Palestinian Authority (PA) officials and columnists have harshly criticized Hamas for its involvement in the firing of rockets into Israel. The rockets, they say, are being fired for a number of reasons: first, there is rivalry within Hamas itself, for which the public is paying; second, Hamas Political Bureau head Khaled Mash'al, who resides in Damascus and is currently preoccupied with events in Syria, is losing his grip on Gaza and on Ahmad Al-Ja'bari, commander of the 'Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas's military wing; and third, Hamas seeks to disrupt PA President Mahmoud 'Abbas's upcoming visit to Gaza. Another criticism is that the firing of rockets may drag the region into more violence, as in the case of Operation Cast Lead.
Following are excerpts from several articles on the issue:
"We Do Not Want This Kind of Resistance, Which Harms Us and for Which We Pay a High Price"
In his March 24, 2011 column in the PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, senior PA Foreign Ministry official 'Adli Sadeq wrote: "May Allah bestow His grace upon the innocent who were killed in the criminal shelling of Gaza. May the souls of Allah's beloved, the martyred children killed by the jet fighters, rise to Heaven. May every drop of their innocent blood be a curse upon the heads of the occupiers.
"That being said, our duty to the martyred is greater than penning elegiac poetry or curses against the enemy. We do this while failing to call things by their names, and the outcome is that [Hamas's futile] rockets have not created a strategic balance, nor have they caused the occupiers pain, while the list of our losses [goes on]...
"Our duty towards this pure, spilled blood is not to take care of the funeral expenses or pay for the [mourning] meals, and not to shame the families of the murdered victims, nor to go to the photo shop to create photomontages for posters of a little boy carrying an automatic weapon bigger than he is – all of which is done by the tricksters who trade in the firing [of rockets] in order to remain in power while [disregarding the will of] the people.
"Our duty to our murdered martyrs is to warn against those who order the firing of these [futile] rockets, to focus on their earthly goals – which are not the goals of jihad – and to openly tell the truth: We do not want this kind of 'resistance,' which harms us and for which we pay a high price – while it doesn't hurt the occupiers, or kill those who are brutal and violent...
"The Palestinians who are caught in the crossfire know that this group of 'bigmouths' is not waging jihad. If they were, they would be putting their own lives on the line, and using this wonderful means to get closer to... the occupiers' [military] centers, so as to hurt them [and thus prevent them from retaliating] against our women and children..."[i]
The Palestinian Public Is Paying for Hamas's Internal Struggles
On April 10, 2011, another Al-Hayat Al-Jadida columnist, Muwaffaq Matar, wrote: "How much longer will millions of Palestinians have to pay for the Hamas military leadership's reckless risk-taking, and for the narrow-mindedness and stubbornness of [Hamas's] political leadership? Is it conceivable that the Palestinians should be crushed between the millstones of two leaderships vying for influence and control in Gaza, while the innocent residents fall victim...
"Hamas's leaders call on the world to pressure Israel to accept a tahdia [calm] and a ceasefire, while [the Hamas] army shatters that tahdia, which it itself imposed on the [other] factions in order to evade Abu Mazen's initiative [to visit Gaza]. [Hamas Prime Minister] Isma'il Haniya demands that the Arab and international media focus on what is happening in Gaza and disregard other tumultuous events in the region. But will he dare to say that Al-Ja'bari, the ['Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam Brigades] commander, who has the sheikhs and his 'fellow' politicians by the throat, cannot assess the situation, and that since the takeover of Gaza by armed coup, the pride of both the military and the politicians... has become an incurable disease? [Will Haniya acknowledge] that everyone, without exception, is sinning by shoving millions of Palestinians into the furnace of a new Hell, just so that Al-Ja'bari and his army can satisfy their desire to control and impose themselves on the wretched Gaza Strip residents? The Israeli attacks [on Gaza] provide an opportunity for [Hamas] to evade President Abu Mazen's initiative [to visit Gaza], just as the pointless [rockets fired at Israel] give Israel an opportunity to sabotage the same initiative before it even gets off the ground...
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"Israel took advantage of Hamas military commander Ahmad Al-Ja'bari's arrogance. [It also took advantage of] the loss of control over the situation in Gaza and over [Al-Ja'bari] by his superiors in Damascus – [Hamas's] Political Bureau headed by Mash'al – [the same officials who] are busy seeking refuge from the developments and changes in Syria...
"Al-Ja'bari sets Gaza ablaze while Hamas's political leader, Khaled Mash'al, defends Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad's repression of the residents of Syria."[ii]
The Firing of Rockets Only Serves Hamas's Narrow Political Interests
On March 27, 2011, columnist Hamada Fara'na wrote in the PA daily Al-Ayyam: "Hamas is acting to cool the atmosphere, after it heated up the conflict with Israel by firing rockets and mortars into its territory, being very careful not to harm a single one of its residents. The fifty mortars that Hamas launched – responsibility for which, in an unusual move, it attributed to the ['Izz Al-Din] Al-Qassam [Brigades] – constituted a message of Palestinian goals that have nothing to do with resistance to the occupation or to provocation of the crouching Israeli barbarian."
