PA: Hamas is “exploiting the Palestinian people’s blood"
Excerpt of a column by Muwaffaq Matar, Fatah Revolutionary Council member and regular columnist for the official PA daily
Headline: “Hamas’ method of turning the homeland into a cemetery”
“How will Hamas’ sheikhs and leaders succeed in convincing the young people of the Gaza Strip that they have ‘a project of resistance and jihad’ and causing them to bear the consequences and demands of faith in this project and its implementation, at a time when these same leaders have willingly left the homeland and preferred to live comfortably in hotels and villas and spend millions each week at the expense of regional states that they work for? …
The thinking people in the homeland did not need to see the gathering of thousands of residents in the Gaza Strip in front of the chamber of commerce to submit requests for work permits in ‘Israel’ in order to prove their estimation and assertion that Hamas’ so-called ‘government that follows the upright path’ has failed approximately 15 years since its coup (see note below -Ed.)…
The mass flow of young and old people [to the chamber of commerce] proves that the Muslim Brotherhood’s branch in Palestine, which is called Hamas, has not succeeded in coming up with solutions for the economic and social problems of approximately 2 million residents in the Gaza Strip…
At this opportunity, we don't forget the fact that Hamas is using the Israeli security and economic blockade as an excuse for this sight, while its leaders insist on denying their direct responsibility and deliberately avoid examining the reasons for this…
This sight is evidence of the collapse of Hamas’ project, and not only in government as happened to the rest of the Muslim Brotherhood’s branches in the Arab states… but also in causing the public to believe in the project of jihad and resistance. This is because after four wars, thousands of victims (Martyrs) [parentheses in source], tens of thousands of wounded, tens of thousands of destroyed homes, and thousands of destroyed economic facilities, it has become clear to the Palestinian public in the Gaza Strip that the Hamas leaders are interested in exploiting the Palestinian people’s blood, just cause, and struggle with the racist colonialist occupation system for the benefit a project of ‘regional services’ (i.e., services that Hamas carries out for states in the region)…
Citizen Mahmoud Mitwali told [the official PA daily] Al-Hayat Al-Jadida in an issue that was published yesterday, Saturday [Oct. 9, 2021]: ‘I never expected that I would stand in this crowd of thousands packed one on top of the other. Death by suffocation or by blows in this crowd is something expected… Here everything is stolen – a life, future, and livelihood, and even a smile and a dignified life.’ [Another citizen] Sa’id Al-Daqn said: ‘I admit that the miserableness that we experience in the Gaza Strip, the oppression, and the subjugation do not justify that we be pushed with such craziness to receive work permits, but the corruption, favoritism, and exaggerated wealth of some of the senior officials in Gaza, in addition to the privileges that the children of the leaders in Gaza receive while the people is collapsing under the poverty line, have caused us to seek dignity for our children and a livelihood in any way possible.’”
2007 Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip - Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah won the 2005 Palestinian Authority Presidential election. However, Hamas won the 2006 parliamentary elections in both the Gaza Strip and West Bank, with a majority of 74 out of 132 seats, to Fatah's 45 seats. Fatah's rule of the PA Presidency and Hamas' rule of the PA government led to friction and eventually armed conflict between Hamas and Fatah. Hamas defeated Fatah militarily in the Gaza Strip in 2007, and since then Hamas has ruled in Gaza while the PA continues to rule the PA areas in the West Bank under Fatah.