A Hamas 'Coup'?

Big news in the Occupied Territories over the last few days. Hamas guerrillas have taken Gaza with relative ease, overrunning Fatah's security outposts in the region. President Mahmoud Abbas, the head of the Palestinian Authority and of the Fatah party, has, predictably, responded by calling Hamas militants names, like 'criminals' or 'outlaws', and has accused Hamas of attempting a 'bloody coup'. He would appear to be half-right - it was bloody.

But logic of Abbas's claim that Hamas's actions amount to a 'coup' is baffling. In 2006, Hamas was democratically elected to the legislative council, winning a parliamentary majority over the corruption-wracked 'old guard' of Fatah. Hamas was seen as a relatively non-corrupt alternative, with strong grassroots social programs (especially in Gaza) filling the void left by Fatah's decades of misrule. Their election had little to do with Palestinians being in ideological agreement, and much more to do with a wholly legitimate dissatisfaction with Fatah. This, of course, was followed immediately by the crippling sanctions applied to the Occupied Territories by Western states and the EU, in what can only be described as a devastating decision to collectively punish the Palestinian people for exercising their right to vote.

Let's take a look back at some of Fatah's past dealings. During the January 2006 elections, the Fatah campaign received $2 million in U.S. dollars. Throughout the year, Abbas continued to accept money from the U.S. under the premise of 'democracy building'. Obviously, Hamas did not have the luxury of receiving a massive financial boost to either run its election campaign or to help 'build democracy'. Condoleezza Rice helped confirm U.S. support for Fatah when in September she proposed 'creative means' to bolster Abbas, in order to help create a so-called 'alliance of moderates' across the Middle East. This meant $42 million to throw dirt all over Hamas, to better train and equip Abbas's Presidential Guard, and to act as an "incentive to them [Fatah]... to get their act together". The U.S. funding of Fatah's military apparatus steadily continued well into the factional violence ($59 million in mid-February), with the prospect of Gaza descending into civil war looking more and more plausible each day. The cover of 'democracy building' has been cast off - a more accurate be description would be 'direct military aid'.

Note the apparent correlation between an increase armed conflict in Gaza, and the increase in U.S. involvement with Abbas and Fatah.

And then there's this guy. Mohammad Dahlan, a Fatah loyalist born in Gaza with contacts in the U.S., Israeli, and Egyptian authorities, was appointed in March, by Abbas, to the head of the Palestinian National Security Council. TIME journalist Tony Karon explains that Dahlan resisted the move towards the Mecca Agreement's unity government, and refused the opportunity to integrate the Hamas fighters into the PA security forces under a politically neutral interior minister, personally ordering Fatah militants to take to the streets. According to Dahlan, Hamas,

"... will have to suffer yet more until they are damned to the seventh ancestor. I will haunt them from now till the end of their term in four years. And I swear, whoever within Fatah says 'we should join the government,' I will humiliate them."

Considering Dahlan's history with Hamas (and, may I add, torture. See here and here for more), and his massive clout within the PA security apparatus, it would appear that no better candidate could be chosen for the effort to undermine democracy in the Occupied Territories. He fits perfectly into the category of what might be called 'our moderates'.

More now - a document titled the 'Action Plan for the Palestinian Presidency', revealed on April 30th (over two months after the Mecca Agreement's unity government was agreed upon), details a 'U.S. plan to sink Hamas'. Mark Perry and Paul Woodward of the Asia Times report that,

The plan envisages delivering “a strong blow to Hamas by supplying the Palestinian people with their immediate economic needs through the presidency and Fatah”. At the same time, the international boycott of Hamas would stay in place and Hamas-affiliated programs would be starved of funds.

Indeed. While Hamas-affiliated programs are being starved of funds, and the international boycott continues and is exploited by Fatah for political gain, ordinary Palestinians have been, quite literally, starving to death.