Fara'na said that the rockets had been fired as a means of quelling the youth protest against Palestinian schism by creating fear of Israeli attacks and of thwarting 'Abbas's initiative to visit Gaza in order to achieve intra-Palestinian reconciliation. He added: "Hamas speaks of resistance while begging for tahdia, since its main interest is preserving its partisan achievements in the last elections and the results of the coup [in Gaza]."[3]
In a March 25, 2011 op-ed in the PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, editor-in-chief Hafez Al-Barghouti likened the Palestinian people to a child robbed by a bully larger than he. He said: "The child here is our people, from whom the occupation plunders everything. Hamas has joined [the occupation], out of a shared interest: to rob it of its freedom, its money, and its blood, and even [its right] to bemoan the bitterness of its fate. [Hamas] thinks that... it has the divine authority to do whatever it needs to do with the people.
"The sudden launch of 49 rockets at Israel, after a silence of over three years, was nothing but a shelling of [PA] President [Abbas's] initiative to visit Gaza and end the [intra-Palestinian] schism, and of the moderate stream in Hamas. It was meant to defend the ambitions of those who profit from the siege [on Gaza] and from the schism, and of the lovers of the euro and the Iranian toman."[4]
The Firing of Rockets May Bring About another Operation Cast Lead
In his March 25, 2011 column in the PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Yahya Rabbah, former PLO ambassador to Yemen, wrote: "Grad rockets – which can reach military and civilian targets in the Negev and the southern coast, such as Ashdod, Ashkelon, etc. – are more accurate than the 'homemade' rockets, such as those called 'Al-Qassam' and 'Al-Quds'... Therefore, [these rockets] can drag the Gaza Strip into a new round of violence reminiscent of Israel's Operation Cast Lead, during the final days of 2008 and the first days of 2009, which caused extensive destruction to homes and infrastructures, heavy loss of life, and the continuation of the siege and the schism, with all of the dangerous ramifications [of this schism].
"The aim of those involved in the cycle of violence in which Grad rockets were used was to respond with live fire in opposition to the reconciliation initiative of President Abu Mazen and to likewise respond in opposition to the youth movement that stood at the front of the ranks, exceeding even the traditional opposition... in their [show of] broad support [for ending the intra-Palestinian schism]... The longer the Grad rockets continue to be fired from the Gaza Strip – with or without [Hamas's] consent – the more the violence will escalate."[5]
Hamas Officials Only Want Tahdia When They Themselves Are In Danger
On April 11, 2011, 'Adli Sadeq wrote in Al-Hayat Al-Jadida: "We are waiting for Hamas's self-criticism... Those who caused [the Israeli shelling] began asking for tahdia [only] after the despicable occupier threatened to personally harm their own precious hides... When they got this message, and felt that danger was upon them, they [suddenly] became experts on tahdia and well versed in the supreme interest of avoiding bloodshed. As usual, the occupiers, the enemies of our people, know that the [futile] rockets have not harmed [even a single] laborer [in Israel], and that their firing... did not warrant [Israel's] deadly shelling, which hurt innocent people...
"The strange thing about Hamas's rhetoric is that [even] after it asks for tahdia and intervention [to effect a ceasefire], it does not abandon its meaningless, grandiose statements... such as that the ball is now in Israel's court, or that the tahdia will be based on mutuality... as if the Hamas team has beaten and hurt the Jews in a bitter game [in which both sides] are equal. Hamas should admit its mistake, and then nobody will blame it and accuse it of [ill] will and of ignoring the facts. Our people are good, and will not demand that [Hamas] account for having used the blood of the people for internal maneuvers [within the movement], or for maneuvers it considered valuable in the intra-Palestinian debate, despite being aware of the context and the results [of these actions].
"Now Hamas says it will [remain] committed to the tahdia as long as the enemy is committed to it. The latter, for its part, is roaring and threatening, complaining and portraying itself as the suffering and injured [party], after killing some twenty Palestinians... What sort of equation has been forced upon us by the tyrannical, corrupt power that controls Gaza [i.e., Hamas], which has embittered our lives and seems unwilling to submit to anyone's [will], except that of the enemy [i.e. Israel]?"[6]
[1] Al-Hayat Al-Jadida (Palestinian Authority), March 24, 2011.
[2] Al-Hayat Al-Jadida (Palestinian Authority), April 10, 2011.
[3] Al-Ayyam (Palestinian Authority), March 27, 2011.
[4] Al-Hayat Al-Jadida (Palestinian Authority), March 25, 2011.
[5] Al-Hayat Al-Jadida (Palestinian Authority), March 25, 2011.
[6] Al-Hayat Al-Jadida (Palestinian Authority), April 11, 2011.
