I just got back from a couple hours of reporting at Abbas’ presidential compound and Mohammad Dahlan’s house. Dahlan’s house was utterly trashed. It was the most thorough looting I have ever seen.
Hamas militants mug victoriously for photos at what had been Abbas’ desk.
By the time we got there all the furniture, including the toilets and bathtubs were long gone and swarms of Palestinians, young and old, were digging into the house’s infrastructure, ripping out electrical wiring from the walls, tearing out ceramic tiles from the bathroom, and ripping up the marble flooring. They were hammering out door frames, pulling wooden slats off the roof, carting out handfuls of spanish roofing tiles, and digging up the garden plants. Looters were uprooting 25 foot tall palm trees.
The boy digging up the tree paused and turned to us. “He lives like a king, and we have nothing to eat,” he said, before returning to his work.
In a children’s room, painted with lavender waves, a children’s story book titled “The Paper Princess” lay on the floor. An inscription inside the front cover was made out to Hadeel. Hadeel (I don’t know who she is) also had a tattered English test graded 97% lying on the floor.
When we left the roof was on fire. The Chalets, a beachside resort owned by a notoriously corrupt Fatah leader, on the northern fringe of Abbas’ presidential compound, was also enduring a thorough thrashing and engulfed in flames.
At the fallen security compounds, Palestinians gathered around to curiously see Hamas’ new power. A 14 year old boy was banging down a Fatah flag hanging on an electrical pole.
Fatah is in hell. They’ve fled to Israel. Fatah are cowards,” he said. “I will tear up this flag. We hate them because they are collaborators with the Jews.”
Another looter told me that he had been at the Preventative Security headquarters earlier. “I saw dozens of the latest model cars and mercedes, while the people have nothing.”
At Abbas’ house a Hamas flag flew, but militants stood guard. The house seemed perfectly in tact. No one, not even Hamas, had entered Abbas’ home, the Hamas guards assured us.
Hamas militants pretend they’re statesmen with a playful phone call.
At Abbas’ compound, which surrendered without a fight last night, it was more hectic. Hamas youth were climbing about the abandoned APCs inspecting their spoils. Hamas was controlling entry to the office building itself, but they let us in. There was limited looting. Broken porcelain china lay on the floor of a dining room. In one office half fulled coffee mugs still sat on the desk. In Abbas’ spacious office, a masked militant hoisted his AK47 above what had been the president’s luxurious mahogany desk and proclaimed a victory for Islam.
An Islamic Jihad militant milling about the compound had a surprisingly nuanced take on things. He said it’s good that the corrupt Fatah is gone, but bad that Palestinians now have a one-party state in Gaza, even if it is an Islamic party.
In the Square of the Unknown Soldier now as I write this, just outside the Palestinian parliament and directlly below our 14th floor perch there is a massive Hamas victory rally assembling. Jubilant Islamic victory songs blare through loudspeakers. Rifles are firing skyward in celebration as a sea of green flags descends on the square from eastern Gaza, a line of approaching Hamas supporters as far as the eye can see. Hundreds of women dressed uniformly in Hamas garb, the black abaya and white head scarf, have assembled at the front of the rally at the Parliament’s front steps.
Despite alarmed phone calls from editors and loved ones, we feel quite safe and secure now. Compared to the past week things now feel blissfully peaceful. It seems many who write me think we should fear Hamas now that it is in control, but the reality is that the big threat to foreigners and journalists down here is not and never was Hamas. It’s criminal gangs, and far more sinister Islamic radicals who are exploited by the criminal gangs. The consensus is that now, with Hamas newly installed as the kings of Gaza, those criminal elements are going to lie low for the time being, adopting a wait and see attitude to Hamas.
It is of course widely expected, or at least hoped, that Hamas will finally crackdown on the lawlessness and anarchy that has ravaged Gaza for the past 18 months. If Hamas can indeed pull that off their popularity here will skyrocket and they will be forgiven almost any other transgression.
UPDATE: I think I got a bit carried away with “sea of green flags as far as the eye can see.” Truth is, now that they appear to be all assembled, it’s actually a quite modest turnout — maybe 5,000 plus is our best guess.
18 responses so far ↓
1 Jany // Jun 15, 2007 at 12:15 pm
I wonder about two things:
Why these Hamas-fighters are wearing mask? As “winners” they should be proud and show their identities, no ? Or aren’ t they not so proud of it after all?!
Another thing is that now, that Hamas has “won”, and that Fatah property has been looted, Hamas will have to give something to people ( to eat, living, salaries ) in order to proove that they are more capable than Fatah. I presume that this will be a huge if not impossible task…
2 Ben // Jun 15, 2007 at 12:44 pm
I guess masks may be useful, amongst other things, to avoid Israel’s targeted killings.
3 BusyBody! // Jun 15, 2007 at 12:51 pm
How naive you are!
Yes, you are “safe” with Hamas
As long as you report only good things about them and bad things about the JEWS
As long as you remain the USEFUL IDIOT or they get tired of you!
The BBC guy kissed TERROR ASS and is still captive!
4 mister mister // Jun 15, 2007 at 1:36 pm
hey - be easy on the guy. he’s reporting FROM gaza, so he sure as hell ain’t going to write anything disparaging about Hamas.
looks like he’s trying to stay factual - and i’m glad for this blog. its very informative.
regarding the masks - i was wondering about that too.
could it be a religious thing or custom? maybe?
5 lisoosh // Jun 15, 2007 at 1:50 pm
Keep up the excellent up to the minute reporting.
Funny to think of an elected government staging a coup.
6 Jonathan Edelstein // Jun 15, 2007 at 6:10 pm
Funny to think of an elected government staging a coup.
Ever heard of a chap called Fujimori?
It isn’t unknown for elected governments that have limited power (whether limited by a constitution or a rival faction) to take steps to seize total power. The Latin Americans have a word for it: “autogolpe.”
7 daveinboca // Jun 15, 2007 at 6:17 pm
Anyone who watched the BBC last night saw Hamas gunmen emptying their AK-47s and other automatic weapons into the air without a thought in their monkey brains about where the bullets would come down. The primitive savagery of the Arabs can’t think beyond their testoserone to the fact that 2 million lost souls live in the garbage dump that is Gaza, and some will get hit by said bullets. Happens all the time, but the BBC and Guardian never report where the bullets come down.
And a brain-dead bimbo Arab reporter in Beirut called the assassination of a Sunni judge “daring” as though killing someone and ten bystanders in an amusement park was an act of bravery. This bi-yotch with a mike then said that the Shi’ites and their allies were “chipping away” at the anti-Syrian majority in Lebanese parliament, as if seven murders in the last two years was some sort of parliamentary tactic.
I lived in the Middle East for almost a decade, speak and read Arabic, and there is little if anything more to hope from this savage medieval relic of a “civilization” that purports to be founded on a “religion of peace.” My lyin’ eyes just can’t see the peace that blowing up Sunni and Shi’ite places of worship in progressive acts of retaliation fits into the term “civilization.”
And any female Arab bimbo who describes a car-bomb murder in an amusement park as “daring” should be fired immediately. And “chipping away” is not a term literate people use for political murders.
8 BusyBody! // Jun 15, 2007 at 8:39 pm
MISTER
You are in effect saying this guy cant tell the truth for fear of his life
RIGHT?
9 K T Cat // Jun 17, 2007 at 2:49 pm
Two thoughts came to mind as I read this outstanding blog post.
1 - When you loot a place you are reducing the overall wealth of the nation. That is, you have squandered the labor resources it took to assemble the raw materials into that structure in exchange for making off with the now-damaged raw materials.
2 - How did Fatah manage to have such nice things in such a hell hole? The accusations of corruptions seem to ring true.
One last thought. Given the waving of guns and shooting of expensive ammunition while living in squalor, I still think Gaza is just one, giant mental institution.
10 J-Ro // Jun 18, 2007 at 4:35 am
Fascinating! The world needs more accounts like this, to give a counter-balence to the news we read in the mainstream media. Thank you.
11 anotherDave // Jun 18, 2007 at 3:53 pm
I spent some time in Riyahd where the Lebanese were the only worthwhile employees other than the gringoes and euros. The Saudi’s did not want any part of the Palestinians - they were (believe it or not) considered thieves and lazy.
The Saudi’s only seemed to want to drive the rich Saudi’s around and keeping anything working was a chore that required outside help.
The hospitals were kept busy with failed cliterectomies while the dishes were rinsed in a mop sink.
The world of Gaza sounds like nothing has changed in 20 years. Yep, the main stream media continues to speak about that area as equals. I can’t wait for the natives of Dearbornistan to start firing rifles into the air to celebrate the 4th of July.
12 diana // Jun 18, 2007 at 4:22 pm
I remember reading some old, old book about Gaza, written by some old, old, lady British reporter. Unfortunately, I can’t remember the name of the book, or the reporter. But I do remember one sentence. She wrote, “Gaza is a prison.”
The book was published in 1965.
