Arafat 'failed to organise'
2004-08-02 12:54
Jerusalem - Gaza strongman Mohammed Dahlan harshly criticised Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat over corruption, stopping just short of openly challenging his leadership while threatening a protest demonstration.
Dahlan's unprecedented remarks came in media interviews made public on Sunday, as gunmen loyal to Arafat broke up a meeting of West Bank activists from Arafat's own Fatah movement who were discussing the need for deep reforms in the Palestinian administration.
These were just the latest incidents in weeks of internal Palestinian unrest, centred on charges of widespread corruption, and beneath the surface, frustration with lack of progress toward creation of a Palestinian state or economic development after four years of bloody conflict with Israel.
Dahlan, a former Gaza security chief, threatened huge demonstrations unless Arafat reforms his government within 10 days.
"Arafat now sits on the bodies and ruins of Palestinians at a time when they most need support," Dahlan was quoted as saying by a Kuwaiti newspaper on Sunday.
Demonstrations looming
Demanding reform, Dahlan was quoted as saying he didn't want to destroy Arafat's image, but to "correct it so that it will stay beautiful." But if there was no movement toward reform by August 10, Dahlan said, "a 30 000-strong protest movement would demonstrate in Gaza and demand its implementation."
Interviewed on al-Arabiya, an Arabic-language satellite TV channel with wide viewership in the Arab world, Dahlan indirectly blamed Arafat for the internal malaise.
"The failure to organise led to this chaos," he said. "It's time that they bring the corrupt to account... in a way different from before." Dahlan denied that he is trying to replace Arafat.
To the vast majority of his people, Arafat remains the symbol of the Palestinian national movement.
Dahlan appears to be angling for control of the Gaza Strip after Israel's planned withdrawal next year under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's "unilateral disengagement" plan.
Dahlan's forces are thought by many to be behind two weeks of unrest, focused on corruption as well as Arafat's attempt to appoint an unpopular relative as head of Gaza security.
Arafat has restating his insistence that the Palestinians must have a state in all of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem.
"There can be no concession of any piece of land on this sacred earth," he said, receiving an honorary doctorate degree from Al Quds University, a Palestinian school in a Jerusalem suburb.
Renewed criticism of the cronyism and corruption in the Palestinian leadership came after Arafat smoothed over a rift with Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia, who resigned two weeks ago over his inability to control an outbreak of lawlessness in the Gaza Strip.
Arafat persuaded Qureia to withdraw his resignation with a promise to share control of the security forces and to let Qureia's cabinet ministers do their jobs.
- AP