Palestinian Infighting Intensifies Ahead of Leadership Meeting

[Valin]

The Tower:

Nov. 212016

 

Clashes between gunmen and Palestinian Authority police in the West Bank have intensified in the run-up to the leadership meeting of the long-ruling Fatah party later this month, the Associated Press reported Monday.

 

One of the Fatah-aligned gunmen, Hatem Abu Riziq, spoke to the AP about his decision to participate in fierce shootouts against the Palestinian Authority, which is led by President Mahmoud Abbas. “I no longer want to fight Israel,” said Abu Riziq, who was imprisoned by Israel for seven years for aiding a suicide bombing. “I’m not willing to die for these officials who are only taking care of their families and letting us suffer.”

 

Abu Riziq’s stance on Abbas reflects popular Palestinian dissatisfaction with Fatah and the Palestine Liberation Organization, described by the AP as “organizations seen as stale and ossified.” The upcoming convention, which is set to include elections for new political leadership, “is whipping up the tensions that have sparked waves of internecine violence around the West Bank,” the AP reported.

 

About a dozen people have already been killed in the internecine violence this year.

 

At the heart of the conflict is the rivalry between Abbas and Mohammad Dahlan, a former top Fatah official in the Gaza Strip who is currently in exile in the United Arab Emirates. A Palestinian court convicted Dahlan in absentia on corruption charges in 2011 (a case that was later dismissed), but he retains influence and a following in the West Bank.

(Snip)