Militant Palestinian Groups Eager To Fight Israel

by Ferry Biedermann

With two fatal attacks in less than a week, the fighting seems to have resumed after a three-week period of relative calm. Militant groups are vowing revenge for Israeli actions but at the same time the political leaders reiterated their commitment to the truce called by Yasser Arafat.

Last weekend, the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, celebrated the 14th anniversary of its founding with a modest gathering in Ramallah. The movement had been denied permission by Arafat's Palestinian Authority, PA, for a mass rally in the center of town.

While several jeep-loads of Palestinian security personnel stood on guard outside, masked Hamas militants with green headbands paraded flags, not guns, around a reception hall in a hotel on the outskirts of Ramallah. The flagpoles now and then poked through the low ceiling, as if to emphasize the way in which the PA is trying to keep Hamas down.

The relationship between the militant movements and the PA has changed since Arafat called a cease-fire and started his half-hearted crackdown on people accused of being involved in attacks against Israel.

While the statements and some of the actions indicate that Hamas and other militant groups are straining to resume the fighting, the PA is still exerting pressure to keep the situation calm. The patience of the militant groups is clearly running out, though.

"It is better to die fighting then to be slaughtered like sheep," said Hamas-leader Hassan Yussef on the sidelines of the Hamas gathering in Ramallah. He was referring to the Israeli demolition of dozens of houses in the Southern Gaza strip which, according to the Palestinians, left hundreds of people homeless. Hamas announced that it would react to that "atrocity."

Israel destroyed the homes, attacked Palestinian naval and police positions and tore up the runway of the international airport in Gaza after Hamas carried out an attack in Southern Israel from the Gaza strip on Jan. 10.

Four Israeli soldiers and the two attackers died during that assault. "That operation took place inside occupied territory," said Yussef, trying to reconcile the action with stated Hamas policy. Hamas has said it will stick to the limited cease-fire it announced after Yasser Arafat's speech last month.

"We stand by our announcement," said Yussef. On Jan. 15, an official Hamas statement reiterated that the group would refrain from suicide attacks inside Israel and from firing mortars at Israeli settlements.

Arafat's Fatah movement was thrown into similar confusion, after the death of one of its leading militants in an explosion on Jan. 14. Although Israel has neither admitted nor denied responsibility, all signs point in that direction. Fatah's militant wing, the Al-Aqsa martyrs brigades, immediately vowed revenge and declared the cease-fire over. Within hours the group had claimed responsibility for the death of an Israeli soldier in the West Bank.

The official Fatah leadership, however, hurried to contradict the Al-Aqsa brigades' statement. Hussein Al-Sheikh, a leader of Fatah's Tanzim militia in Ramallah said, "The Fatah movement is committed to the cease-fire order and asks everyone to remain committed to this decision."

Jibril Rajoub, the head of the Palestinian Authority's Preventive Security Service in the West Bank, also said the cease-fire was still in place and that the Israeli actions were meant "to provoke the Palestinian people and continue the cycle of violence."

The attitude of the PA towards the militants remains ambiguous too. While exerting pressure on them to refrain from attacks on Israelis, the leadership is also anxious to appease Hamas and other groups. At the Hamas gathering in Ramallah last weekend, Ahmed Abdul Rahman, secretary of the Palestinian Cabinet addressed the crowd, in the name of Arafat.

"I have come to emphasize the unity of the Palestinian people and the necessity of collective decisions," Abdul Rahman told the crowd. It was a clear message that Hamas needed to abide by the PA's cease-fire. "Not all actions are always right," he continued, in a veiled criticism of the Hamas attack last week.

Most of his speech at this festive occasion, however, was dedicated to praising the movement. "Hamas stands in the front line of our struggle for our home land and for the holy places," said Abdul Rahman.

Jamal Tawil, another Hamas leader and uncle of a suicide bomber, admitted that relations with the PA are "strained."

"There are ups and downs," said Tawil, referring to the pressure the PA exerts on Hamas to refrain from attacks on Israelis. The group also rejects the PA's policy of arresting some of its militants.

Tawil emphasized that the absence of any progress towards easing the restriction on the Palestinian population since the beginning of the cease-fire is making the Palestinians impatient. "If we fight we get slaughtered and if we don't fight we also get slaughtered," he said emotionally.

Hamas knows that its popularity among Palestinians is largely the result of its role in the vanguard of the fight against Israel. In periods of quiet it loses support. The hall where it held its anniversary meeting was full but not to overflowing, and not more than 1,000 people showed up.

Many of the people attending the anniversary meeting would not describe themselves as hard-core Hamas supporters. "I'm here because I support the fight against Israel, not because I support Hamas as a movement," said Abdul, an 18-year-old student who left the rally early.

"This is only a temporary pause in the fighting," said Abdul about the recent period of calm, echoing the opinion of many Palestinians. "We tried to talk to them for 10 years and we didn't get anywhere, now we are trying by fighting and that hasn't finished yet."