(Jerusalem Post) Khaled Abu Toameh - Palestinians refer to him as the sheriff of Jenin. Zakariya Zubaidi, head of Fatah's Aksa Martyrs' Brigades in the city, demonstrated this week just how fragile Mahmud Abbas's grip on the West Bank remains, and how America's designs in this part of the Middle East remain largely theoretical even three months after its conquest of Iraq. It was Zubaidi who with 20 followers staged what is being described as a successful coup, beating the PA's governor for the Jenin district, Haidar Irsheid, in the main city square. In Jenin, people asked why it took Arafat five hours before he ordered his loyalists to release Irsheid. They believe Arafat knew in advance of the intention to kidnap and humiliate the governor and had given the green light to Zubaidi and his men to act. This was Arafat's way of punishing Irsheid for daring to challenge the Aksa Martyrs' Brigades, a group whose members blindly support Arafat. Says a journalist from Jenin, "Arafat wanted the governor to stay in custody for a number of hours so he would set an example for others." Earlier this month, Arafat dispatched one of his ministers, Abdel Fattah Hamayel, to the Jenin Aksa Brigades with NIS 60,000 in cash. Palestinian officials say they believe the best solution for the hundreds of disgruntled Fatah gunmen in Jenin, Nablus, and Tulkarm is to absorb them in the PA security forces. In Nablus there are at least 250 members of the Aksa Martyrs Brigades and its sister group, al-Awdah (The Return), who for the past 2 1/2 years have been functioning as the de facto police in the city, to the dismay of many residents. Many people in Tulkarm, Jenin, and Nablus said this week they are desperately looking forward to the day law and order are restored to their cities. Yet they know that even after Dahlan's men are deployed there, the Fatah gunmen would continue to play a major role in day-to-day issues because that's the way Arafat wants it. "We consider ourselves to be Arafat's soldiers," said the leader of Aksa in Tulkarm.
2003-07-25 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive