Enter Al-Qaeda

The Western embargo of the Palestinian government is bolstering extremist
organisations in the occupied territories, reports Khaled Amayreh in East
Jerusalem
For sometime, Palestinian Islamic and nationalist leaders have been warning
that the Israeli, American and European economic embargo against the
democratically-elected Palestinian government, including the recently formed
broad-based government of national unity, is driving Palestinian society
towards extremism.

This week, the credibility of these warnings was vindicated when a group
believed to be affiliated with Al-Qaeda, or at least espousing its ideology,
attacked a school celebration in Rafah, in the southern edge of the Gaza
Strip, killing one person and injuring five others.

The attackers didn't target the school children or their teachers, but
rather the organisers and police, killing the bodyguard of a local Fatah
leader.

The group had earlier publicly warned the school, run by the UN, against
holding the event, on the grounds that the celebration involved the "mixing
of adolescent boys and girls which is forbidden in Islam".

School and other local officials apparently didn't take the warnings
seriously, and didn't implement the necessary security precautions to
prevent any possible attack, thinking that the Salafis (ultra- orthodox
Sunni Muslims) wouldn't actually carry out the attack.

The attack was condemned throughout the occupied Palestinian territories as
a totally unjustified crime.

Hamas called the attackers "misguided" people who "lightly and easily spill
the blood of Palestinians". Fatah called the perpetrators "representatives
of dark forces" and "murderers".

The attack in Rafah, along with other recent sporadic incidents, including
the yet-to-be-resolved kidnapping of BBC Gaza correspondent Alan Johnston,
are being seen as ominous signs for the future.

Unlike Hamas, which in comparison looks like a group of boy scouts,
Al-Qaeda-allied groups don't seek, or care, about popularity, and their
actions are not influenced by public opinion.

This means that they are willing to proceed with their agenda and carry out
whatever goals are set for them regardless of how they are perceived by
society.

It is difficult to ascertain the numerical strength of the Salafis,
especially those who are militant, in the occupied territories.

However, it is well known that they are concentrated in the Gaza Strip and
are spreading to the West Bank as well.

There is no doubt that one of the chief reasons for their dramatic
appearance is the "failure of democracy" in Palestinian society, mainly due
to the Western rejection of the outcome of the 2006 elections that brought
Hamas to power.

From the very beginning, the Salafis had sought to convince Hamas to refrain
from taking part in the elections, arguing that the West, especially
America, was not sincere about the issue of democracy and that Western
powers were only using the issue to weaken Islam and serve their own
imperialistic interests.

And when the US, Israel, the EU and most Arab regimes imposed an
exceptionally harsh economic, financial and political blockade on the
Hamas-led Palestinian government, which pushed the bulk of Palestinian
society on to the brink of poverty, the Salafis and others, like Hizb
Al-Tahrir, confronted erstwhile proponents of Hamas's participation in
elections, telling them "didn't we tell you so?"

It is thus widely presumed that many, if not most, of those joining the
ranks of Al-Qaeda, particularly in the Gaza Strip, are actually former Hamas
supporters and members who have come to the conclusion that the West's real
purpose is to destroy Islam, not to promote democracy, and that the only way
to stop this is through Jihad.

The current refusal of the West, including the EU, to lift the embargo on
the government of national unity is enforcing and probably vindicating such
convictions among many Palestinians (and obviously among many other Arabs in
neighbouring countries), thus facilitating the recruitment of more and more
converts to Al-Qaeda's cause.

The growth of similar organisations in the occupied Palestinian territories,
and possibly among Palestinians in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria as well, will
have serious ramifications on the Palestinian cause itself, given the nearly
nihilistic approach adopted by these people.

Indeed, Al-Qaeda believes in an existential confrontation until the very
end, with the enemy. It regards the latter as being, not only the US and
Israel, but any group or government or people that hamper the attainment of
its goals. In this light, the list of potential enemies of Al-Qaeda includes
Hamas and Islamic Jihad, as well as the Muslim Brotherhood, who reject many
aspects of Al-Qaeda's ideology.

Hence, it is feared that the emergence of Al-Qaeda or similar groups as
significant political players in the Palestinian arena could redefine the
entire Palestinian struggle for freedom from the Israeli occupation.

Moreover, it is an almost foregone conclusion that Israel stands to benefit
from the strengthening of Al-Qaeda amongst Palestinians, especially in the
short run, as it will enable Israel to claim that it has a common cause with
the West in combating "Islamic terror", thus obtaining an additional excuse
to consolidate its occupation and theft of Palestinian land.

As mentioned earlier, the growth of Al-Qaeda in Palestine will expectedly be
at the expense of such Islamic movements as Hamas, a comparatively moderate
movement that is open to compromise.

Hence, it is likely that Hamas will undertake a campaign to educate
Palestinians against the dangers of Al-Qaeda's nihilistic ideology,
especially following the recent acrimonious exchanges between itself and
Al-Qaeda's second in command, Ayman El-Zawahri. He castigated Hamas for
signing the Mecca Agreement with Fatah on 8 February, which he called a
"sellout".

In fact, Hamas-affiliated Muslim scholars are already engaging some Salafi
activists, trying to convince them that their way of thinking is not
compatible with authentic Islam.

Earlier this week, a number of Muslim religious scholars sought to convince
the purported kidnappers of BBC journalist Johnston that taking him captive
was incompatible with the rule of Sharia, or Islamic law, since Johnston was
a "Mustaaman " or a non-Muslim, a member of Ahl Al-Ketab (People of the
Book) who came to Gaza, not as a fighter, but as a journalist to communicate
Palestinian suffering to the outside world. And he did so with the
permission of the Palestinian Authority. Hence, his abduction was immoral
and therefore unlawful from the Islamic view point.

The kidnappers reportedly argued that Britain, like the US and Israel, was
in a state of war with Muslims, citing the Anglo-American occupation of
Iraq, and that this justified the kidnapping of Johnston as a British
citizen.

The Hamas-affiliated scholars retorted that things have changed
historically, since the days when all citizens and denizens of a country
would follow their king. They argued that many Britons were against the
occupation of Iraq and had already forced their Prime Minister Tony Blair to
resign.

Earlier, it was reported that the kidnappers demanded $5 million from the
British government, in addition to the release by the Jordanian authorities
of a would-be female Iraqi suicide bomber. However, these demands were
dismissed as "speculations" by Ahmed Youssef, the political adviser to
Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh.

Youssef said that he believed Johnston would be released in a few days, or a
few weeks, at the maximum.

In any case, what is abundantly clear is that the betrayal by the West of
the Palestinians, and the continuation of the blockade on the Palestinian
government is driving many Palestinians towards Al-Qaeda.

This should be taken as a serious warning of things to come, if the present
trend continues, and if American, Israeli and European policies continue to
nourish the root causes of extremism and terrorism in the Middle East by
narrowing Palestinian horizons and effectively giving Israel a carte blanche
to finish its goal of dispossession, at the expense of the Palestinian
people.

C a p t i o n : Palestinian protesters look down at Israeli soldiers
patrolling the Apartheid Wall built by Israel at the West Bank village of
Bilin. Every week, Palestinians gather to protest against the barrier built
on their farmland

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