PALESTINE:The Doghmash clan faction, Army of Islam, thought they could use Alan Johnston to save them from Hamas, writes Michael Jansen
Alan Johnston was the fifteenth foreign journalist to be abducted in Gaza since 2004. The others were freed after hours or a week or two. Mr Johnston was held for four months. As in other cases, his captors were identified and his whereabouts were known by the authorities.
All the journalists were seized by armed clans with agendas. Most of the clans wanted jobs, or freedom for jailed members. But the faction of the Doghmash clan, the Army of Islam, which snatched Mr Johnston, believed it could use him to save itself from Hamas, which when it took power in 2006 vowed to curb the activities of criminal clans and disarm them.
The Gaza Strip has dozens of regionally based clans or extended families. The larger ones have 5,000 to 7,000 members. Most clans are benign family associations, such as the Shawwa, which has traditionally played a moderate role in politics. But some have formed criminal gangs which engage in racketeering, smuggling, murder and kidnapping. In Gaza City there are half a dozen criminal clans while others infest the north, centre and south of the Strip and wage turf wars.
The Army of Islam is headed by Mumtaz Doghmash, a godfather of the clan known as the Sopranos of Gaza. The Army of Islam's stated price for freeing Johnston was the release by Britain of firebrand Muslim preacher Abu Qatada - jailed for incitement to violence - and, reportedly, $5 million. Hamas says the only promise given to the Doghmash if Johnston was released was that their lives would be spared.
Before Palestinian Authority rule was instituted in 1994 in Gaza and the West Bank, the Doghmash, a small, poor clan of 2,500 members, ran a donkey cart transport business in Gaza City. They then branched out into smuggling cigarettes, drugs and other items from Egypt. During the second Intifada, the national uprising which began in September 2000, the Doghmash were affiliated with Fatah, then Hamas. The clan finally joined the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) and expanded business by smuggling weapons, which were sold openly in Gaza City markets. The Doghmash made a fortune, bought up apartment blocks and established construction firms.
The Army of Islam, the PRC and Hamas's al-Qassam militia, staged the cross-border operation which resulted in the capture of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit at the end of June 2006. But the Army of Islam apparently pulled out of the PRC, which also includes some Hamas elements, in August 2006 after clansmen kidnapped two journalists from the US Fox News network.
The group was said to have received a ransom of between $450,000 and $1.2 million for their release. This operation alienated Hamas. Fighting erupted when Hamas attempted to assert its authority in the Doghmash-dominated Sabra district of Gaza City. Two clan members were killed, sparking a Hamas-Doghmash feud.
This week Hamas's executive force, its security arm, surrounded Sabra, stationed snipers on rooftops and demanded the release of Johnston as well as nine students loyal to Hamas abducted on Monday. Hamas also killed a senior Doghmash figure and arrested the Army of Islam spokesman. It is unlikely to allow the clans to hold on to their arms for long. It has reiterated its call for an end to armed factions and clan violence.
Hamas sees the imposition of law and order in Gaza as a priority and a means of earning the respect of the international community, which has ostracised and boycotted the movement since it took power.
It says it hopes the momentum created by the freeing of Johnston will relaunch negotiations over an exchange of Sgt Shalit for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
If Hamas secures the freedom of prisoners and cracks down on Gaza's criminal clans, it will boost its credibility with Palestinians and, perhaps, with the EU. Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan could also be encouraged to press President Mahmoud Abbas and Fatah to reconcile with Hamas.