WHAT THE ISRAELIS ARE REALLY UP TO

MER - 4/29:
For some time MER has pointed out that the real Israeli policies have more to do with ongoing Palestinian subjugation, a peculiar form of Israeli Apartheid, and fomenting civil war between Palestinian factions, then with "allowing" an independent Palestinian State. When the PLO was strong, Israel allowed Hamas to grow and take root. When Hamas got too strong Arafat and the "PA" were brought in to do the policing, the repressing, and the torturing; a kind of sub-occupying force with the Israeli army never more than a road-block away. These excerpts are from a recent article by Graham Usher writing  from Jerusalem and published in the Egyptian English weekly, Al-Ahram.

As for the killing of Mohieddin Al-Sharif, The Engineer II; as the excellent article by Professor Tanya Reinhart recently published by MER pointed out, the evidence points to Arafat's own "police" -- assisted of course by both the Israelis and the CIA whom they now work exceedingly closely with on matters involving "security".

"A PALESTINIAN CIVIL WAR?"

BY GRAHAM USHER

[Heading:] An independent inquiry into the killing of Hamas military leader, Mohieddin Al-Sharif, maybe the only way to stave-off a devastating inter-Palestinian confrontation. Graham Usher writes from Jerusalem.

Two weeks after Hamas military leader Mohieddin Al-Sharif was found dead beside a wrecked car in Ramallah, the political tremors caused by his death have yet to subside. But the contesting claims over who and what killed him have changed. If the initial stand-off was between the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Israel -- which denied any involvement in Al-Sharif's death and warned that the PA would be responsible if any "terrorist action" resulted from it -- the locus of the conflict is now between the PA and Hamas. For most Palestinians, this is a far worse confrontation.

...The PA's account of Al-Sharif's death satisfied Israeli leaders like Defense Minister Yitzhak Mordechai, who said it showed that the PA was beginning to "understand more clearly the terrorist infrastructure and the weapons" that exist in the self-rule areas.  But the PA's spin on the events infuriated Hamas.

"The PA's conclusions are not convincing to anyone in the Palestinian public and certainly not to the Hamas leadership," said Hamas's Gaza political spokesperson Aziz Rantisi. "Hamas cannot take seriously a confession extracted from a suspect after extended interrogation," he said, implying that Adassi's testimony had been culled by torture.

...Addressing a special session of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), PA Presidential Secretary Tayeb Abdel-Rehim told reporters that "some people are trying to make it seem like the Palestinian people are on the verge of civil war. This has no basis in fact." But, he added, the PA "will not allow any internal power to practice a parallel authority or take the law into its own hands."

... The PA has so far allowed no independent corroboration of its version of Al-Sharif's death, other than to allow the PLC member, Hatem Abdel-Qader, to meet with Adassi for a few minutes on Friday. {Adassi testified Al-Sharif's death was the result of an internal Hamas feud.} Abdel Qader said he saw no evidence of torture against Adassi and that the latter had told him he had confessed "without threat of force". Even so, Abdel-Qader called for an "independent investigation committee" to be set up.

...Arafat has yet to ... make any statement about the Al-Sharif affair. But, if tensions are to be eased between the PA and Hamas, Arafat's intervention is vital. Having thrown the "ball into Hamas's court" by declaring that it was responsible for Al-Sharif's death, Arafat must now decide what kind of peace the PA will make with its Islamist opposition.

*From Egyptian English weekly Al-Ahram Weekly 16-22 April 1998

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