza and the West Bank) becoming two separate political entities has to be seen in that context." Or, in the words of the Gazan colleague visiting the West Bank: "It's another world now." reuters +++ -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: osint@yahoogroups.com Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. 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