Palestinians In Refugee Camps Prepare for Post-Abbas Power Struggle

Arab World

December 21st, 7:37am

West Bank - Asharq Al-Awsat

Balata Palestinian refugee camp near Nablus in the West Bank (AFP)

In Palestinian refugee camps in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, some residents are preparing weapons for a potential power struggle when president Mahmud Abbas finally leaves the stage. Abbas, 85, leader of the dominant Fatah movement and of the Palestinian Authority (PA), has promised legislative and presidential elections in 2021, for the first time in almost 15 years. Rivals are already seeking to build up a power-base. In Balata camp, outside the city of Nablus, walls are plastered with posters picturing Hatem Abu Rizq, regarded as a “martyr” of Palestinian infighting. On October 31, Palestinian media reported one dead and others wounded in Balata, where 30,000 people are crammed into 0.25 square kilometer. This time, the casualties were not the result of a clash with Israeli forces, although Abu Rizq spent almost 10 years in Israeli jails for his part in the Palestinian uprising of 2000 to 2005. According to official authorities, Abu Rizq died at the age of 35 in the eruption of intra-Palestinian violence in October. Palestinian officials said he was killed by the premature explosion of a bomb he was about to detonate. “But in fact he was killed by shots from the Palestinian Authority,” his mother, Um Hatem Abu Rizq, told AFP in the family’s tiny apartment in a dilapidated concrete building. “He was looking to fight corruption within the Palestinian administration, that’s why they didn’t like him,” she added. Inside the Palestinian political establishment, however, the post-Abbas future is a taboo subject. “In this region, we don't like to talk about life after death,” an influential Fatah figure said recently. At the entrance to Balata camp, Palestinian security personnel in balaclavas stand by an armored vehicle, sipping coffee, while their sniper colleagues keep watch from the rooftops. “Former Fatah Gaza security chief Mohammed Dahlan’s people give money to unemployed youth to throw stones and Molotov cocktails at Palestinian forces,” senior PA officer General Wael Shitawi said angrily. “Their aim is to create unrest and show that the Palestinian Authority does not control the camps,” he told AFP. “This is Dahlanphobia, a phobia that the PA is suffering,” Dahlan sympathizer and Fatah member Dimitri Diliani said. “It is a reaction to political harassment that has been carried out by the Palestinian Authority,” he added. The United Nations envoy for the Middle East, Nickolay Mladenov, told AFP he was “deeply concerned” about growing tensions between residents of Balata camp and the Palestinian security forces and called for “all parties to show restraint.” Emad Zaki, who heads a committee that oversees services for camp residents, said people wanted change. “In Balata, it is not that people like Dahlan, but they are looking for an alternative to improve their lot... it is fertile ground.” He said the dispute has sparked an influx of weapons into the camp outpacing that of the uprising, or intifada, of 20 years ago. “There are more weapons today in Balata than during the second intifada,” he stressed. “There are rocket launchers, Kalashnikovs and M16 (assault rifles)”.

from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/2695021/palestinians-refugee-camps-prepare-post-abbas-power-struggle