This morning I wandered through the many small shops in one own downtown building, arrayed on about seven floors packed with cellphone stores, a virtual reality center, some clothing and jewelry stores as well as other kinds, a prayer room, and Stars and Bucks on the second floor and another, less Westernized restaurant on the top (which I plan to return to with my camera to take advantage of the great view). One cellphone-shop owner saw me looking around, said Welcome, and offered coffee. I remarked on the overabundance of cellphone stores, and he told me there were more than a dozen.
As is common, he asked where I was from and what I’m doing here. That led to a longer discussion, with a customer soon joined. For the next ten minutes or so the owner and the customer gave me conflicting takes on the meaning of jihad and on whether fighting for liberation was Islam’s highest value. The owner, a little older, said the customer, who told me the only solution is to die for the benefit of the next generation, was ignorant about Islam.
In this and other conversations, the more I talk with Ramallah residents the more it becomes clear that even in this central Fatah base there’s a great deal of respect for Hamas and distaste for Fatah. That’s true even for many who nominally support Fatah and even vote for it. One person told me today that people stick with Fatah because Fatah is the West Bank government, and thus controls jobs and other resources plus the police and other forms of power. But this former Fatah supporter repeats a refrain I’ve heard time and time again, that Fatah is corrupt and its officials and police “thieves” who are out for themselves. Hamas, in contrast, is perceived as honest, “for the people,” “caring.” Asked if people worry that Hamas would impose an Islamic state on those who don’t want one, the answer was no, that’s not their goal.
I’m not surprised to hear people say this, because explanations of Hamas’s legislative victory a few years ago repeatedly offered the same analysis: that Hamas won because voters saw the party as honest, capable, and service-oriented, not because of its Islamic underpinnings. A secondary reason was its refusal to compromise key principles simply to reach a flawed Palestinian state. This also comes up in conversation, where people routinely dismiss the Palestinian National Authority’s participation in never-ending negotiations as either traitorous or simply doomed to fail. One man told me the negotiations are just for show, like a movie that has no reality once the film ends.
I’ve argued before that any two-state solution that dispenses with justice for Palestinians cannot succeed, and since I don’ t think Israel will provide that justice I think the two-state solution is no longer feasible. Listening to younger Palestinians dismiss two-state talk as a relic of old thinking reinforces my sense that no end is in sight regardless of who wins elections in either Israel or Palestine.
Technorati Tags: Fatah, Hamas, Palestine, two-state solution