Hamas Crackdowns On Freedom In Hamastan

[JStone]

Hamas Support Declining Amid Crackdowns On Political Dissent

Samah Ahmed is once again a prisoner of Gaza, but this time it is at the hands of Hamas not Israel. Years of travelling relatively freely after Israel lost control of the enclave's border with Egypt came to an abrupt halt a few months ago when Ahmed's strident criticisms of Hamas caught the attention of Gaza's increasingly unpopular Islamist rulers.

Ahmed was beaten and stabbed at a political demonstration. Her brother was warned to keep her in line. Then Hamas stopped Ahmed leaving the Gaza Strip. Four times.

"I try to tell the truth and maybe the government didn't like it," she said of her blog. "Anything that is not organised by the Hamas government is viewed as against the government."

Hamas's popularity has declined every year it has been in power. Hamas control of Gaza brought an Israeli blockade and siege. Even though it was Israeli-imposed, a lot of people blame Hamas. The Palestinians voted Hamas for reform and change. They didn't vote for siege and blockade and unemployment. They voted to end the corruption. None of that happened

"They're back to the same old corruption," said Mohammed Mansour, a human rights activist and part of a growing community of young people pressing for political change. "Hamas is a party that only benefits its own party, its own supporters. If you want a job, if you want to do business, you must be a supporter of Hamas. Some people in Hamas have got very rich. You see the big houses, you see the new cars."

That has created resentment among Gazans struggling to get by in the face of mass unemployment and low incomes.

"I think people are different now," said Ola Anan, a 27-year-old computer engineer. "It's a long time since anything has changed. I think people feel hopeless that they're going to change. If it's going to change it's only for the worse. A lot of people are losing faith in politics altogether. Sometimes I think we need to follow the Arab spring and create something new. People are so fed up."

Hamas, ever sensitive to any challenge to its authority, moved swiftly to neuter the threat by at first hijacking the demonstration and then violently suppressing activists who attempted to turn it into a rolling protest modelled on other Arab uprisings.

Some of the demonstrators were severely beaten, including many women who suffered broken bones. Ahmed was stabbed by a man in a Hamas uniform and was taken to hospital.

"They used a lot of violence against those who stayed," she said. "Anything that is not organised by the government is viewed as against the government."

Ahmed says the authorities have four times prevented her from leaving the Gaza Strip, she believes because of her public criticisms of Hamas on her blog.

"I feel watched. They gave warnings to my brother. They took our cameras and phones. They can do that but I'm going to continue to seek the right to freedom," she said.

Hamas support on the wane amid crackdowns on political dissent | World news | guardian.co.uk