Palestinian Authority’s popularity a casualty of Gaza’s war

QALABAN, WEST BANK // At the first junction in the village of Qalaban, two Hamas flags flutter in the humid, restless air.

Until recently the militant group was all but banned in the West Bank. That the Islamist party colours are now flying freely underscores the changes that have taken place in six short but bloody months since Hamas, the rulers of Gaza, signed a reconciliation deal with its Palestinian rivals Fatah.

Protests and clashes with Israeli security forces have raged in the West Bank since Israel’s latest military campaign in Gaza killed nearly 2,000 Palestinians.

While the anger has been directed against Israel and in solidarity with Gaza, there is growing anger against the Fatah-run Palestinian Authority, which governs the West Bank.

That view has come alongside increasing support for Hamas, who are seen as the only Palestinian party willing to fight Israel.

In Qalaban, a large West Bank village 10 kilometres from Nablus, the streets are deserted but for a handful of children playing football in the dust. A short drive up the hill, the yellow standard of Fatah is slung over the walls of a single-storey home. Outside, two dozen Palestinian men sit smoking and drinking tea, under a poster of Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, with a line of Palestinian fighters superimposed in the foreground. Above that, another poster emblazoned with Fatah slogans and the serious face of a young man.

Zakariyya Mousa Dawood Al Aqra was killed on Monday morning in a shoot-out with Israeli forces, who went into Qalaban in the early hours and targeted his home with a rocket-propelled grenade. The local Fatah activist, opened fire on the soldiers with a homemade pistol. He was shot dead after a six-hour gun battle raged through the night in the hills behind his home. He was 24.

He was the latest casualty of clashes in the West Bank fuelled by Israel’s war on Gaza that started on July 8. More than 20 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank either by Israeli forces or Jewish settlers.

The Palestinian protests intensified after the killing of hundreds of civilians at Shujaieh, but began before the war, after massive Israeli incursions into Palestinian cities in response to the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenage settlers.

His father, Musa Jawud Saeed Al Aqra, 58, admits that his son was a Fatah organiser but not a militant. He said that a few months ago he had not cared about politics and was only concerned with making enough money to buy a car and nice clothes. Zakariyya, like many over the past few weeks in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, was radicalised by the war in Gaza.

“Like every young guy, his dream was to make money, buy a car, get married – that was his aim. But after what happened in Gaza, it changed his plans, all his thoughts completely changed,” Mr Al Aqra says.

Zakariyya was one of a hundred or so villagers from Qalaban that took part in clashes at Tapuah Junction in the early days of the war. The intersection, where the road from Nablus meets the entrance to a number of Israeli settlements, is heavily policed by Israeli soldiers and often a flashpoint.

It was for this, says his father, that the Israelis were looking for him on Monday. Israel says that Zakariyya was wanted for shooting at an Israeli soldier.

Mr Al Aqra says that while his other sons — Zakariyya was the youngest of five boys — mourn their brother, the family is proud that he went down fighting. He boasts that his son was able to stay on the run for six hours and was only killed when he ran out of ammunition.

“More than 3,000 people were at his funeral. It was hard for the family but at the same time I am proud that my son was a martyr, not everyone gets to have the honour of dying for a cause,” he says, sitting in front of a poster of Zakariyya looking defiant.

Many involved in the recent West Bank protests say they considered the Palestinian Authority and its president Mahmoud Abbas collaborators.

That view, along with rising support for Hamas, is a worrying trend for the PA, particularly if the unity deal signed between Fatah and Hamas after years of fighting survives and elections are held in the West Bank and Gaza.

A senior PA figure in Nablus dismisses these concerns, arguing that criticism of the PA is only a reaction to Israeli actions in Gaza and would be short lived.

“It is an emotional thing, more than political or ideological,” says Akram Al Rjoub, the governor of Nablus.

“Hamas … have their public voices, and in each Palestinian city you will find people who support Hamas. It has not [increased], since the war. It is not support for their ideology it is more support for their resistance.”

Mr Al Rjoub believes the unity deal between Hamas and Fatah will survive the war and is the best hope for Palestinians in providing a united front against Israel.

At a protest tent in Qalaban, Musa Al Aqra is also dismissive when asked about rising support for Hamas at the expense of the PA or Fatah. As a Fatah family, this is not unusual, but Mr Aqra is equally scathing of discussing Hamas and Fatah – who fought a bitter war following 2006 elections – as being enemies any longer.

“It is not about Hamas or Fatah. There are the flags of both parties in this village. The war in Gaza has brought us together,” he says.

foreign.desk@thenational.ae