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In the towns, villages and refugee camps of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the Muslim fundamentalist Hamas movement and Yasir Arafat's Fatah faction are fighting for the hearts, minds and votes of the Palestinians. Hamas has made some spectacular political gains, and in its confidence, has embraced Israel's idea of holding municipal elections. In many places, though, Fatah is holding its ground. The Jerusalem Report asks: Who would win if elections were held in the territories today?
Hamas, the fundamentalist Islamic Resistance Movement, which sprang into existence in the Gaza Strip in early 1988, is on a winning streak in the territories.
Some of its recent political gains have even begun to challenge the long-held belief among Palestinians and outsiders that the West Bank and Gaza Strip is primarily the turf of PLO chief Yasir Arafat's Fatah faithful.
A string of Hamas victories in elections for local Palestinian institutions have shaken PLO complacency, particularly among Arafat's own Fatah faction. Both organizations are outlawed, and compete in elections under assumed names. Hamas, which rejects the peace process and the two-state solution, runs on the "Islamic" ticket; Fatah's supporters usually run as "nationalists." One of Fatah's most crushing defeats was its loss of control of the chamber of commerce in Ramallah, a half-Christian town in the West Bank which has always been considered a Fatah stronghold. But as a result of the March 4 vote, the Hamas-affiliated Islamic bloc now holds 11 of the 12 seats on the chamber's administrative board. The pattern was repeated in April, at East Jerusalem's Al-Makassed Hospital.
No wonder, then, that Israel's proposal to hold municipal elections in 25 areas of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, first floated at peace talks in April, triggered a somewhat bizarre response. Hamas and its new ally, the Marxist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine that, like Hamas, boycotts the Arab- Israeli negotiations have embraced the election idea.
The mainstream Fatah organization, which spearheads Palestinian participation in the peace process, rejects it. Municipal elections, it argues, should come after general elections, and as part of an overall settlement.
Fatah is under siege. Arafat has ordered an inquiry into why traditional Fatah strongholds in the territories have been able to fall into the...