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The problem of lawlessness in the Palestinian territoriesBy Redress Information & Analysis
13 May 2007
The abduction of the BBC’s correspondent, Alan Johnston, and other criminal activities in the occupied Palestinian territories threaten to destroy the Palestinian cause from within. Palestinians must assert their national will and put an end to lawlessness now.
Palestinian patriots and supporters of the Palestinian cause throughout the world cannot but be alarmed at recent developments in the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel in 1967, in particular the Gaza Strip. We are talking about seditious activities perpetrated under the cover of Islam.
In a previous article, we voiced our revulsion at the kidnapping of the British Broadcasting Corporation’s Gaza correspondent, Alan Johnston, a man who, for three years, had done a heroic job in bringing the misery of the people of Gaza to the eyes and ears of the world. At the time, we did not know the identity of his kidnappers but concluded that, given the predictable damage his abduction had done to the Palestinian cause, whoever kidnapped him was effectively an agent or a collaborator of Israel.
We now have a credible indication of the identity of Alan Johnston’s kidnappers. On 9 May, a group calling itself the “Army of Islam” (Jaish al-Islam) released a tape showing Mr Johnston’s BBC identity card and containing a demand for the release of Muslim suspects being held in British jails. The tape, delivered to the Gaza office of Al-Jazeera TV channel and posted on a website often used by Al-Qaeda and other Islamist groups, specifically demands the release of Abu-Qatada, an Islamic cleric who is accused of having links to Al-Qaeda and is awaiting deportation to Jordan from Britain.The tape cited the support accorded to Israel by successive British governments and said that this justified the killing of all Britons, including Mr Johnston. Thus, according to the logic of the so-called “Army of Islam”, all citizens of states that back Israel are guilty, even those that support the Palestinian cause and other Muslim causes.
Little is known about the “Army of Islam” but what we do know about it points to a criminal, mercenary outfit, rather than to a political group, be it Islamist or jihadist.
According to some sources, the “Army of Islam” is led by one Mumtaz Daghmash – also known as Abu-Muhammad – the chief of the Daghmash clan in Gaza. These sources say that the group was responsible for the kidnap of two Fox News workers in Gaza in August 2006, and that the captives were freed in exchange for 2 million US dollars. Other media sources claim that Daghmash is a key player in organized crime.
Despite the appearance of its message on a website linked to Al-Qaeda and other Islamist groups, all the signs are that the so-called “Army of Islam” is nothing but a mafia-type gang that is using the name and language of Islam as cover for its criminality. As the Palestinian national security director, Major-General Rashid Abu-Shibak, told Al-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper on 10 May, the so-called “Army of Islam” is not an organization as such but a group of individuals who ... are operating for their private interests".
Observers of the Palestinian struggle will know that criminality within the Palestinian community and the Israeli occupation go hand in hand, for criminals not only undermine the fabric of Palestinian society but also often act as collaborators of Israel – one of the principal tools of the Israeli occupation. As such, we cannot rule out that the so-called “Army of Islam” has been hired – or else infiltrated – by Israel to do its dirty work in the occupied territories for, as we stated before, only Israel, only the Zionists, only the occupation benefit from its activities, including the abduction of Alan Johnston.
Those who claim to be the so-called “Army of Islam” are men who have no honour or dignity. They are the scum of the earth, filth that is beneath contempt and must be lanced from Palestinian society before it infects it terminally. The fact that these criminals call themselves the “Army of Islam” (they should be called the Army of Lucifer, or Jaish Iblees) and speak the language of the Koran only adds insult to injury. But, as true Muslims will know, the Koran warned of such charlatans when it said: “Say, I seek refuge in the Lord of humans, the King of humans, the God of humans, from the evil of the whispering slinker who whispers into the hearts of beings, from among the jinn and the humans." (114: Humans)
The actions of criminals masquerading as Islamic radicals is not the only form of seditious activity that has afflicted the occupied Palestinian territories lately. On 8 May, a United Nations-run school in Gaza was attacked by gunmen belonging to an Islamist Salafi group, resulting in the death of one man and the wounding of several others. The group said that it had carried out the attack because it objected to the idea of boys and girls mixing together and popular music being played.
We can cite many other activities of a similar ilk, including attacks on internet cafes, music shops and Christian bookshops, some executed by common criminals hiding under the cover of Islam, others carried out by Islamists such as the Salafi group mentioned above. None has anything to do with the Palestinian cause and all have just one beneficiary: Israel. As with the kidnappers of Alan Johnston, the perpetrators of all these attacks are, in effect if not in actual fact, traitors to the Palestinian cause and enemies of the Palestinian people. They must be treated as such by the Palestinian National Authority – both Hamas and Fatah – and by Palestinian society.
However, the chances of a reassertion of law and order – the reassertion of the national will of the Palestinian people – in the occupied territories are almost nil as long as the shameful, fratricidal war among Palestinians continues. It is against the background of this war, which is being fought between armed factions belonging to a Fatah party that is unable to come to terms with not being in power, and Hamas, against which the global forces of Zionism have ranged, that the general lawlessness in the Palestinian territories exists.
This brings us to the role of the hypocrites of the United States and the European Union, including Britain, in bringing about this state of affairs.
Ever since the Palestinian people voted in free and fair elections for Hamas to be their government, the EU and the USA, together with Israel, have done their utmost to undermine the ability of Hamas to govern.
In both Iraq and the Palestinian territories, a weak central government and general lawlessness are strategic aims of Israel – in Iraq because it ensures Israel’s long-term strategic domination of the Middle East and in the Palestinian territories because it lends credibility to Israel’s claim that the Palestinians are incapable of governing themselves. While in Iraq the situation has now well and truly slipped out of the control of the US occupiers, in the Palestinian territories Israel has found willing accomplices in the EU and the US to starve the Palestinians into submission. The outcome is clear for all to see: general lawlessness and criminality of which the abduction of Alan Johnston and the attack on the UN-run school are but two examples.
The Palestinian cause has survived against overwhelming odds, thanks to the unparalleled steadfastness and resilience of the Palestinian people. However, the lawlessness and criminality now prevalent in Gaza and, to a lesser extent, the West Bank now threaten to do what the Zionists and their European and American stooges have failed to achieve in over a century of conflict, that is, to destroy the Palestinian cause from within and wipe out support for the Palestinian people the world over. It is time for Palestinian society, from the grassroots to the Palestinian National Authority, to assert the national will of the people throughout Palestine, to unite behind the democratically-elected Hamas government and flush out the criminals and charlatans in their midst.
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