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Interview with Eyad Sarraj
by
The Palestine Report
Mr. Eyad Sarraj is
director of the Gaza Community Mental Health Program and was interviewed
by The Palestine Report on the uneasy mood in the Gaza Strip.
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Can you give some idea of the
mood and atmosphere in Gaza on this day of Israeli elections?
I think it is a mood of resignation,
that it will not really bring anything better to our lives. There is
a kind of anger, bitterness, but on the surface, there is apathy to
what is happening. It will not affect us either way, except that
people have reached the bottom line of despair and this Israeli
election will only deepen that feeling.
I wondered if you could talk
some about what happened two weeks ago when there were presidential
security Force 17 troops deployed in Gaza and a lot of rumors about
people being fired for corruption. How has this affected people?
I think that the main problem
is that some of the violent energy of the Palestinians that was directed
against the common enemy is now directed against the internal community.
The signs of that are the forming of different militias, armed militias;
the taking of the law into the hands of some people because there is a
vacuum of authority and law and the distributing of different leaflets
accusing prominent people in the Authority of corruption - even
threatening to kill them.
Other signs are clashes
between people - like what happened two days ago in Jabalya and yesterday
in Khan Younis, internal fighting that has taken the form of tribal or
family feuds - the assassination of [television magnate] Hisham Mekki, the
execution of the so-called collaborators in summary trials. All these are
signs of internal violence, that the energy now is directed internally,
which leads to political fragmentation and also identity narrowing. When
people are facing the common enemy, they are Palestinians. Now they are
less in their identity than Palestinians. They are militias or belonging
to a political party or even a tribe or a family.
[Ed.'s note: Sarraj gave the
following account of events at Jabalya Refugee Camp. A 13-year-old boy was
circulating pictures of himself carrying bombs strapped to his body as a
suicide bomber. The Palestinian Preventative Security wanted to question
him. His family refused and the security branch summoned his brother, who
also refused. The Preventative Security then sent some troops to
investigate. Meanwhile, the people in Jabalya had prepared themselves.
There was a clash between the two groups, resulting in some wounded and
the arrest of 18 from the camp.]
So how is this affecting the
average person who is not affiliated with a certain powerful family
or a certain security force?
There is a state of apprehension and
fear, heightened anxiety on the street. People feel that the future
is bleak. We are entering into a dark tunnel in which the
predictions are very pessimistic. People are thinking of leaving the
country. Some people who are forced to stay are very anxious; they
don't know what is going to happen. Some people feel quite hopeless
and helpless.
How will this affect the
Intifada?
The Intifada is dead. The sign of its
death was when the violence was directed against Palestinians by
Palestinians. The first Intifada [the 1987 uprising] showed signs of
dying when the violence was directed between Palestinians
themselves, and when that happened here it was the early signs of
the death of the Intifada.
So what does that mean for the
future?
The Palestinians have to think - and
this is my own view - that we have always been trapped by the Israeli
military establishment to be violent. This plays very well into the
hands of the Israeli military establishment - to control their own
people and to show the world that the Palestinians are the violent
party. I think that we have been trapped into this for the last thirty
years or so.
I think that the Palestinians should
start to think of a different strategy. They can be proactive rather
than reactive. Sharon's visit to the Al Aqsa mosque was a trap for us
and we fell into it very heavily. And this is the result, that we
contributed to the rise of Sharon and we also contributed to this
state of helplessness and hopelessness.
Has the Palestinian leadership
been responding to this situation?
I think that there is a lack of
intellectual capacity and open- minded democratic debate in the
Palestinian community at large.
This is another trap that we have
fallen into for the last fifty years or so of our struggle - a
trap into the slogans and the big talk. And now even some people
high in the political streams are still talking about Palestine
as if we still lived in 1950. This is another trap that we fell
into and we really need jump out of, but for that you need
brains.
So you don't think that the
leadership is responding sufficiently to people's concerns?
I think that the easiest way out for the
Authority is to direct people into a kind of war against Israel. That
will again direct the energy outside, instead of directing it against
the Authority itself, and that is very possible, knowing the history
of the Authority, knowing the history of the Palestinian struggle.
This is usually the case. We always have to find a common enemy to
direct our energy against. This is the easiest and cheapest way out.
I hope, however, that the Palestinian
people, intellectual and political leaders will stop and think,
"What can we do constructively and proactively in order not to
fall into another trap?"
That makes the future look rather
bleak.
It is really difficult for me to predict
the future, knowing that the situation is so volatile both here and in
Israel and also in light of the new American elections. The whole
Middle East is quite volatile now. I hope that the worst predictions
of Sharon intensifying his authority on the Palestinians again and
perhaps on the region will not happen because, if it does, we will all
be engulfed in this kind of situation. There is a possibility that
Sharon will start to talk about peace seriously. But I doubt it. The
worst prediction is that the Palestinian Authority will be totally
destroyed, there will be a new Intifada and the radical Muslims will
take over.
Source:
by courtesy & 2001 The Palestine Report
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