GAZA: People in Gaza are turning against Yasser Arafat ... or are they? Nuala Haughey went to find out
Gaza City's wedding season is in full swing, and when the sun begins to set, the newly-weds are fêted in hotel receptions held on terraces overlooking the glittering sea.
On the beaches, children so poor that they beg other bathers for small change to buy a sandwich are at least able to have fun leaping around in the waves, one of the few recreational amenities this place has to offer.
Life seems normal, as normal as it gets in this often volatile coastal enclave, which is little more than an open-air prison for some 1.3 million stateless Palestinians.
But Gaza's political life is churning like sand agitated by a restless ocean.
The last week has seen a rash of kidnappings of two local figures and four French aid workers, as well as gun battles and public demonstrations.
All are manifestations of an internal Palestinian battle for power ahead of Israel's planned withdrawal of troops and some 7,500 illegal Jewish settlers from the Strip.
At the heart of the turmoil in Gaza is a deepening rift between the old guard within Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's ruling Fatah movement and a younger generation who have come of age in the territories, feel under-represented, and are demanding reforms. Both sides are also keen to position themselves to control what many believe will be a fledgling Palestinian state in Gaza if Israel fulfils its pledge to pull out.
The younger leaders of Fatah accuse the old guard of Arafat loyalists of looting Palestinian coffers and monopolising power, but corruption is not something that the veterans have any monopoly on in this society.
The main challenger to Arafat within Fatah is Mohammed Dahlan, a former Palestinian security chief and a Gaza power broker who has fashioned himself as a reformer and is garnering public support, especially among younger people, in the Strip.
Conflicting interests and opinions within the Fatah factions have stalled internal reform plans and attempts to agree on how to deal with security, economic and political issues post-Israeli withdrawal from the Strip, says Talal Okal, a Gaza-based analyst and newspaper columnist.
"There are so many problems and challenges locally. We are getting closer to the Israeli withdrawal [scheduled for 2005] but there are no solutions so there is an internal depression. There is a critical need to express this depression publicly and the kidnappings and demonstrations are part of this, and the process is still running. I'm not sure if the reformers were behind the kidnappings, but what I'm saying is that it has helped them because it has declared that there is a crisis and created an atmosphere where people could go out and say so."
This crisis took another turn on Wednesday when Palestinian lawmakers gave overwhelming support for a resolution calling on Arafat to form a new government that will have greater control over the security forces, as well as the authority to fight internal corruption and introduce political reforms.
The parliamentarians want Arafat to appoint a new prime minister to replace Ahmed Qurei, who announced last Saturday that he was resigning because of the lawlessness in Gaza and the disarray in the unwieldy Palestinian security services. Their stance reflects a widespread feeling that Qurei's government has limited authority and has failed to establish security and safety for Palestinians since it was established last October.
Arafat loyalists have long blamed the administrative problems within the Palestinian Authority - created almost 10 years ago during the Oslo peace process to govern the West Bank and Gaza Strip - on the debilitating effects of Israel's occupation of the territories.
But with the situation worsening, more Palestinians are publicly pointing the finger of blame at the Fatah movement, and at the president himself.
Arafat, under domestic and international pressure to relinquish some of his broad powers, agreed to establish the post of prime minister last year. But both incumbents, Qurei and his predecessor Mahmoud Abbas, have been thwarted by the narrowness of their roles. Arafat has still refused to accept Qurei's resignation.
"I believe that any prime minister who will be now entrusted with the job will ask beforehand for some authority and jurisdiction, otherwise he is going to face the same problems as Qurei," says the Gaza-based parliamentarian Marwan Kanafani, who was part of the seven-member committee which presented the recommendations for reform to fellow lawmakers this week.
"Arafat and the leadership of Fatah and the Palestinian Authority carries the main responsibility for all the chaos that is happening here," said Mr Okal.
"Arafat alone cannot solve the problems, but because he is a major player he can help more than anybody. He should first agree to give the sign to start Palestinian national dialogue and embark on political reforms. But we can't accept any suggestion that Arafat should resign, because he was elected by the people."
Pleas to Arafat to sort out the chaos is as close as one can expect to outright criticism in the Palestinian parliament of the veteran leader who is an icon of the Palestinian struggle for statehood.
Even those who accuse Arafat of corruption and cronyism acknowledge his unique role and history as the leader of the Palestinian people for more than three decades.
In the Gaza Strip, thousands of demonstrators who took to the streets yesterday to protest against the corruption of Arafat's cousin Mussa, a local security chief, made it clear that their argument was with their president, not against him.
"The man is popular. People curse at him and say things about him but they like him ... People appreciate his history in their subconscious, and sometimes in their conscious this man is a necessity to prevent a huge civil war in the country. He is the only person that not only individuals but political parties, the security apparatus and the cabinet listen to," acknowledges Mr Kanafani.
Mr Arafat previously spent much of his time in Gaza, but the Israelis have confined him to the wreckage of his West Bank compound in Ramallah for more than two years.
On Gaza's beachfront this week, families camping in canvas tents were united in their support for Yasser Arafat, while critical of the pervasive corruption within the Palestinian Authority.
"Any disputes inside Fatah or between any factions only serve Israel," said Fadel Mohammed Tatar (29), an unemployed Gaza resident who was spending the day on the beach with his wife and five children.
"Israel enjoys watching us fighting and in the meantime they expand their settlements in Gaza and the West Bank and at the same time they are able to say to the international community, 'Look at the Palestinians \ how they fight.'"