A well-informed friend of this site objected to the post we put up yesterday, called "Gazans beg for Shalit's release. Hamas official says No," which was sharply critical of Hamas's human-rights conduct in Gaza. The original post was written by a human-rights worker in Gaza who goes by the blog-name, Queen of Sheba, and who is half-Muslim and speaks Arabic. Below is our friend's criticism, followed by a response by Queen of Sheba.
I found the account from the young woman in Gaza to be either very
naive or somewhat suspect. I cannot imagine who these Palestinians are
that are "begging" for the release of Shalit. But then this Hamas
regime is so repressive that people are afraid to leave their homes,
but not too afraid apparently to criticize Hamas openly for holding on
to the single Israeli POW Palestinians have while Israel holds 11,000
Palestinians and continues to kidnap more every day. The fact that she
says she has heard criticism of Hamas everywhere is a hint that people
might not be as terrified as she suggests. Also, the idea that Hamas is
torturing people, and then they are in hospitals and she can simply go
into the hospital and talk to people openly about the torture they have
experienced makes no sense whatsoever.
The claims about shooting kneecaps (an old Irish practice) have been
widely circulated by Fatah, and yet not one "knee-capped" person has
been produced. This account contains all the old claims that Fatah
thugs have been circulating about Hamas since 2006, and it seems the
"liberal left-leaning" circles in which this young woman moves have fed
her much the same. It seems in any case that her mind was already made
up:
"The Gazans keep confirming what had always seemed to me to be the
case- because Hamas has a extremely weak foreign policy, and only knows
how to deal with internal issues, and even internally makes mistakes,
it would have failed on its own."
Really? How convenient.
I don't think anyone would expect a resistance movement under siege to
act like (to use Dov Weissglass' term) Finns and I would challenge
anyone to find one that did. PCHR and other groups have done a pretty
good job of documenting abuses (and Hamas has not done anything to
them). But the "Queen's" lurid and inconsistent account lacks basic
credibility.
Now here is Queen of Sheba's response:
I would like to respond to this critique of my post because this is an issue that I think is extremely important for the international community to deal with.
The event I was at where the audience were asking for the release of Shalit was a discussion on the ongoings of the Cairo dialogue and the people at the event because of connections among other things are a little more able to openly criticize Hamas' politics. Those that are known Fatah members who do not have the right connections do lie in fear, to the point that many have tried to leave and move to the West Bank. The call to release Shalit is not one that I personally am advocating. I was giving no judgment, I was merely trying to report on the different views regarding Hamas policies and convey the fact that not all of Gaza stands behind them.
A doctor from an international NGO came here on a delegation soon after the Offensive, and is currently still here (for the record, politically he is completely pro-Palestinian). On his tour he visited a hospital and was asking about what had happened to the different patients and when he asked about one, a man with bandages around his knees, the doctor said, "Oh he is not worth your concern, he is a collaborator with Fatah." This is one of multiple cases, I am working on a project with local medic units here and have seen pictures and heard stories from them of people that have been tortured and beaten black and blue. I can try to get a hold of these pictures and post them if that is what it takes. However, I ask anyone who is doubtful to contact local organizations like Medecin du Monde, the IR, Medecins Sans Frontiers, as well as the local NGOs- Al Mean and PcHR and ask them.
I guarantee that no one here in the medical field can deny what is going on at the hands of the government. The criticisms of Hamas have come from people after conversing with them long enough so that they know that I am a foreigner working for a local NGO that is often critical of Hamas. Politically these people are Fatah, Jabha, or not members of any party. Many of them are people who were former Hamas supporters and have changed their minds.
I came here much less critical of Hamas. Though I felt that they did not have a strong idea of foreign policy and therefore could not survive in the long run, I did not know as much about as much about the situation internally and thought that internally they were doing a good and just job. It took being here and talking to many people and reading hundreds of affidavits of cases of torture and other abuses to understand the situation here. I would like to add that what Fatah has done in the West Bank is equally deplorable and if I was writing a blog on the West Bank I would be focusing on that. However, just because Fatah is carrying out these practices, that does not make it OK for Hamas to torture and kill civilians.
PHR and Al Mean have been kept open because Hamas does not want to send the image to the rest of the world that it does not let NGOs function. However I can tell you that certain NGOs have been having a very hard time renewing their permit to work here. In addition, in a speech given around two weeks ago by Hamas here in response to the ICC's decision regarding Bashir in Sudan, Hamas basically came out and said that the NGOs better tread very carefully if they want to stay here.
I wanted to keep my post short and therefore it may appear inconsistent, but you can question me on every fact and I am happy to provide an explanation. As I said, this is an important issue for me and something that the Gazan population needs to express.
Ultimately all I am trying to do is beseech people not to forget about the rights of the Palestinians internally within Gaza, because of the focus on the occupation. We need to be careful not to let people’s rights are subsumed by the greater issue. I am merely depicting the situation as it is on the ground. And when people auestion whether I am misrepresenting Hamas’s controlling policies, I need to stress that I cannot have my name anywhere on my blog; this is fact, not just me being paranoid.
Informal surveys–I stress the word informal because this is based on talking to people in the different regions of Gaza and asking what their opinion on the particular issue is–claim that IF there would be elections next year as there are meant to be, about 30% of the population would vote for them. Roughly the same number was given by everyone that was asked. Again I am not claiming this to be scientific at all, but it is a way of at least judging what locals are feeling. I would like to add that most of the people were very pessimistic that Hamas will allow elections next year.
