Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and his followers represent a major road block to the so-called “road map” to Mideast peace by funding groups that refuse to end their rein of terror, according to the Palestinian Authority.
The PA and West Bank officials claim Arafat continues to provide financial and political support to militant groups like the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, the military arm of Arafat’s Fatah movement which is listed as a terrorist group by the U.S. State Department, even though the group rejects the cease-fire, reports the Boston Globe.
Such support directly undercuts the leadership of Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas.
The Brigades recently led attacks on pro-Abbas leaders in major West Bank cities, including Jenine governor Haider Irsheid.
”They won – they have forced me to resign,” the Globe quotes Irsheid as saying from his home as he recovered from his abduction in Jenin. ”I am exhausted. They beat me all over my body.”
Irsheid told the paper he will insist Arafat accept his resignation.
Irsheid was taken from his home Saturday afternoon, publicly beaten and marched barefoot through the Jenin refugee camp, before being thrown into a cave. He was released four hours later, following an order by Arafat.
The governor said he recognized the leaders of the Brigades in the camp and in Jenin city among his assailants. He said the attackers told him one reason for the assault was that he tried to discourage Arafat from giving them financial support.
Irsheid told the Globe he had spoken with Arafat two days prior to the incident, telling him it was “100 percent wrong” that Fatah had given $10,000 to Brigades members from the Jenin camp on July 12. He said Arafat responded “they are our children. We have to control them.”
“I advised him not to do this, that it was dangerous,” Irsheid recalled for the paper. “The only way to control them is through the rule of law.”
Irsheid claims Fatah is making the payments in numerous places in the West Bank, despite internal Palestinian reforms.
The Globe reports Abdel Fattah al Hamayel, who is a Fatah leader and a Palestinian Authority minister without portfolio, confirmed Fatah is providing money to the Brigades. Hamayel maintains the Brigades members ”are employees and they are Fatah. They are also human beings. They need to pay rent for their homes and telephones.”
Although Hamayel said the groups ”are committed to the cease-fire,” the head of the Brigades in the Jenin camp, told Globe reporters they did not accept the cease-fire.
