Abbas’s grip on power weakening
STREET PROTESTS were violently suppressed by the Palestinian Authority’s security forces in Ramallah last Thursday, in a further sign that the long rule of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was weakening.
Hundreds had gathered outside the PA’s main office buildings in central Ramallah to demonstrate against the economic sanctions placed by Mr Abbas on the Gaza Strip.
But protestors were beaten up and arrested, while journalists’ cameras were smashed and confiscated as shots were heard and tear gas and stun grenades deployed.
The numbers on the street were small, but the demonstration was notable because it involved the Palestinian police using tactics more routinely used by Israeli troops against other Palestinians.
Protests had been taking place in Ramallah and Nablus for a week but violence Protests on the streets of Ramallah last week reflected the growing anger among Palestinians at the long rule of President Mahmoud Abbas broke out after the PA announced that no public demonstrations were to be held in the last days of Ramadan.
Officials told the crowds that their demonstrations were aimed in the wrong direction and were diverting attention from Hamas and Israel’s responsibility for the situation in Gaza.
For the last year, Mr Abbas has been trying to apply pressure on Hamas in Gaza by cutting the funding for fuel for Gaza’s power station and withholding salaries for civil servants and teachers there. He has persisted despite moves by Israeli and Egyptian officials and European diplomats behind the scenes to stop him.
Hamas in Gaza has expressed support for the Ramallah demonstrations but is not believed to have been directly behind it.
According to recent surveys, the 82-year -old president’s policy towards Gaza is opposed by the great majority of Palestinians, not just the supporters of Hamas. A similar majority opposes continued coordination between Palestinian and Israeli security forces.
In Ramallah, where the walls are plastered with posters of Mr Abbas, there is a feeling of the end of a reign and an urgency among senior PA officials to ensure an orderly succession. The president has been in and out of hospital and there is no clear idea if, now in the fourteenth year of his fouryear term, he will step aside.
Mahmoud Aloul, a grey veteran, was recently appointed deputy leader of Fatah in an indication that successors are being prepared but no one sees the elderly deputy as the future leader of the Palestinians.
Those around the president fear challengers from outside their “Ramallah bubble”. These include the Fatah chieftain Marwan Bargouthi, currently serving five life-sentences for murder in an Israeli prison; Gazan strongman Muhammad Dahlan, who is now in exile in the Gulf; and of course Hamas leaders such as Yahya Sinwar. But the recent protests have been as much against them as President Abbas.