13 Israel, Hamaza, and the Fatah Bank: A Three State Solution? — The Seminal :: Independent Media and Politics // Jun 19, 2007 at 3:31 am
[…] put in power because Fatah is widely seen as corrupt and out of touch with the common Palestinian. As Gaza looters point out, “I saw dozens of the latest model cars and Mercedes [in Fatah compounds], while the people […]
14 Hamas’ Victory in Gaza « Report on Positivity // Jun 19, 2007 at 4:17 pm
[…] by Nima Maleki on June 19th, 2007 Below is an excerpt from a post by Charles Levinson, at Conflict […]
15 Duncan McFarlane // Jun 26, 2007 at 9:57 pm
Thank you Charles for giving us another perspective on what’s going on in Gaza and the West Bank - and one that seems a lot more realistic than the official story.
BusyBody - I take it you’re referring to the kidnapped BBC reporter Alan Johnston.
He is in fact being held by a family of smugglers who are in a feud with Hamas - not by Hamas, who are trying to get him freed.
No doubt you believe all Palestinians are by definition “terrorists” though in accordance with Israeli government racist propaganda , by which logic all Israelis would also be war criminals as their government and military are certainly full of war criminals. ( i don’t believe either statement is true - civilians are civilians - when you deliberately target civilians or use artillery, tanks and planes on entire refugee camps and towns thats terrorism or a war crime)
What strikes me most about most of the posts above is the level of sheer racism against Palestinians and Arabs in general - the other kind of anti-semitism (as Arabs are a semitic people too).
anotherDave - if your post has any point it seems to be your view that Palestinians are an inferior race. You also mention how unpleasant Riyadh and the Saudis are. The corrupt Saudi monarchy are of course allies of and kept in power by the British, American and Israeli governments.
Hamas and Islamic Jihad have “alien thought processes” ? Is their Islamic nationalism that different from too many Israeli’s extreme Jewish nationalism which sees Palestinian land as theirs by divine right - and believe they have the right to kill or force out Palestinians on the same basis?
Would Israelis or Europeans or Yemenis or anyone else have moderate politics if they were under constant economic sanctions and constant military attack? Would their economies function? Unlikely.
In the UK towns in the North of England like Burnley that ended up with 20% unemployment rates ended up electing racist British Nationalist Party councillors. Palestinians have suffered a lot worse than that - no wonder their politics has become extreme considering how extreme Israeli actions towards them are.
The comparison of Hamas and Islamic Jihad to the Nazis is pretty much routine among the Israel lobby. Before them Arafat was meant to be Hitler.
The only real similarity is that Palestinians support for Hamas and IJ are the result of decades of military occupation by another country’s forces , much as the French occupation of the Rhur and the mass poverty caused by excessive reparations for World War One helped Hitler into power.
Other than that the Israelis are behaving more like the Germans in World War Two than the French - and have been for decades. Israelis don’t put Palestinians into gas chambers - so a better comparison would be the Bosnian Serbs backed by Milosevic for a ‘greater Serbia’ ethnically cleansing Bosnia of Muslims. Like the Israeli government they did this in slow motion, a little at a time, a massacre here , a massacre there, some generalised bombardment , snipers shooting civilians (including children), sieges of towns and starvation as a weapon. Unlike the Bosnian Serbs the Israeli government has the US as an ally though so it has no real fear of military intervention and can continue the slow motion genocide until people in Europe , the US and Israel wake up and demand an end to it (though so some of them arent even demanding an end to their own occupation of Iraq)
The only reason Israelis can appear “modern” and “progressive” is that they have by far the stronger military and are heavily subsidised and armed by the US.
16 Duncan McFarlane // Jun 26, 2007 at 10:19 pm
P.S I’m being far too certain in claiming the Daghmash clan are holding Alan Johnston on the basis of one article - i’ll paste in what i wrote as a reply to another post as its on the same topic.
I don’t say you’re definitely wrong because it’s hard to know the truth in these situations. I read one article in the Observer though saying the Daghmash clan are holding him as part of a feud with Hamas over a Hamas gunman killing one of their relatives.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,329771713-119093,00.html
On the other hand the kidnappers’ last demands were to have Muslim prisoners around the world released on behalf of the “Army of Islam”
http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/06/24/bbcreporter.video/index.html
However why would Hamas ask for non-Palestinian prisoners to be released?
That doesnt make sense.
It seems to me that this may be an attempt by Hamas’ enemies (Fatah? Mossad? the Daghmash clan? or a combination of them?) to link targeting Hamas to the American and British ‘war on terror’.
Either that or Hamas are very stupid (and i dont think they’re that stupid though its possible)
there are lots of possibilities - it could be a very stupid move by Hamas or (i think more likely) an attempt by Hamas’ enemies to embarrass Hamas or link them to the war on terror.
17 AnferTuto // Jul 31, 2007 at 3:48 pm
Hola mardena!
falikotrepat
18 MalkEvange // Aug 6, 2007 at 8:14 pm
Interesting article!
Where can I find more on this theme?
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