Troubling questions facing Hamas: militancy and diplomacy
Palestine, Reporter's View, 4/13/1998

The investigation into the mysterious death of Hamas bomb maker Mohyiddin Sharif is still going on, but Palestinian Preventive Security commander in the West Bank, Colonel Jibril Rajoub, is not ready to give any details. "We do not have the habit of conducting our investigation through the media," he said.

And as the investigation goes on, there have been reports of mounting tension between the Palestinian government and Hamas, the Islamic Resistance movement, over exchanged accusations of responsibility for Sharif's death. Sharif was found dead with three bullet holes in his body that was fragmented in a car blast in Ramallah two weeks ago. Hamas has until now charged Israel with killing Sharif but also accused the Palestinian government of being the accomplice.

Palestinian presidential secretary Tayyeb Abdul Rahim warned that the Palestinian government would release all the information it has on the death of Sharif if Hamas continued its anti-Palestinian campaign of accusations. He further warned that the Palestinian government would also unveil information collected in the investigation of previous mysterious death incidents involving Hamas officials such as Imad Aqel and Ghassan Kaheil who were killed in two separate incidents some three years ago. Kaheil was killed in April 1995. Hamas blamed the Palestinian government for coordinating his murder with the Israeli Shin Bet. A while later, however, an Israeli agent was found to have infiltrated Hamas' military wing and became so close to Kaheil that he worked as his assistant until he finally got the order to take him out.

Back in early 1996, Hamas members suggested to detonate a bomb along with the body of Yihya Ayyash, the former Hamas bomb maker whom the Israeli Shin Bet assassinated in Gaza. The reason, it was said, was to cover the fact that Hamas was so vulnerable and that Israeli agents managed to infiltrate its rank and file. It was better for those who initiated this idea to claim that Ayyash had died while preparing a bomb rather than admit that the Israeli secret service managed to break through Hamas' military wing. Reliable sources affiliated with Hamas said it was Mohammed Deif, the military commander of Izziddin Al Qassam Brigades in Gaza, who strongly rejected the idea and said Ayyash was a hero and did not deserve any form of body mutilation after his martyrdom.

Palestinian security sources meanwhile insisted that Sharif was killed in part of internal struggle within Hamas. Another theory that is still being checked suggested Sharif became a collaborator with Israel and was killed by his fellow colleagues in Hamas. Asked why the Palestinian government wouldn't unveil every piece of information it has about the investigation in order to prove that it has nothing to do with Sharif's death, a security source said the Palestinian government wants to maintain relations with Hamas and believes any further release of information would embarrass the movement.

The Palestinian government, said the source, would like to see Hamas functioning as a full-fledged political party within the Palestinian government areas "provided it is not vulnerable to intervention from by leaders in exile abroad who hope to see Hamas evolving into a parallel authority to the PNA. They hope the movement would later become the alternative leadership to the Palestinian people."

"We will not allow anybody to set up a parallel authority to the PNA. Hamas should understand that those days are over when during the Palestinian uprising, it used to conduct its own interrogations, set up its own tribunals and kill suspects and throw their bodies to the streets," said Tayyeb Abdul Rahim. In a clear message to Hamas he said that unlike in the past, this time the Palestinian government couldn't tolerate any attempt to undermine its authority. The Palestinian government, observers believe, is worried that any further military attacks by Hamas might furnish Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu with the alibi he needs to avoid implementing the second phase redeployment of his troops in the West Bank.

Regardless of whether Sharif was killed by the Israeli Shin Bet, or by fellow Hamas members, the fact of the matter is that Hamas needs to shake up its internal structure. It also has to identify the loopholes that enabled the Shin Bet agents or those who killed Sharif to infiltrate the movement. Besides, every accusation Hamas airs towards the Palestinian government, and namely Colonel Rajoub, is useless and unnecessary because it does not change the fact that Hamas has an internal problem on one front and a serious crisis with the Palestinian government on the other one.

