Money makes Iraqi popular
www.accessatlanta.com By MARGARET COKER The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Craig Nelson / AJC
George Al Eid, an unemployed West Bank house painter, wonders what good war will do. "In the end we, the little people, will suffer, just like the last war," he said.
BETHLEHEM, West Bank -- He remains popular and his portrait hangs in some Palestinian living rooms as a champion of charity in times of crisis. His name is derided by others as a symbol of cruelty.
As a second gulf war looms, Saddam Hussein dominates Palestinian conversations. While Palestinian opinions of the Iraqi president range from aversion to sympathy to hard-core support, many believe his possible downfall will only spell doom for their quest for statehood.
Saddam "is a dictator. He makes his people starve. . . . But what will war solve?" asked George Al Eid, an unemployed house painter who lives in Bethlehem. "For us the scenario is clear. War will cause a spark for Arab militants and Israelis alike, and we'll all see more violence. In the end we, the little people, will suffer, just like the last war."
In 1991, Palestinians were a notable exception to the strong international coalition backing U.S.-led military strikes against Iraq. Then, Yasser Arafat declared his solidarity with Saddam, and many Palestinians identified with the Iraqi's anti-Israeli rhetoric.
But blowback from his political posturing was immediate and harsh. At the end of the war, relations between Arab states and the Palestinians disintegrated when Kuwait and other Persian Gulf countries kicked out tens of thousands of Palestinians living and working there, a move that helped devastate the Palestinian economy.
This time around, Arafat has been cautious about his position toward Saddam. In public statements he has urged the Iraqi leader to obey U.N. resolutions ordering his disarmament. He has not come out in favor of Saddam, said Arafat aides, because he doesn't want to damage his own reputation as president of the Palestinian Authority, which has been stained with allegations of terrorism.
Saddam's helping hand
Saddam's popularity remains strong among most Palestinians because he has tried to fill the financial gaps for families during the 28-month-old conflict between Palestinian militants and Israel. Charities linked to Saddam have sent payments of up to $10,000 to families of suicide bombers and to those who have lost relatives during the Israeli army's reoccupation of the West Bank.
Pro-Saddam sentiment is most evident in the Gaza Strip, where daily life perhaps most closely reflects life in Iraq. Besieged themselves, Palestinians here sympathize with Saddam as U.S. and allied soldiers mass near his borders. Hungry and hurting, they understand the suffering of Iraqi citizens under U.N. sanctions for the last 11 years.
In Gaza, an overcrowded sandy strip of land, militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad frequently organize protests. Recently, these rallies have focused on Iraq, with Hamas spiritual leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin urging his followers to attack Western interests around the world if the United States launches military strikes against Baghdad. "It's a crusader's aggression, a crusader's war and an occupation.
"Muslims will have to threaten and strike Western interests, and hit them everywhere," Yassin said in a sermon this month. "As they fight us, we have to fight them, and as they threaten our interests, we have to threaten their interests."
The Hamas leader, however, did not link his call for Muslim unification against the West with an endorsement of Saddam.
This nuance is not lost on Yusef Salamah, 50, a father of five who lives in a three-story stone house around the corner from Bethlehem's Manger Square. He got $10,000 from Saddam after his 19-year-old son, Jonny, was killed last year from a bullet believed to have come from an Israeli sniper.
Returning the favors
The money has kept his family afloat while the intifada has kept Salamah from working. Yet it hasn't colored his views toward the Iraqi leader.
"Arafat made a mistake during the first [gulf] war. We suffered for his position. We can't support Saddam if it means sacrificing our own fight," Salamah said.
Other Palestinians disagree. They say Saddam deserves the same loyalty he's shown them over the last 11 years. Or, at the very least, he deserves respect for not caving in to what they see as an American plan to conquer Muslim nations in the Middle East.
"Saddam is a courageous man. He stands up for Palestinians. He stands up to the American bully and its little brother Israel," said Umm Samir el-Ranisi, the mother of an 18-year-old suicide bomber who killed 18 people in an Israeli grocery store last year.
In a lively debate in the family's living room, where a framed picture of Saddam hangs next to portraits of their deceased daughter, Umm Samir and husband Mohammed defended the Iraqi leader as a hero.
"Saddam comes to our aid when everyone else spurns us. Where is Arafat when we are hurting? Where is [Egyptian President Hosni] Mubarak? Where is [Saudi King] Fahd? Where is the sponsor of peace?" asked Mohammed el-Ranisi, referring to America. "When someone else comes to our rescue, we will give our respect to him. But right now, no one helps Palestinians more than Saddam."