Muhammad Dahlan has denied accusations of devising the spate of violence and anarchy in Palestinian areas last week.
In an interview with the London-based daily Al-Hayyat, former minister of internal security Muhammad Dahlan said the accusations against him were made by “defeatists”. Protests for reforms erupted after a decade of repeatedly demanding the Palestinian leadership cares for the interests of the people, he said.
Dahlan has been implicated as the man who orchestrated last week’s protests and violent clashes with Palestinian security forces. He supports reforms and reportedly opposes the sweeping hold Palestinian Authority Chairman Yassir Arafat and his henchmen have in the leadership.
Meanwhile clashes in Gaza continued over the weekend. A police station in Gaza was set alight and members of the Al-Aq’sa Martyrs Brigades, said to be the military wing of Arafat’s Fatah, seized control of the Khan Younis district governor’s office for five hours. The men demanded that Arafat’s nephew, Mousa Arafat, be removed from his senior security post and that members of the group be reinstated in jobs from which they were dismissed. Arafat reportedly said he was considering complying with the employment demands.
“The occupation and the corruption intensify each other,” Dahlan said. He said there is not only financial corruption, but also political, administrative and moral corruption, which has harmed negotiations with Israel in the past.
Dahlan denied that he is at odds with Arafat. “The disagreement is with the corrupted classes who want to keep the Palestinian symbol besieged so they will continue to receive financial benefits, and the occupation can continue under these pretenses,” he said.
Dahlan denied that a civil war is breaking out in Gaza and said the Palestinian people have witnessed trying times in the past.
He scoffed at accusations suggesting he is a U.S. puppet. “The United States has failed in every aspect,” he said. “I negotiated with Yassir Arafat for eight years with American and other parties, and I don’t feel obligated to any side,” he said.