The Fatah Forgotten
A young Gaza refugee at a Ramallah safe house sits in his wheelchair with a sticker reading "Gaza is on my mind." (Photo/Anna Blackshaw)
They emerge from every corner of the house on crutches, limping, in a wheelchair. They hobble out of the kitchen on artificial legs and labor to pull themselves from their beds.
The youngest ones are sixteen. All of them bear the scars of Hamas bullets, bombs and hand grenades.
These are the Fatah Forgotten, the scores of Palestinian refugees injured last June when Hamas seized control of Gaza.
They are Fatah loyalists who have spent the last eight months living in limbo. Most had to leave their families behind in Gaza when they fled to safety in the West Bank.
They spend their days sleeping and smoking, drinking sweet tea and sipping bitter coffee, waiting and wondering if they will ever be able to go home.
"The Palestinian Authority has treated us worse than Hamas ever did," says Abu Abed, a 40-year-old former Gaza policeman who was shot twice in the leg by Hamas militants at a checkpoint during the first days of the Fall of Fatah in Gaza.
The Fatah men sequestered in this sparse, dark apartment are adrift. The Gaza refugees here in the West Bank have been more often treated as foreigners than fellow Palestinians.
If they haven't been viewed as cowards who fled the fight, they have been treated as unwanted relatives who crawled in from some backwater countryside.
They are getting barely enough support from the PA to get by.
Their limbo is a reflection both of the way the PA has treated its Gaza refugees and the cultural divisions separating Palestinians from Gaza and Palestinians from the West Bank.
Gaza residents tend to be more conservative and more religious than those from the West Bank.
While it might be something akin to the differences between Americans from Mobile and Americans from Manhattan, the divide is more significant for Palestinians trying to build the foundations for a future state...
This is such a sad and moving story, Dion. Perhaps especially the quote from Abu Abed; but also the whole situation these guys are living through.
Can you be more specific about numbers. You say "scores", but actually, roughly how many of these guys are we talking about? Also, are you doing any further reporting on this? Have you interviewed PA people about their situation, or other local West Bank Fateh members? Also, how did they get across from Gaza to the WB, exactly?
Who in Fateh takes any responsibility for their plight? Dahlan-- who trained them and then wasn't even there during the fighting?
Posted by: Helena Cobban | February 18, 2008 at 05:30 PM
"Mobile" and "Manhattan".
Interesting. I think you hit the nail on the head. When I was in Gaza City in '87 a few months before the first Intifada started, I didn't think of it so much as 'religious' - although it was fast becoming that way, but it was definitely more friendly vs the big city of Jerusalem.
To be honest, when I got fed up with the stress of living in Jerusalem, I'd go visit a friend's family in Gaza because I found it much more pleasant and restful there.
Division. The Palestinians are split in too many ways: Fatah/Hamas, refugees in Lebanon vs Jordan vs Iraq vs the Persian Gulf (vs America and Europe), now the West Bank vs the Gaza Strip (vs east Jerusalem).
Divide and conquer.
Posted by: Edie | February 18, 2008 at 07:57 PM
All good questions. To be honest, I stumbled upon the story yesterday while working on something else. I hope to go back and get answers, so stay tuned...
Posted by: Dion | February 19, 2008 at 08:30 AM
As for how they got across, you may recall the rush of people who converged on Erez after Hamas took over in June. Israel and the PA worked together to help get various Fatah figures (politicos, fighters, those injured in the battles) out of Gaza and to the West Bank for their own protection. In most cases, the people had to leave their families in Gaza.
Posted by: Dion | February 19, 2008 at 09:14 AM