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Palestinian leader: “Fatah and Hamas come from the same root”

Posted in Irshaddering Thoughts on Jan 06, 2009

Dr. Mustafa Barghouti on the campaign trail

(Photo: Associated Press)

At the height of the war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006, I traveled to the West Bank. There, I spoke with Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, who came second in the campaign to succeed Yasser Arafat.

Here’s what he told me — on tape: “Fatah and Hamas both come from the same root… It is basically the clan mentality.”

He went further in explaining the democracy deficit that Palestinian elders have bequeathed to their people:

“Democracy is not just elections. We still lack a lot of things. We do not have an independent judiciary. We still do not have rule of law… Every Palestinian should be entitled to the same rights as every other Palestinian. In the system that exists right now, if you are an excellent student but not aligned with Hamas or Fatah, you probably will not get a loan or a scholarship.”

You know what this means, don’t you? The “clan mentality” runs rampant enough in Palestine that wiping out Hamas won’t produce substantial change for the people. Replace Hamas with Fatah, and you wind up with honor-lite. At core, both political camps share a commitment to nepotism, corruption and human exploitation.

Bottom line: An Israeli war on Hamas can only be about protecting Israelis; the deeper struggle of reforming culture is up to Palestinians themselves.

So why is Dr. Barghouti, a self-professed reformer, staying silent about this point in his media appearances of late? Why not bulldoze through the fog of battle and speak truth to all powers, not merely those in IDF uniforms?

Precisely because of the clan mentality. Even he isn’t immune to it.

When I sat down with Dr. Barghouti, we broke the ice by joking about the caustic criticism I incur from mainstream Muslims. “One will make as many enemies as friends, merely by having ideas,” I suggested.

Replied Dr. Barghouti, “It is very painful. It is the most painful thing. And that is why so many [Palestinians] abstain from participating in democratic processes, criticizing without taking the risk of proposing an alternative.”

To be sure, Palestinians hold no monopoly on caving to intimidation. On the fear front, they’re in stellar company. But the world’s refusal to acknowledge this native barrier to peace actually undermines solutions to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Take the tragic tale of Aziz Shehadeh, the first prominent Palestinian to accept Israel’s existence and advance a compromise based on two states. Yasser Arafat’s henchmen responded to Shehadeh by branding him a “despicable collaborator” on Arabic radio. “You shall pay for your crimes,” the husky voice decreed over the airwaves for all to hear and heed. “We shall eliminate you. Silence you forever. Make an example of you for others.”

Maybe worse, the Palestinian lawyers’ union disbarred Shehadeh. Years later, he was mysteriously murdered.
“He was an energetic, public-spirited man who was never allowed to succeed,” writes Shehadeh’s son, Raja. “He had become a marked man…”

In painting this portrait of his father, Raja illuminates social context that we ignore at the price of peace: In Palestine, observes Raja, “society conspires to destroy, discourage, and bring down by rampant corrosive jealousy those who triumph. It’s a society that encourages you to cringe. Most of your energy is spent extending feelers to detect public perception of your actions because your survival is contingent on remaining on good terms with your society.”

Time and again, young Palestinians have told me the same. A couple of years ago, I moderated a roundtable of Arab youth at the World Economic Forum in Sharm el Sheik, Egypt. The Palestinian delegation complained bitterly that their own politicians treated them as “suspect” and “deviant.” Innovative ideas, they said, are deemed “dangerous.”

Then came this bombshell: “We cannot keep blaming the Israelis for our problems. We all know that opinions in our Arab societies are determined by family loyalties instead of reason. My brother and I against my cousin; my cousin, brother and I against an external threat.”

Edward Said, the eminence grise of Palestinian nationalism, once famously asked, “Why don’t we fight harder for freedom of opinions in our own societies — a freedom, no one needs to be told, that scarcely exists?”

Great question. I’ll bet Dr. Mustafa Barghouti has a great answer. It would be an act of moral courage — and perhaps even peace — to get that conversation going again.