RAMALLAH: Pales­tinians commemorated 10 years since the mysterious death of their iconic leader Yasser Arafat on Tuesday but a war of words between rival factions Fatah and Hamas marred the anniversary.

The frictions blocked a rare memorial service for Arafat planned for Gaza, after Hamas said it could not provide security following a series of bomb blasts in the territory.

President Mahmud Abbas, the Fatah leader and Arafat’s successor, accused the Islamist movement Hamas that controls Gaza of trying “to destroy” efforts to broker national unity.

Hamas hit back, accusing Abbas of uttering “lies, insults and disinformation”.

The contrast for the anniversary was striking on the ground in Gaza City and the West Bank city of Ramallah, where Abbas’s Palestinian Authority is based.

As a band paid musical tributes, thousands of people waving the yellow flag of Fatah gathered at the Mouqataa compound in Ramallah where Arafat was buried after his death at 75 in a hospital near Paris on November 11, 2004.
“The hour of freedom and independence has arrived,” read a giant banner on the stage where Abbas gave a speech.

Yasser Arafat

In Gaza City, Arafat’s portrait was nowhere to be seen and the stage where a tribute was to have been paid bore the marks of an explosion last Friday.

“We were hoping this anniversary would mark the end of Palestinian divisions and show national unity, with Hamas standing alongside Fatah in paying tribute,” said Suheila Barbah, a young woman in Gaza City.

Arafat was “the personification of national unity,” said Refaat Hajaj, a Gazan in his 30s. “They have deprived us of this anniversary”. In his speech for the anniversary, Abbas charged that Hamas was behind the Gaza explosions which targeted Fatah leaders.

“Those who caused the explosions in Gaza are the leaders of Hamas — they are responsible,” he said, accusing the rival faction of trying “to sabotage and destroy the Palestinian national project”.Earlier this year, the two movements signed a reconciliation agreement aimed at ending seven years of bitter and sometimes bloody rivalry which saw the West Bank and Gaza ruled by separate administrations.

The deal led to the creation of a national consensus government which took office in Ramallah but has yet to fully exert its powers in Gaza, Hamas’s stronghold.

Published in Dawn, November 12th, 2014