It was a rare phenomenon: A Palestinian civil rights activist appeared on Israel Television and strongly condemned the mistreatment of Palestinian citizens.
What made his televised appearance noteworthy was that Bassem Id, a Palestinian who has worked for the Israeli civil rights organization B’Tselem, was not attacking the Israeli security agencies.
His barbs were directed at the security service of the Palestinian Authority, in whose prison cells a man was tortured to death.
The victim, Mahmoud Jemayel, an activist of the previously pro-Arafat Fatah Hawks, was last seen alive — and relatively well — July 26 at a prison operated by the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank town of Nablus.
Three days later, he was brought to a hospital in Jerusalem. Suffering from serious head wounds, Jemayel was in a coma. A day later he died.
Days after his death, the threat of an intifada reared its head, but the warning of an imminent Palestinian uprising was not directed at Israel, but at Yasser Arafat’s Palestinian Authority.
Along with the threat, Arafat has had to contend in recent days with massive demonstrations in two West Bank towns administered by the Palestinian Authority; Palestinian police opening fire on the protesters, causing at least two deaths; an embarrassing hunger strike launched by two prisoners in a Palestinian jail; and an even more embarrassing trial in which Palestinian security officers were convicted for the fatal brutalization of Jemayel.
Taken together, the events represent one of the most serious challenges to Arafat since the start of self-rule two years ago.
They also raise serious questions about Arafat’s ability to remain in power – – and, by extension, about the future of the peace process itself.
Long before the threat of an intifada was issued, there have been complaints from Palestinians that Arafat’s regime was undemocratic, repressive, brutal.
But Jemayel’s death was not only an indication of the brutality of the Palestinian security forces.
It was also an example of how far former supporters of Arafat have drifted away from him because of their disenchantment with the peace process.
The Fatah Hawks used to operate as pro-Arafat vigilantes in the winding alleys of the Nablus Casbah, enforcing the directives of the Palestine Liberation Organization and orchestrating the intifada against the Israelis.
But in the two years since the establishment of the Palestinian Authority, members of the Fatah Hawks — as well as other Palestinians with high hopes for self-rule — have become increasingly disenchanted with Arafat.
“The situation is particularly frustrating because the expectations were so high,” a respected Palestinian civil rights activist who preferred to remain anonymous said in an interview.
“We thought we were getting a Palestinian democracy, and yet we received another Arab authoritarian and corrupt regime.”
News of Jemayel’s death prompted a violent protest Aug. 1 in Nablus that ended with Palestinian police fatally shooting a demonstrator.
As a result, for the first time in the relatively short history of the Palestinian Authority, anti-Arafat sentiment erupted throughout the Palestinian community.
Leaders of Israel’s Arab population strongly condemned the brutality of the Palestinian security forces; Id appeared on television, demanding a thorough investigation into the matter.
Arafat tried to show that he was responding to the pressure.
A court martial was held in the West Bank town of Jericho and three Palestinian security officers were convicted in the fatal torturing of Jemayel.
Gen. Amin al-Hindi, the head of Palestinian intelligence, insisted this week that there were only rare instances of prisoners being tortured and that measures were being taken to ensure that they did not recur.
But the situation among the Palestinian population continued to deteriorate.
Last Friday, two Hamas prisoners at a prison in the West Bank town of Tulkarm were rushed to a hospital after they had been on a weeklong hunger strike.
Soon after Friday prayers, massive riots erupted in Tulkarm, where some 2,000 protesters came out to express their solidarity with the hospitalized prisoners.
The demonstrators threw stones at the police — Palestinian, not Israeli police — who responded with gunfire.
The riots ended with the death of a Palestinian father of two and the wounding of seven others.
Days after the riot, the threat of an intifada was issued.
It appeared in a leaflet issued in the name of Hamas. Not coincidentally, the Palestinian Authority had blamed armed Hamas members for the fatal shooting in the Nablus riot.
The leaflet contained a simple and direct call to arms.
“To respond to the crime of the authority in Tulkarm, our people should rise up against this collaborating authority.
“Arafat’s authority has tried — through repression of freedom, assassination, arrest campaigns and choking free opinion — to force us to accept weak agreements that are broken by the Zionists every day,” the leaflet said.
Hamas leaders in the Gaza Strip and West Bank have distanced themselves from the leaflet, but it has left a nagging question hanging over Arafat: Is he still in control?
Arafat has been caught between Israeli pressure to destroy the infrastructure of Hamas and the growing animosity directed against him by the Palestinian citizenry.
Putting more Hamas activists behind bars may mean better relations with Israel — but the situation at home worsens.
A senior Israeli intelligence source was quoted this week as saying that “more and more people support Hamas, and the status of Arafat has been eroded.”
The source did not believe that Arafat’s fall is around the corner. But, the source added, if the Palestinians are effectively controlled by forces who oppose the self-rule accords, then Israel will have no choice but to freeze the peace process.
Hamas has not yet repeated the devastating terror attacks of February and March, but experts such as Yigal Karmon, an anti-terror adviser for the previous Labor government, believe that may soon change.
Karmon said this week that Hamas’ suspension of terrorist attacks was only a temporary strategy.
Karmon expressed confidence that it was only a matter of time — in his estimate, three months — before Hamas would again resort to terror.
According to Karmon, the terrorist attacks were suspended to speed up the Israeli redeployment in the West Bank town of Hebron. Once that is achieved, he added, the terror would resume and have a new target: Jerusalem.
Israeli security officials have praised the Palestinian Authority for its attempts in recent months to suppress Hamas, but there are critics who dispute this view.
As one of several pieces of evidence, they cite Arafat’s continued failure to disarm Hamas and other militant groups.
Arafat has managed so far to maneuver between Palestinian radicals and the Israelis, but he may soon have to make a choice.
If his control is further challenged by Hamas, Arafat may have no recourse but to seek Israeli support to preserve his rule.
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