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March 14, 2003/Adar2 10 5763, Vol. 55, No. 29
Palestinians rally for Saddam
GIL SEDAN
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
JERUSALEM - Mahmoud Abbas, the choice for Palestinian Authority prime minister, hardly could have been appointed at a worse time: Just when Abbas could use a little help from his American friends in establishing his clout, the Palestinian street is erupting in support for Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, the Bush administration's worst enemy.
For several simple reasons, Palestinian support for Saddam goes back to the first Persian Gulf War 12 years ago: Saddam dares to confront the United States, which many Palestinians perceive as their enemy; Saddam is perceived as another "underdog" in the Middle East; and Saddam has been one of the main supporters of the Palestinian intifada, sending payments of $10,000 to $25,000 to the families of Palestinians killed fighting Israel, with special premiums paid for suicide bombers.
Unlike in 1991, when Arafat openly backed Saddam's invasion of Kuwait and later supported him against an international - and Arab - coalition for war, Arafat this time has avoided bombastic statements of support in favor of expressions of solidarity in more subtle forums, such as greeting notes for Muslim holidays.
Yet support for Saddam cuts across Palestinian society. Thousands of demonstrators in the West Bank and Gaza Strip have turned out for pro-Saddam rallies at which they burn American and Israeli flags.
Even Palestinian schoolchildren have gotten into the act, conducting mock trials of President Bush. "The Young Palestinian Parliament," a youth group of P.A. President Yasser Arafat's Fatah Party, recently conducted a mock trial in which Bush was convicted as a war criminal responsible for the murder of Palestinian and Iraqi children.
Friday prayer sermons in Palestinian mosques also use strong language: In one recent prayer sermon on official Palestinian Television, religious leader Ibrahim Madiras defined America as "the foremost enemy of the Muslim nation."
Madiras compared Bush to ancient Egyptian pharaohs, suggesting that war against Iraq would be an imperialist war over oil, just as the war on terror is a cover for the theft of Arab oil, he said.
In an interview with JTA, Palestinian legislator Ziad Abu Ziad offered a different take.
"I want to tell you unequivocally: There is no support for Saddam Hussein," Abu Ziad said. "We support the Iraqi people, because we feel that they are victims of the situation."
Those Palestinians who sympathize with Saddam do so out of a shared hatred for Israel, he said.
But As'ad Ghanem, a political scientist at Haifa University, said most Palestinians make no distinction between Saddam and the Iraqi people - they support them all.
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