Den palæstinensiske “præsident” Mahmoud Abbas eller Abu Mazen har efterhånden udviklet sig til en helt åbenlys kollaboratør og håndlanger for Israel.
Han har egenhændigt udvidet sin præsidentperiode med et år, selvom den egentlig skulle være endt allerede nu. Reelt sidder han alene på Israels og USAs nåde og barmhjertighed, holdt ved magten bl.a. af en personlig “livgarde” i form af en sikkerhedsstyrke, der er uddannet i Jordan for Bush-regeringens penge.
Mohammad fra KABOBfest bor i Ramallah og sender denne øjenvidneberetning om det palæstinensiske “selvstyres” fremfærd mod en fredelig demonstration:
I was hoping that today the PA, in light of the continuing atrocity, would be a bit more understanding of the people’s needs to express their solidarity with their own brethren in the beleaguered Strip. As ever, Mahmoud Abbas and his thugs disappointed me. And today they seemed intent on putting the boot in.
I left the house after Friday prayers with my mom, walking past Mahmoud Abbas’ headquarters, the Muqata’a. The streets were filled, as they were last Friday, with hundreds of Presidential Guards, the Jordanian-trained, American funded security force of the PA (whom are repeatedly told during training that ‘you are not here to fight the occupation’. They were clad in body armor, black tops, black helmets, balaclavas, fatigues, automatic weapons and batons. As I walked past, I thought of how pathetic these men were, heavily armed and armored, tasked with policing non-violent citizens, while in Gaza the men of the resistance were standing their ground against Israeli tanks, artillery, war planes, helicopters, warships and special forces. That observation is not lost on the vast majority of Palestinians, no matter their political affiliation.
[A group of] women were chanting slogans supporting Hamas. They weren’t attacking anybody else, just supporting the group currently bearing the brunt of the fight against the Zionist oppressors. The security forces in Ramallah, however, rely on security collaboration with the Israeli occupation for their salaries. They forced the women onto the narrow sidewalk, barricading them on all sides. I found a former classmate from university watching from the side. He confirmed that they women were being pinned back by the police. I sarcastically exclaimed that they must be a huge security threat to the state. He told me, in English, to keep silent, and gestured around him. All around us, we could see security men in plainclothes, talking over radios or into microphones embedded into their jacket collars. They were reporting the approximate number of demonstrators and what the women were saying.
Suddenly, a huge open-bed truck rolled down the market street from Manara Square. It was full of young men, holding high flags and posters. Many jaws dropped open as the truck moved closer. The flags being waved at the front were Fatah, Palestinian and Egyptian flags.
Egyptian flags? Were they showing their solidarity with Hosni Mubarak, who had ordered the Rafah crossing closed as the Gaza Strip was turned into a death camp? The Egyptian government is extremely unpopular here for the way it has treated Gazans and its open collusion with Israel. The truck’s presence seemed to indicate something dark was about to happen. And it did.
The men, about 100 of them, dropped down from the truck, holding up pictures of Mahmoud Abbas and posters of a quote he made last week in his pathetic address to the people of the Gaza Strip: ‘Our blood and your blood is one’. They moved straight towards the women trapped on the corner and began screaming “With our souls, with our blood, we will sacrifice for you, Abu Mazen!”
It was a deliberate provocation. The men had the right to chant what they wanted, but everybody knew they were trying to provoke the women, especially since Abbas had done absolutely nothing to stop the slaughter, and in fact had blamed it on the victims. It wasn’t just the Hamas women they were provoking.
They moved right up to the women, bypassing the police and hurling the vilest insults. I noticed they were all holding clubs, sticks and batons. Without warning, they brought them all to use. About ten of the men began attacking the 50 year old man who was leading the chants with the women. It was savage. With several other concerned bystanders, I ran to stand between them and the man, but they had, for absolutely no reason, turned vicious, hitting us to get to the man. We managed to hold them off for a few seconds, just so he could escape, but as he did one of the thugs blindsided him with a blow to the forehead. The man staggered forward, blood streaming from a gash in his head. Someone was screaming that the cameras should be recording this. It was true. Manara Square was full of TV cameras, but none had bothered to record the vicious beating.
Der er mere – meget mere. Abbas’ præsidentperiode udløb i går, men han har som sagt og i strid med loven forlænget den et helt år; reelt et kup, understøttet og accepteret af hans herrer i Tel Aviv og Washington. Han er en diktator, der beskytter besættelsesmagten mod upassende fredelige demonstrationer, mod til gengæld at bevare sin egen magt og den gennemkorrupte Fatah-bevægelses privilegier.
Og for hans folk? Israel synes ikke indstillet på at gengælde Abbas’ imødekommenhed med nogen som helst form for indrømmelser eller mildning af besættelsens vilkår. I stedet må de almindelige palæstinensere leve videre, undertrykt af en morderisk besættelsesmagt på den ene side og en forræderisk diktator på den anden. Tragedien er sandelig komplet, og med Rune Engelbreths ord er der meget lidt grund til optimisme.