Hardline militant to lead Hamas in Gaza
GAZA’S Hamas movement has elected a new leader from its hardcore military wing, replacing the more pragmatic Ismail Haniyeh.
The appointment of Yahya Sanwar, 55 – who was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Israelis for the murder of Palestinians suspected of collaborating with Israel and subsequently released in a 2011 prisoner exchange – portends poorly for any hopes of peace in the territory.
There has long been a political divide between the military and political wings of Hamas, which was founded in the late 1980s with tacit support by Israel as a bulwark against the then-predominant Palestine Liberation Organisation.
The political wing under Meshal has been open to negotiations with Israel, whereas the military wing has favoured military confrontations with the Jewish state. According to the Israeli media and intelligence, Sanwar’s hawkish views are accompanied by apocalyptic views of eternal war with Israel.
Exacerbating the situation are Salafist groups in the Gaza Strip who have tried to force a confrontation between Hamas and Israel by firing rockets into the latter.
These Islamic State-affiliated groups disagree with Hamas’s more moderate interpretation of Islam and want to upset the current cold-peace status with Israel.
Simultaneously, Israel’s most right-wing government since the establishment of the state in 1948 has grown increasingly hawkish.
Members of the Israeli Knesset, or parliament, recently warned that the next war with Gaza would involve a harsh military confrontation, making previous wars pale in comparison, despite strong criticism from the international community over the excessive use of force by the Israelis.
Yoav Galant, a former commander of Israel’s Southern Command, told Israel’s Army Radio last week that Israel must be ready for a confrontation with Gaza in the spring of the northern hemisphere.
Naftali Bennett, leader of the right-wing religious Israel Our Home party, added that “the next round of fighting is a question of when, not if, and this time we must win. Not a draw, but rather a clear victory.”
Meanwhile, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (Acri) has accused the Israeli government of neglecting half of the Arab Bedouin population in the Negev, where there have been bloody clashes between Israeli security forces and protesters over land expropriation and the destruction of Bedouin villages recently.
“Instead of reforming its policy of non-existent planning and development and consequent home demolitions regarding the Bedouin population in the Negev, the government decision to adopt a fiveyear plan for the social and economic development of the Bedouin population continues this harmful policy,” said Acri.
This policy determines that Bedouin cannot live in rural villages as Jews do, and must face unrelenting pressure to leave their villages for the recognised towns, said the civil rights organisation. – ANA