Since the killing of Sharif, the average Palestinian on the street has become victim of a misinformation campaign. Today there are calls on the Palestinian government to release all information it has on the Sharif file. Hamas, for its part has done its job and not always efficiently, mainly when the leadership in exile was involved. Late last week, for instance, Dr. Mahmoud Zahhar, a leading spokesman for Hamas in Gaza, called Tayyeb Abdul Rahim and suggested they both meet to discuss ways to defuse the tension between the two sides.

Abdul Rahim agreed and the meeting took place at the presidential headquarters in Gaza. Hours after the meeting was over, Hamas leadership abroad issued a leaflet saying the Palestinians had requested the meeting and pleaded to Hamas to stop its campaign against the Palestinian government. Both Abdul Rahim and Zahhar denied the content of the leaflet, but that was a bit late. The effect was already there. The man on street received the Hamas version first.

The other crisis that faces Hamas in Palestinian areas is the question of who closely it is linked to its military wing, better known as the Izziddin Al Qassam Brigades. In the days of suicide bombings against Israeli targets, the known leaders of the political wing argued that they had nothing to do with the military wing of Hamas and that the military leaders acted on their own without any guidance or clearance from the political leaders. But in other cases involving the military wing like the mysterious death of Sharif, Hamas became the organ for Al Qassam Brigades. The Hamas political leaders rushed to blamed the Palestinian government for Sharif's death. "It is not normal at all to have a double-face Hamas," said one observer, "because people need to know if Hamas is or is not the other side of the coin, with Al Qassam Brigades being the first."

The question of Hamas' relation with its military wing is related to internal debate within the movement concerning its future. Some argue whether Hamas should remain as it is today or return to the pre-1987 era when, before it was founded by Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, it was an extension of the Muslim Brotherhood that is active throughout the Arab world. Those who suggested that Hamas dissolve itself and return to its ideological base believe that with the creation of the Palestinian government, Hamas cannot continue to be a military resistance movement because of the type of relations they believe should exist with the Palestinian government.

They also believe that once Hamas dissolves itself, it can continue its political struggle within the framework of the Muslim Brotherhood, just as their brethren do all over the Arab countries. But others opposed to the idea insist that the Hamas objectives have not been achieved since the Israeli occupation continues in parts of the Palestinian land and therefore, Hamas has to continue its military struggle until the occupation has ended.

Many believe that Hamas has a serious leadership crisis. The domestic leadership in Gaza, including Sheikh Ahmad Yassin and Dr. Mahmoud Zahhar, are seen as more pragmatic and more cooperative with the Palestinian government. Others like Khaled Mishal and Musa Abu are seen as leaders whose line does not necessarily meet that of the local Hamas leadership in the Palestinian areas or in the Occupied Territories.

Mishal escaped death after last year's attempt on his life by Mossad agents in Amman. Marzouk was released from a US prison and granted refuge in Jordan. Israel has blamed both of them for last year's suicide bombings in West Jerusalem. An indictment sheet presented to the Israeli military court against three Palestinians from Nablus said they were members in Hamas and that they allegedly received their instructions to aide the suicide bombers of West Jerusalem from their leaders in Amman. The more influential elements in Hamas' military wing are believed to be outside of Palestine.

Who killed Sharif? The three suspects are the Israeli intelligence, Hamas members and the Palestinian government. While the Israelis were the most likely in the beginning, they became second in the set of suspects after Ghassan Al Adassi, one of the Hamas detainees who was held by Palestinian government admitted that Adel Awadallah, another Hamas bomb maker, was the one who killed Sharif. Adel's brother, Imad, was arrested late last week and Palestinian sources refused to give details on his interrogation.

As for the Palestinian government, some experts say it is very unlikely that it was involved in Sharif's killing reasoning that there is too much to lose and too little to gain by such an act. The only killings attributed to Palestinian government's security officers -- categorically denied by the Palestinian government -- were those of a number of Palestinian collaborators and land dealers who were suspected of selling lands to Jews. Israel charged the Palestinian government with being involved in those killings but failed to produce any evidence to support those accusations.

Previous Stories:
  Jordan-based Hamas commanders ordered suicide bombings, Israel claims   (4/10/1998)
  Hamas's spokesmen rejects Palestinian findings   (4/9/1998)
  Palestine warns Hamas against attacking Israel, identity revealed   (4/6/1998)

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