Palestinians May Be Catching On That Syria Is Using Them

The New York Times notes that Israel Disputes Syria’s Account of Sunday Border Clashes, but the article goes one step further.

It notes that the Arab reaction to Sunday's Naksa was rather muted--and gives a reason why:

In a rare convergence of Israeli and Palestinian sentiment, that sense of exploitation may at least in part explain the markedly muted reaction in the Palestinian territories to Sunday’s deadly confrontation in the north.


Leaders in Hamas-run Gaza condemned the killings of the protesters but, unusually, did not go as far as to call for revenge. The mainstream Fatah movement and other political factions also issued condemnations, but there were no official statements from the office of President Mahmoud Abbas or other Palestinian Authority leaders in the West Bank.

And while there has been a lot of talk of a possible third Palestinian intifada, or uprising, ahead of a possible Palestinian plea for international recognition of statehood at the United Nations this fall, there was no evidence that Sunday’s events had led to any foment on the ground.

...The Hamas authorities called for a day of mourning in Gaza on Monday and ordered flags at half-mast. But there were no outward displays of solidarity with the protesters from Syria, and stores and official institutions remained open.

And it was not just the Arab reaction on Monday that was muted--on the day of Naksa itself, the expected response among Palestinian Arabs in Gaza and the West Bank was lacking:

Even Sunday’s Naksa Day events inside the Palestinian territories that Israel captured in 1967 were at low ebb. In Gaza, Hamas set up checkpoints on roads leading to the Erez crossing in the north of the coastal enclave, preventing a few dozen Palestinians from marching to the crossing point where Israeli troops were stationed.

The main protest in the West Bank took place in Qalandia, an area between Ramallah and Jerusalem where, according to the agreements with the Israelis, Palestinian Authority police forces are not deployed.

But no more than a couple of hundred youths turned out to march on the crossing point, and even they seemed to belong to disparate groups with differing goals.

Even Syria seemed to hold back today. In a post about Syrian soldiers planing weapons on dead protesters, Ed Morrissey quotes an AP report that Mondays turnout of anti-Israel protesters was on the low side:

Syrian police blocked dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters from approaching the Israeli frontier on Monday, preventing a repeat of deadly clashes with Israeli forces that killed as many as 23 people who tried to rush the border.

Israeli officials said the instability in Syria ruled out any prospects for peace and accused the government of orchestrating the deadly unrest to deflect attention from its own crackdown on homegrown protests. Israel also questioned Syria’s reported death toll.

Syrian police set up a pair of checkpoints on Monday, including one a half-mile (kilometer) from the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights. Nearly 20 protesters, some waving Syrian flags, were walking down a hill leading to the border when two police officers blocked their advance by extending their arms.

Morrissey writes it could be that the Syrian held back the protesters out of embarrassment of the low turnout.

On the other hand, Maan does report stronger reaction in Lebanon (hat tip: Challah Hu Akbar):

Fatah's armed group will determine the "right time and place" to retaliate inside Palestine for the deaths of Palestinian refugees by Israeli fire along the Syria-Israel ceasefire line, an official was reported saying in southern Lebanon on Monday

“Palestine will be liberated through resistance because negotiations are useless,” Fatah leader in Lebanon Muneer Maqdah was quoted by the country's daily news site NOW Lebanon as saying during a rally to mourn what Syrian state television said were 23 marchers killed by Israeli fire during a protest rally the day before.

He called the incident, which saw hundreds mass at the Syria-Israel ceasefire line in the Golan Heights and march over the frontier toward lands occupied by Israel on 5 June 1967, "the massacre in Golan, Maroun Ar-Ras and Palestine," the report said.

Palestinians in the Saida refugee camp in southern Lebanon reportedly went on strike for the day, in protest against the deaths.

But back in the West Bank and Gaza, where you would expect a strong reaction exploiting the incident to apply more pressure on Israel, it does not seem to have happened.

Whether the reason is because Palestinians see themselves as being exploited by Assad is something that may become clearer in time.

Technorati Tag: Syria and Naksa and Hamas and West Bank.