Islamic Groups Hasten to Save Assets

The morning after the Palestinian Authority announced that it would shut down offices associated with Islamic militant groups, employees of the Elehssan Society rushed to work to cart away anything of value.

“The last time the sulta [Palestinian Authority] shut down Islamic offices, they kicked in the doors, confiscated everything, and we never got it back,” Mohammed Afifi said Thursday. The 27-year-old computer programmer volunteers at Elehssan, a charitable organization run by Islamic Jihad. “We’re not taking chances this time,” he said.

Across the Gaza Strip, the scene was repeated Thursday as Islamic militant organizations scrambled to preserve their assets. The Palestinian Authority held back from enforcing its order after a night of Israeli bombing and raids in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.

By midafternoon, prayer rugs still covered the floors at Elehssan’s main office and posters of Fathi Shikaki, the founder of Islamic Jihad, hung on the walls. Shikaki was killed in 1995 by agents widely assumed to be working for Israel.

But desktops had been cleared off. The computers, fax machine, scanner and files were gone--distributed, Afifi said, to “places where they will be safe.” The front door was locked, and Afifi opened it only to tell the poor who knocked that Elehssan was out of business.

Similar removals were happening at Elehssan’s eight branch offices, Afifi said, and at other institutions associated with the Islamic militant organizations. A statement by Palestinian Authority Information Minister Yasser Abed-Rabbo implying that the crackdown might not come did not stop the process.

“It’s impossible for the Palestinian leadership to implement its commitment under the shadow of this comprehensive war,” Abed-Rabbo said in the West Bank city of Ramallah. “We are committed to all that we promised, but we can’t implement it.”

U.S. and Israeli demands that Yasser Arafat dismantle Islamic militant groups present the Palestinian Authority president with a predicament: The groups have become a nearly irreplaceable part of Gaza’s tattered social safety net.

Enforcement of the order would be deeply unpopular in this teeming, impoverished strip of land that has always been the stronghold of the Palestinian Islamic groups.

After more than 14 months of fighting with Israel, tens of thousands of families have come to depend on Islamic charities to help them survive. Hamas and the much smaller Islamic Jihad routinely give money to the families of those killed fighting Israel and distribute food, clothes and money to the destitute. They operate medical clinics and run kindergartens and sports camps.

Naamat Radwan, a 40-year-old mother of eight, came knocking at Elehssan’s door Thursday after two other Islamic charitable offices told her they were no longer functioning.

“What am I to do?” the distraught woman asked when Afifi told her that he, too, was out of business. “My husband is ill, he cannot work. My children are crying. We have the holiday feast coming up, and we haven’t eaten meat for a month.”

If the Palestinian Authority follows through on its decision, Radwan said, “then how will people live?”

The Palestinian revolt against Israel’s military control over parts of the West Bank and Gaza Strip has made high unemployment, poverty and even hunger endemic here.

Strapped for cash and barely able to function, the Palestinian Authority cannot cope with tens of thousands of needy families. Islamic charitable groups, funded largely by outside donations, have played an important part in bridging the gap between what the authority can provide and what people desperately need.

“If they lose us, it will mean more frustration among the people, it will mean more are pushed to be extreme and more will be willing to die,” Afifi said.

But Israel charges that the charitable organizations are often nothing more than fronts for the recruitment of militants willing to carry out suicide missions against Jewish settlements and Israeli cities. The Israeli government demands that Arafat arrest the militants and dismantle the groups.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad officials said Thursday that Arafat must reject the demand.

“Hamas is not institutions, compounds that can be closed down,” said Sheik Said Siam, one of the few Hamas political operatives who still talks to reporters. Most Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders have gone underground in recent weeks to escape Israeli death squads and Palestinian security sweeps.

“It is a movement with roots in the heart of the people. It is a jihad [holy war] movement that cannot be shut down because you cannot shut down a people.”

Both Siam and Afifi experienced the 1996 Palestinian Authority crackdown on their groups, after a series of suicide bombings inside Israel threatened to wreck the peace process. Hundreds of militants were jailed, offices were closed, and charitable organizations were shut down until public protest forced the Palestinian Authority to rescind the measures.

This time, they said, the authority’s position is far weaker because the militant groups’ suicide attacks against Israel have gained popularity among Palestinians as the hopes for peace have faded, and because people are more desperately needy.

“The difference between then and now is that most people view the Hamas strategy as correct,” Siam said. “The people are more aligned with the option of resistance.”

Hamas and Islamic Jihad reject the notion of any sort of negotiated settlement between Israel and the Palestinians, and they insist that the Jewish state must be eliminated and replaced with an Islamic Palestinian state in all of what was once the British mandate of Palestine.

But Afifi worries that although Arafat may not have the strength to crack down on militants, the outside world--its views colored by the Sept. 11 terror attacks--may allow Israel to do the job, as the state is vowing it will if Arafat fails to act.