ISRAEL: Younger leaders of the Palestinian uprising view the 'old guard' led by Yasser Arafat as being tainted by corruption, writes Peter Hirschberg
The Palestinian intifada which began in September 2000 has often been portrayed not only as an uprising against Israeli occupation, but also as a grassroots protest against the Palestinian Authority itself.
That contention has been graphically borne out in the Gaza Strip over the last few days, with a series of kidnappings, resignations by senior political and security figures, and attacks on the institutions of the Palestinian Authority itself by militants, threatening to plunge the Strip into anarchy.
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, under growing pressure from militant groups associated with his ruling Fatah party, yesterday capitulated and demoted his nephew, Mr Mussa Arafat, whom he had appointed as his new security chief in Gaza only days earlier. Even if the move manages to stem the turmoil for now, there is no guarantee that the power struggle now playing itself out, will remain dormant.
The appointment of Mussa Arafat sparked resentment among armed Fatah-related groups as well as some Palestinian officials, who viewed the choice as an infuriating example of the cronyism and corruption that permeates the Authority.
Mussa Arafat is widely seen in the Strip as a corrupt and ruthless official. In 1996, for instance, he was widely condemned for shaving off the beards of members of the radical Islamic Hamas movement who were taken into custody by Palestinian security officers following a spate of suicide bombings in Israel.
But the battle over Mussa Arafat's appointment is an extension of a much broader struggle being waged - between the older generation of Palestinian leaders, headed by Yasser Arafat, who waged the national struggle in exile for years and returned to the Occupied Territories to take power 10 years ago, and the local, younger leaders of the uprising who feel they have been excluded from positions of power.
This latter group views the "old guard" as having built a regime in the territories that is tainted by corruption and graft.
They have demanded reforms - a codeword for reducing Mr Arafat's authority - and have accused the Palestinian government of being ineffective in extracting concessions from Israel.
If Mussa Arafat is considered a member of the "old guard," then the younger generation of leaders is represented by Mr Mohammed Dahlan, a former senior security official with a powerbase in Gaza, who has demanded reforms and is popular among western leaders.
There have been reports that Mr Dahlan is behind the latest wave of protests in the Strip - these included street demonstrations as well as the torching of the headquarters of Mussa Arafat in the town of Khan Yunis on Sunday - although his full role in the ferment is not entirely clear.
While Palestinians are still reluctant to call for Mr Arafat's removal - he remains the most potent symbol of their struggle for national self-determination - criticism of his system of government has become increasingly vocal.
Since arriving in the Occupied Territories to head the Palestinian Authority in 1994, Mr Arafat has resisted building democratic institutions. Newspapers critical of the Palestinian Authority have occasionally been shut and journalists arrested.
But what particularly angers many Palestinians, is the fact that a small group of their leaders have used their power and influence to get rich, while the majority of the people suffer daily hardship. Some officials have accumulated large sums of money via lucrative contracts with Israeli suppliers of goods to the territories.
Mr Arafat has been weakened by the period of extended isolation Israel has imposed on him by confining him to his compound in the West Bank city of Ramallah, and his security forces, particularly in the West Bank, have been decimated by the Israeli military.
Despite these blows, however, and in the face of international pressure, he has stubbornly refused to relinquish any of his powers.
This has contributed, in part, to the resignation of two prime ministers - Mahmoud Abbas in September last year, and Ahmed Qurei over the weekend. Both wanted the Palestinian leader to partially forgo his control of the Palestinian security forces.
The internal Palestinian power struggle is playing out against the backdrop of Prime Minister Mr Ariel Sharon's plan to unilaterally withdraw Israeli forces and settlers from Gaza by the end of 2005.
Mr Sharon's first response to the turmoil in the Strip was that it was confirmation of his contention that there is no reliable negotiating partner on the Palestinian side, and that his decision to take unilateral steps was justified.
But if some Israeli leaders are quietly rubbing their hands in self-congratulatory glee, they could find that the chaos in Gaza overflows into the West Bank.
Any vacuum could ultimately be filled by radical Islamic groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad which support the destruction of the Jewish state.
It is too early to write off Mr Arafat, who has often thrived in a situation of semi-chaos - sometimes even intentionally engineered by him - but it cannot be denied that, since its inception a decade ago, the Palestinian Authority is facing the most serious challenge to its legitimacy from within.