Intifada in the PA

An intifada (insurrection) is taking place inside the PA in the West Bank and
Gaza. But, this intifada is not against Israel, but is an internal PA uprising by
younger al Aksa Martyrs Brigades gunmen against Pres. Abbas.
What sparked this particular set of clashes was the fact that the recent internal
Fatah primaries for the Palestine Legislative Council elections to be held at the
end of January were disrupted in some places by the same gunmen, and in some
cases ballots were destroyed, burnt or stolen. After a great deal of uncertainty, Pres.Abbas has now announced that he has decided to ignore the results of the
polls,where they were actually held, and will appoint his own appointees to the
Fatah list himself. But, he will only announce the list one hour before the deadline. This caused a severe negative reaction among the younger al Aksa
Martyrs Brigades members, who are part of Fatah, and who feel that they are
being railroaded.
They complain that they have no representation and that Abbas is keeping all the
positions in the hands of his cronies, most of whom are corrupt old-timers. They
particularly resent the fact that although Marwan Barghouti (serving life
sentences in an Israeli jail) received first place on the list in the voting, he
is likely to be replaced by Ahmed Querei, the current Prime Minister, who is
anathema to the young guards.
So what do Palestinians do when they want to register a complaint, in good
democratic fashion they take over the Election Commission offices in Ramallah,
Jenin, Gaza and elsewhere. Wearing masks and full military gear they attacked
and captured the offices, and expelled all the workers, destroyed computers and
essentially closed them down. In order to restore order Abbas sent in the
military police, who after some hesitation rushed the offices and managed to oust
the gunmen with a lot of firing, but no deaths. The Chief of the Election
officials has announced that they will not work on the election unless full
security is guaranteed to them.
Now its a stand-off, but don't expect the gunmen to give up so easily. They have
long-term resentment against the old-time leadership, and some of them have
resigned from Fatah and are threatening to run on an independent list. PA
officials said that this was potentially the worst crisis that has happened to
Fatah since its founding by Arafat 40 years ago. They also said that the PA
election itself might have to be postponed or cancelled.
This brought a very negative response from Hamas officials who stand to gain
from Fatah's disarray, and who hope to win big in the election. They said that
cancellation of the election would be a deliberate ploy by Abbas to steal the
election from them. Once again the PA is poised on the edge of complete chaos.
Abbas cannot satisfy both the Fatah dissidents and Hamas. So either way it looks
like the situation will continue to deteriorate.