BICOM

The Hamas authority which controls the Gaza Strip prevented a demonstration in support of Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas from taking place yesterday.

The Fatah-dominated PA in the West Bank, and the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip have been fierce rivals since a bloody coup by Hamas in Gaza brought an end to a short lived unity government in June 2007.

The Palestinian Ma’an news agency reports that Fatah had planned a rally yesterday in Gaza City’s Square of the Unknown Soldier in support of Abbas, ahead of his meeting today with US President Barack Obama at the White House. The New York Times says that Hamas police confiscated posters of Abbas and Palestinian flags and arrested organisers of the rally as they attempted to reach the square. AFP reports figures from a Fatah official, saying that 13 people were arrested.

Fatah Central Committee Member Amal Hamad sharply criticised the measures taken by Hamas yesterday, saying “It is time for Hamas to side with the Palestinian people… who defend their rights and hold on to their national principles.” Hamad explained to the New York Times that the purpose of the rally was to show solidarity with Abbas and express support for “national principles” including rejecting recognition of Israel as a characteristically Jewish state, a position Abbas is expected to reiterate in Washington today.

Hamas virulently opposes any negotiations with Israel. A Hamas police spokesman told AFP that “Police broke up a gathering of a group of people who were demonstrating… because it was unauthorised.” Islam Shahwan, the spokesman for the Hamas-run Interior Ministry said that the rally was banned “in order to maintain the state of general security,” in particular because of the potential for “great internal polarisation.”

Challenges to Hamas authority in the Gaza Strip have increased in recent months, with the Islamist group weakened by the collapse of the Muslim Brotherhood government in Egypt, and the clampdown on its activities by the government in Cairo.