GAZAN VIEW ON SECURITY, FATAH FACTIONS

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 TEL AVIV 006039

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/30/2014
TAGS: PREL PGOV KWBG IS GAZA DISENGAGEMENT ISRAELI PALESTINIAN AFFAIRS
SUBJECT: GAZAN VIEW ON SECURITY, FATAH FACTIONS


Classified By: Political Counselor Norman H. Olsen for reasons 1.4 B an
d D.

ConGen Jerusalem cleared this message.


1. (C) Gaza business leader and longtime Embassy contact
Mohammed Yazgi told POL/C November 30 that he foresees an
eventual security team for Gaza comprised of Mohammed Dahlan,
Public Security Chief MG Mousa Arafat, and National Security
Forces MG Nasser Yusif -- a combination that he called "the
group of Abu Mazen." Yazgi said he could not predict what
roles exactly each of the three would play, but reports
reaching him indicate that the three are preparing to "work
together" at Abu Mazen's urging. Yazgi described the current
situation in Gaza as "no one in control," and carrying the
danger of further discord unless Abu Mazen and, in parallel,
the major Gazan families are able to engender both security
forces cooperation and a unified political movement.


2. (C) Yazgi said he discovered recently that workers from
the PA security services are busy remodeling a building next
to the Yazgi family home in the Rimal section of Gaza City to
serve as a combined-services operations center for the
various security services. (Note: The facility appears to be
the UK-funded Combined Operations Room, or COR.) Yazgi said
he noticed the remodeling efforts in what had been a
fire-gutted restaurant and went next door to inquire about
what was going on. The workers told him that in addition to
an operations room, the building would house offices for
Preventive Security Organization Chief Rashid Abu Shabak,
Public Security Director MG Mousa Arafat, and other
unspecified security chiefs, as well as an office for PLO
Chief Abu Mazen when he visits Gaza.


3. (C) Yazgi said that, in addition, longtime PLO Ambassador
to Germany Abdullah Efrangi recently invited Mohammed Dahlan,
Mousa Arafat, Rashid Abu Shabak, and Fatah Security Chief
Ahmad Hillas to a reconciliation dinner at which the chiefs
agreed to work together as a team. Yazgi cited the recent
announcement by Abu Shabak that he had disbanded the
long-rumored PSO "death squads" and sent the members back to
their original units as a step in the right direction,
although Yazgi said he had doubts that the squads would, in
fact, be totally eliminated.


4. (C) Yazgi claimed that Dahlan is the most popular
security figure in Gaza, despite what Yazgi termed Dahlan's
high level of corruption. Yazgi said that Mousa Arafat's
activities focus on mafia-like activities such as shakedowns,
debt collection on a percentage basis, and other measures
that directly impact -- and alienate -- individual Gazans.
Dahlan, on the other hand, has taken what Yazgi said the
business community estimates is more than $100 million by
high-level means, such as his commission scheme at Qarni
crossing and his embezzlement of PA funds. Mousa's
activities make him truly "hated," Yazgi said, while Gazans
can overlook Dahlan's far more successful and more profitable
illicit activities. He acknowledged, however, that Mousa
Arafat is both powerful and ruthless, and a key player in
Gaza security.


5. (C) Yazgi said that Abu Mazen has been trying "to correct
relations between" the now several Fatah-faction leaders in
the Strip. Abu Mazen, he commented, is both more popular in
the Gaza Strip than Abu Ala'a and "likes" the Gaza Strip
more. Abu Ala'a, Yazgi said, prefers the West Bank. Yazgi
said that there are now at least six major Fatah groupings
throughout the northern, middle and southern parts of the
strip, and Abu Mazen is trying to get them to work together.
Representatives from among Gaza's major families, those who
are historicaly Gazan rather than refugees from elsewhere in
historical Palestine, are making a parallel effort to forge
unity, both as a means of ending discord, and in preparation
for upcoming municipal and parliamentary elections. The main
families, he asserted, want to work together for "one vote,"
and avoid repeating the mistakes of the past when they all
went in different directions. Yazgi estimated that the
old-line families in Gaza totaled some 70 percent of Gaza
City's 540,000-person population. Residents of Shati refugee
camp comprise some ten percent, he said, with the remaining
population of mixed origin and affiliation. Yazgi said that
he had recently attended two dinners -- one of some 20
major-family representatives hosted by Justice Minister Nahed
Reyes and another hosted by the Bseiso family for some 60
major-family representatives -- to discuss aligning
positions. "If we make one decision we can return the
municipality to Gazans," as opposed to refugees and those who
returned from Tunis, Yazgi said.


6. (C) Asked about earlier efforts to work with the PA and
the security services to reform services and operations at
crossings into Israel and Egypt, Yazgi said he had made no
progress and did not anticipate making any. The security
services jealously guard their turf and the revenue they
accrue from controlling the crossings, he said, and the
business community has no means of pressing for a role.

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