Perry and Woodward continue:

The plan re-emphasizes the US commitment to building Abbas’ security service, a program now funded by some US$59 million in direct congressionally approved security assistance. The money “will deter Hamas or any other faction from any attempt at escalation, as long as the security control of the Palestinian Authority and Fatah is on a firm basis”

...The plan’s components envisage that Israelis and Palestinians will engage in a coordinated series of actions that will expand PA security control to all sectors of Gaza and the West Bank. Mohammad Dahlan, the newly named head of Abbas’ National Security Council, will be charged with drawing up and implementing a security plan that will ensure this.

Dahlan's name is dropped several times throughout the article. In any case, it appears as though the general scheme of this plan has been more or less ongoing throughout the Hamas-Fatah negotiations. Its being revealed makes the Mecca Agreement look farcical.

As if this were not enough, there is veteran neo-conservative and U.S. Deputy National Security Adviser (who helped fund terror in Nicaragua during the Reagan era) Elliot Abrams' suggestion last January (immediately after the Hamas electoral victory) of what he called a 'hard coup' against the Hamas government. Conflicts Forum reports that,

Abrams was adamant — the U.S. had to support Fatah with guns, ammunition and training, so that they could fight Hamas for control of the Palestinian government.

...the “hard coup” talk was hardly just talk. Over the last twelve months, the United States has supplied guns, ammunition and training to Palestinian Fatah activists to take on Hamas in the streets of Gaza and the West Bank. A large number of Fatah activists have been trained and “graduated” from two camps — one in Ramallah and one in Jericho.... While the program has gone largely without notice in the American press, it is openly talked about and commented on in the Arab media — and in Israel... Thousands of rifles and bullets have been poring into Gaza and the West Bank from Egypt and Jordan, the administration’s designated allies in the program...

...The recipients of U.S. largesse have been Palestinian President Abu Mazen and Mohammad Dahlan...

The language is curious, is it not? 'Coup'? Where have we heard this before? Ah, yes... "In a statement Mr. Abbas - the Fatah leader - said some Hamas figures were "planning a coup against some legitimate [Palestinian] institutions". Sorry Abu Mazen, the game's over. Obviously, it would only be possible for Hamas to launch a coup if it were not in power. Unfortunately for Fatah, Hamas won the ability to exercise power through a democratic mandate - which means that either the uprising in Gaza was not a coup or that Abbas's statement was an admission that, de facto, Fatah never truly relinquished power. Much evidence points towards the latter.

The great irony of Abbas's statement is that, in fact, Fatah's own actions, as a minority party with more or less direct control over the security forces, look much more like a 'coup' (a foreign-backed one, no less) than anything Hamas has attempted. Abbas has since sacked the unity government and declared a state of emergency allowing him to rule by decree, appointing a new Prime Minister ("the new government would receive the backing of Washington"). New elections have also been promised, for some reason - what Fatah hopes to accomplish by holding another vote cannot be fathomed. Gwynn Dyer comments (in a misleadingly sub-titled article...) that despite the promise, "Hamas would win again if they [elections] were ever held, so they probably won't be". No doubt a seemingly accurate foretelling based on the assessment of the current situation. Meanwhile, the ex-PM of the unity government, Hamas's Ismail Haniyeh, has called Abbas's actions 'hasty' and has signalled his willingness to negotiate. Abbas will have none of it. This comes as no surprise, as he's been having none of it since Fatah was - theoretically - democratically removed from power in January of 2006.

Abbas's choice of words has fallen miles short of the truth. For Fatah's leadership to call the Hamas takeover a 'coup' is a vast hypocrisy. The Hamas takeover was not a 'bloody coup' - it was bloody justice. And it's a damn shame that it had to be.

And now, a picture to sum up the events of the last few days:

"'Hello, Rice?' the gunman said. 'Here we are in Abu Mazen's office. Say hello to Abu Mazen for me.'"







For a great post-Mecca Agreement report that deals with everything from the effects of the international sanctions, to the issue of security force integration, see International Crisis Group's report 'After Mecca: Engaging Hamas', written on February 28th of this year.

Here is a detailed report by the British House of Commons International Development Committee on the devastating effects of the sanctions placed on the Occupied Territories since the election of Hamas.