Hamas victory in Palestinian election (WSWS)

[IndianaGreen]

Hamas victory in Palestinian election

By Rick Kelly
27 January 2006

Fatah’s election debacle demonstrates the degree to which the Palestinian nationalist movement founded by the late Yasser Arafat has been discredited in the eyes of the Palestinian people. Underlying the failure of the Fatah-led PLO is the unviability of a program based on a nationalist perspective to effectively oppose imperialist and Zionist domination of the region.

Popular disillusionment with Fatah has been enormously compounded since the creation of the Palestinian Authority by worsening social conditions and rampant official corruption under the auspices of Fatah. Mass poverty and unemployment affects every aspect of life for ordinary Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. About 65 percent of the population lives below the official poverty line of $2.20 per day. A 2004 World Bank report described the economic situation as the “worst economic depression in modern history”, with unemployment rates of 60-70 percent in Gaza and 30-40 percent in the West Bank.

Popular opposition was further fuelled by Fatah’s authoritarian methods. One-third of the PA’s budget is devoted to security, with the West Bank and Gaza having the largest number of police per head of population in the world.

Hamas downplayed its Islamic fundamentalist ideology during the election campaign, and instead focussed almost exclusively on Fatah’s corrupt and ineffective record. The organisation nominated its national electoral list under the banner of “Change and Reform”. Hamas also promoted its candidates’ involvement in Islamic charities which provide food and education and medical services in the Occupied Territories. Numerous surveys and interviews conducted in the Occupied Territories demonstrated that Hamas’s support derived from people’s disgust with Fatah rather than any surge in Islamist sentiment in Palestine.

Hamas’s religio-communalist politics in fact offer no genuine alternative to the failed perspective of Fatah. Notwithstanding its anti-Israeli rhetoric, Hamas is ultimately seeking an accommodation with Western imperialism in the interests of those sections of the Palestinian elite for whom it speaks.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/jan2006/hama-j27.shtml