Boston Globe Article, or Hamas Campaign Literature?
NEWSBUSTERS
In War on Terrorism
The piece begins by painting the poignant image of a Palestinian killed by Israelis and his bereaved family member who "choked back tears and wiped his red, swollen eyes." It ends with this slogan: ''When you have no hope, you vote Hamas."
So what?, you ask. Palestinians are permitted to distribute campaign literature in preparation for their legislative elections on Jan. 25th. What's the big deal? Well, true. Except this wasn't a Hamas campaign flyer. It was an article in this morning's Boston Globe: A Death Hardens Support for Hamas.
Written by Thanassis Cambanis, one wonders if he wasn't smoking cannabis when composing his one-sided piece. The image he paints is of repressive Israelis hounding the innocent Hamas. It's not until the second page that we find out that the dead man in question was the leader of a Hamas terrorist cell, according to the Israeli Defense Forces,. who was killed in a shootout with Israel forces during a raid in which Israel arrested 18 suspected "militants."
A death hardens support for Hamas
Palestinians say 'martyrdom' inspires votes
By Thanassis Cambanis, Globe Staff | January 18, 2006
HIZMA, West Bank -- Even as he choked back tears and wiped his red, swollen eyes, Ziad Salahudeen Ayadeh paused to declare that his brother's death, in a shootout with Israeli troops early yesterday morning, would boost the political campaign of the militant group Hamas.
''For sure, the martyrdom of my brother is a positive thing, because more people will vote for Hamas," Ayadeh said as hundreds of well-wishers greeted him hours later at the East Jerusalem funeral for his brother, a Hamas cell leader.
Yesterday's mix of politicking and death highlighted the awkward nature of the Palestinian election campaign in Jerusalem, the contested city that both Israelis and Palestinians claim as their capital.
Israel has only grudgingly agreed to permit Jerusalem's Palestinian population of more than 200,000 to vote in the Palestinian legislative elections on Jan. 25. Israel has administered both East and West Jerusalem since capturing the eastern portion in the 1967 war, and is reluctant to make any move that Palestinians might construe as a willingness to partition the city.
Hamas is forbidden from campaigning at all in East Jerusalem, because it is deemed a terrorist group, and other Palestinian factions complain that Israeli police subject them to suffocating restrictions.
Palestinian candidates say Israeli police rip down their signs and fine volunteers who distribute posters. Some Hamas candidates have been arrested for campaigning inside Jerusalem.
In this climate, candidates from every Palestinian faction, not just Hamas, made sure they were seen front and center with the Ayadeh family at the funeral yesterday.
They didn't set out to treat the memorial as a campaign stop, several candidates said as they shook hands and laid out their electoral platforms, but they had few other venues to meet potential voters.
When Sheikh Mohammed abu Teir, the number two candidate on Hamas's electoral slate, found out about the funeral, he cut short an interview with a reporter at his home to hitch a ride there, dressed in a gray overcoat and a black tie with small orange dots that match his dyed neon-orange beard.
''He did his duty," Abu Teir said, turning to comfort the dead man's brother. ''The blood of martyrs is precious for us."
Until Sunday, Israeli officials had blocked all candidates from campaigning in East Jerusalem and had threatened to force Palestinian residents there to vote in the adjacent West Bank.
But acting prime minister Ehud Olmert said Sunday that he didn't want to give the Palestinian leadership any excuse to postpone elections and blame Israel, and he declared Palestinian voting could go ahead in East Jerusalem and candidates not linked to terror could campaign there, under strict conditions.
The campaigning yesterday highlighted the violent struggle at the heart of Hamas's identity.
Thabet Ayadeh, 24, was the leader of a Hamas terrorist cell, according to the Israeli Defense Forces.
He was killed in the Hamas stronghold of Tulkarm, a large city in the northern West Bank, during a predawn raid yesterday. Israel arrested 18 suspected militants in the sweep.
His family is from Hizma, a village of about 5,000 residents that spills down the side of a hillside in the no-man's land between Jerusalem and Ramallah. Hizma is part of Palestinian East Jerusalem, although it lies outside the 27-foot high concrete security barrier that surrounds much of the city and the Jewish settlements near it.
Thousands gathered in an icy drizzle around noon to wait for Ayadeh's body. Abu Teir circulated in the crowd, shaking hands.
Hizma is not a Hamas stronghold; most of its residents support Fatah, the faction founded by Yasser Arafat that now dominates the Palestinian Authority, the Palestinian governing body.
A pair of Fatah candidates wearily eyed the funeral crowd yesterday.
''The martyrdom hurts us, because it creates sympathy for the family of the martyr and voters will shift their allegiance to Hamas," said Hatem Abbas, 49, a pro-Fatah lawyer hoping to win a seat in the Palestinian Legislature in next Wednesday's election.
A huge banner with candidate Abbas's picture covered the entire side of the building behind him.
Many of the young men in the crowd, however, wore green Hamas banners draped over their chests and wore Hamas flags.
As the residents of Hizma waited in the chilling rain for the body to arrive, dozens of men swarmed the Israeli soldiers at the entrance to the village, throwing rocks. The soldiers fired in the air to disperse the crowd.
The Palestinian election campaign in Jerusalem is largely playing out against the kind of backdrop that Hizma provided yesterday: crowds of unemployed and disaffected young men whose bored days are occasionally punctuated by fraught tension during the almost ritualistic clashes with the Israeli soldiers.
Hatem Abbas said a nephew was arrested and fined for putting up his campaign posters in downtown Jerusalem earlier this week. Candidates are supposed to give police advance notice before holding any public event in Jerusalem. While Hamas is barred from any campaigning in the capital, including putting up posters, candidates not from organizations classified as terrorists are supposed to be given wide latitude to politick in Jerusalem.
''Israel says one thing, but they are behaving differently in reality," Abbas said.
Abu Teir, 55, the Hamas candidate, was arrested after holding a press conference in Jerusalem's Old City on Sunday, a brazen violation of the ban on Hamas campaigning in Jerusalem. Israeli authorities released him within a day.
Like candidates from the factions, he said he wouldn't refrain from campaigning in Jerusalem. Nor does he think Palestinians should dissociate themselves from violent resistance.
''These men are my sons," abu Teir said while comforting Ayadeh, who has lost two brothers fighting IsraelAbu Teir said he had tutored one of the Ayadeh brothers in prison, where abu Teir has spent much of the last 30 years because of his involvement in Hamas.
Ola Umm Omar, 27, described herself as a voter won over by Hamas's blood sacrifices. ''I was reluctant before, but now I am sure I will vote for Hamas," Umm Omar said standing in her doorway holding her 7-month-old baby.
The Hamas militant killed in the raid, she said, ''was innocent, he will go to paradise."
Dozens of teenage men carried Thabet Ayadeh's body down a steep incline on an orange stretcher, his face exposed to the sky, his head capped with a green Hamas headband. ''Revenge!" the men chanted. ''We sacrifice our blood and soul for the martyr!"
The spectacle failed to move Hamdan Nimr, 52, a once-prosperous construction company owner who has watched good times come and go through cycles of peace and intifadah.
Palestinian elections, Nimr said, are meaningless. ''Even the president needs a permit from the Israelis to go anywhere," Nimr said, explaining why he wouldn't bother to vote in these elections.
Gesturing at the crowd in Hizma, he added that Islamic militancy was on the rise.
''The peace process has failed, so most people here will vote for Hamas," Nimr shrugged. ''When you have no hope, you vote Hamas."
© Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company
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