These Days, The Israeli "Occupation" Is Not Such A Big Deal

It seems that nothing quite focuses the mind of Palestinian Arabs quite like being governed by other Palestinian Arabs. Here is a summary of an article by Daily Alert:

Palestinians Divided Over Future Under Hamas - Donald Macintyre
Asked about the 2006 Palestinian elections, Gaza shopkeeper Khaled Abu Ahmed slipped off his sandal and used it to beat his head several times to demonstrate his remorse for voting Hamas. Before the elections and the subsequent international boycott, he said, he used to make between £1,200 and £1,400 a month. Now, he said, thanks to closures and two years of only sporadic payments to public employees, he is lucky to make £25. "We have been occupied by the Turks, the British, and the Egyptians," he added, his voice rising. "We were occupied by Fatah and now we are occupied by Hamas. And the best of these occupations was by the Jews." (Independent-UK) [emphasis added]

Mr. Ahmed is not alone. From The Economist [Hat tip: Noah Pollak]:

The Palestinian Authority (PA) has been locking up suspected Hamas members and sympathisers all over the West Bank since June, when Hamas routed the secular Fatah's forces in Gaza after months of factional strife. Yusri Maswadeh says he was suspended by his wrists, tied behind him, from window bars for hours—“worse than with the Israelis”. Fayyad Aghbar, a former head of the Awqaf (the Muslim authorities) in Nablus, the West Bank's biggest town, was not tortured but describes a fellow prisoner who was forced to kneel with his hands tied and was hit if he sat back on his haunches. Again, it was “worse than the Israelis”. [emphasis added]

In fact, suddenly the Israeli "occupation" just isn't the issue that it used to be. Here is one of the results of a poll taken by Near East Consulting:

September 2007

Main issue that makes you feel concerned.

		Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
Valid	The economic hardship of my household	338	34.7	35.4	35.4
	The absence of security for me and my family	193	19.8	20.2	55.7
	The internal power struggle	216	22.2	22.6	78.3
	The Israeli occupation	76	7.8	8.0	86.3
	Family problems	48	4.9	5.0	91.3
	I have no concerns	83	8.5	8.7	100.0
	Total	954	97.8	100.0
Missing	99	21	2.2
Total		975	100.0

Kind of makes you wonder if the Palestinian Arabs are as wary of what Abbas is up to as Israelis are of Olmert.

Technorati Tag: Israel.