Israeli, Palestinians Take War Break to Clean House

by Ferry Biedermann

Palestinian lawmakers this week started to draw up plans to reform the Palestinian Authority (PA), according to pledges made by the chairperson, Yasser Arafat on May 15.

Arafat's speech was largely met with skepticism from his own people. "The reforms that are demanded from the outside by the United States and Israel will be carried out," said one politician. "The security services will be reorganized but will that bring real democracy? I don't think so."

The Palestinians' move to improve their domestic institutions, and consequently their image abroad, coincided with a week in which Israeli politics seemed to turn to the right. The central committee of the ruling right-wing Likud party of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon voted, against his wishes, to preclude any possibility of a Palestinian state "West of the Jordan River."

In both cases, the focus on domestic politics is a result of a struggle for power. Arafat is trying to defend himself against efforts from outside and within to whittle away at his personal authority. In the case of the Likud, the vote had more to do with the rivalry between Sharon and former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu than with the actual issues. According to polls the majority of Likud voters believe a Palestinian state is inevitable.

The call for a serious overhaul of the Palestinian Authority has grown louder since the end of the Israeli offensive on the West Bank, earlier this month. Sharon has even added it to his conditions for resuming negotiations with the Palestinians, telling the Knesset -- as the Israeli parliament is called -- that it was impossible to talk peace with a "dictatorial terrorist state."

The Israeli intention is clearly to sideline Arafat. While the Palestinian leader's remarks were welcomed by Israel's foreign ministry, a spokesperson for Sharon was dismissive, emphasizing that such pledges of reforms had been made before and that nothing would change "as long as Arafat is in charge."

The Americans and some Arab countries -- including Saudi Arabia and Egypt -- have urged Arafat to introduce reforms that will strengthen his ability to act against militants. They focus mainly on the security services, which should be streamlined and its many parts united. George Tenet, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, is expected in the region soon to start rebuilding the services that were shattered by the Israeli onslaught.

All these demands are a far cry from the Palestinians' own internal debate on reforms which focuses mainly on the need for more democratic control, an independent judiciary and the fight against corruption. The criticism of the PA, and the ruling clique around Arafat, has become louder since the end of the Israeli offensive in which the PA was seen as incapable of protecting its own people.

In his speech to the Palestinian Legislative Council yesterday, Arafat acknowledged this but put the blame on Israel. "Matters have been going in the wrong direction as a result of the Israeli government's attitude," he said. "Our internal situation after the recent Israeli attacks needs a comprehensive review of all aspects of our life."

Much of the criticism focused on two deals to end the crises around his headquarters in Ramallah and around the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. In the latter the PA agreed, for the first time, to the exile of 13 of its people. Arafat defended some of his aides against accusations of selling out and took full responsibility, saying that "mistakes" were sometimes made.

Arafat talked to the PLC in Ramallah and his speech was broadcast live to the PLC building in Gaza, where more than 100 delegates and officials packed the main hall. Outside demonstrators were waving the green flags of the fundamentalist Hamas movement in a march commemorating the Palestinian Naqba, or catastrophe, which is the name for the events in 1948 when Israel was founded and hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were dispossessed.

"We will never see real reforms," said Abdullah Hourani who watched Arafat's speech in the Council hall. He heads the political committee of the Palestine National Council, the highest ruling body of the PLO. "He never once mentioned the PLO, who are supposed to negotiate peace with the Israelis on behalf of the Palestinian people, not the PA."

Hourani explained that there are two visions of reforms: the one forced on the PA by the outside and the ones demanded from the inside. "The two can even contradict each other. When the outside demands tougher action against so-called militants without strengthening the legal framework, we are in trouble."

This is what happened in the late 1990's when the Americans helped strengthen the Preventive Security Service to help prevent attacks against Israel, said Hourani. The tactic provided some years of relative quiet but led to much resentment among the population over strong-arm tactics and the lack of due process.

The veteran Palestinian negotiator Dr. Haider Abdel Shafi, who became one of the fiercest critics of Arafat after the Oslo peace accords, was also critical of the PA's lack of democratic control. In his office in the Palestinian Red Crescent Society in Gaza, he said he hoped that the reforms and promised elections would lead to a "National Unity leadership."

"The lack of leadership of the intifada has meant that we are unable to control its negative aspects or to promote is positive aspects." Despite his understanding of the motivation of suicide bombings, Abdel Shafi said they were a major negative aspect because of the adverse international reactions.

Arafat called in his speech for an end to attacks on civilians but Abdel Shafi said that the only way to achieve this is to give all political groups a say in the running of the PA. "Only if they all feel that they are part of the National Authority will they abide by a majority decision to cease such operations."