Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, September 21, 1993 TAG: 9309210031
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: GAZA CITY, OCCUPIED GAZA STRIP LENGTH: Medium
"Today we are fighting with stones and knives," the 10 boys sang. "Tomorrow we will fight with pistols and machine guns."
The 8,000 spectators chanted approval, and roared when the poets, politicians and prayer leaders called for attacks against Israel and for tearing up the PLO's peace treaty with the Jewish state.
Palestinian factions are girding for a fight to prove they can control the Gaza Strip. Some hope to undermine the pact's establishment of gradual self-rule in the Gaza and West Bank.
Initial attempts to fight the plan drowned in the public euphoria. But opponents say time will make clear the changes' limits and bring Gazans over to their side.
"Trying to fight the plan now is like trying to tell a starving man that a delicious platter of food is riddled with poison, especially since a friend brought it," said Abu Mohammed, an organizer for the Islamic Resistance Movement, or Hamas.
"Now most people are happy. But when they confront reality it will be the hour for the Muslims," he said.
PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat and his backers promise better times in Gaza through a huge injection of aid, plus a strong police force to restrain dissenters.
To add a note of soberness about the days ahead, the PLO canceled all public rallies, saying they were disruptive in light of the recent moves.
The flags are the most telling sign of support for autonomy.
Only the mosques fly black banners. Hundreds of thousands of refugee hovels sprout the red, black, white and green Palestinian flag, snapping in the steady sea breeze that never quite erases the smell of raw sewage and rotting garbage.
Any government trying to establish control and inaugurate development for the 800,000 Gazans faces enormous problems. Permission for 80,000 residents to work in Israel has been slashed to about 20,000 due to security fears, and Gulf remittances dried up because the PLO backed Iraq during the Gulf War.
The economic hardships of the past two years have largely destroyed the feeling of solidarity and shared sacrifice built up by the intefadeh, the 6-year-old uprising against the occupation.
"People are celebrating because they think they won't have to pay taxes, insure their cars or pay municipal fees. People think they can just grab a bag and collect money," said Salah Abdul-Shafi, an economist who distributes European financial aid.
An initial $3 billion in aid is projected, but at least that much is needed to improve Gaza's inferior roads, sewage, ports and housing.
"Arafat does not have much time. He cannot tell people you have to wait five years for a better standard of living. They want it within six months," Abdul-Shafi said.
Even that may not be enough.
From his four-room cement shack in Beach Refugee Camp, 41-year-old Awad Ismael Al-Najjar and 17 family members look over a garbage dump toward the strip of Israeli coast that once belonged to his family.
"What can we get better? At most we will get the charity of a new two-bedroom house," said al-Najjar, whose 19-old-son died by blowing himself up outside an Israeli police station last week.
by CNB