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Lawlessness Breeding Ground for Gaza Social Woes
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Abu
Mazen pledged to end the weapon chaos ahead of the January 9
presidential election
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By
Mohamed Yassin, IOL Correspondent
GAZA
STRIP, December 1 (IslamOnline.net) – Lawlessness and instability in
the Gaza Strip are the main culprit for the unprecedented crimes and
social woes, though isolated, that plagued the Gaza Strip recently, a
Palestinian human rights activist has said.
Mu'en
Dibiss, a lawyer with the Independent Agency for Palestinians' Rights,
said the weapon chaos has also added insult to injury.
Law
experts attributed the odd increasing rate of crimes to the absence of
the role of the judiciary in addition to the lack of trust in the law.
"The
current year has witnessed 61 killings, compared to 43 in 2003,"
Dibiss told IslamOnline.net Tuesday, November 30.
He
pointed out that brutal vendettas were responsible for the most of the
crimes.
Over
the past few weeks, Gazans woke up to the news of the occurrence of
bizarre and shocking crimes.
On
Saturday, November 27, a university lecturer was killed in his office in
cold-blood.
Masked
people on November 11 kidnapped 13-year-old Mohammad Shuweikh, asking
his family for paying 5000 Jordanian dinars in ransom.
Two
weeks ago, a family took the law into their own hands by killing a child
of another family in front of his school in a horrible vendetta.
More
and more, a driver killed a mechanic after refusing to repair his car
right away.
2004
Scores High
According
to estimates released by the
Palestinian
Al-Mizan
Center
for Human, the year 2004 comes first in the crimes' chart with 146
injured and 43 killed.
"Field
research indicates that in addition to the killings, 14 government
institutions and NGOs have been attacked," the center said in a
statement.
It
also said that kidnappings, robberies and marauding public properties
have escalated during 2004.
The
center documented kidnappings of ranking government officials, children,
journalists and peace-loving activists.
The
center called for resorting to litigation instead of blind retaliations
and investigating all incidents contravening laws.
Isolated
But
Salah Al-Bardawil, a writer and journalist, said the crimes are a
phenomenon and isolated.
"The
Palestinians are united by resisting the Israeli occupation and singled
out for their intimate relations based on fraternity and love," he
told IOL.
"We
are the people of the praiseworthy Intifada and the uphill struggle for
a statehood."
The
Islamic resistance movement Hamas has warned that such crimes and
smuggling weapons to criminals endangered the Palestinian social fabric.
It
blamed in a statement widespread government corruption, nepotism and
selfishness for the emergence of these crimes.
Palestinian
National Security Advisor Jabriel Rajoub vowed on Monday, November 29,
to crack down hard on gangsters and outlaws.
PLO
Chairman and Fatah's presidential candidate Mahmmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen)
has also pledged to put an end to the weapon chaos ahead of the January
9 election.
A
state of insecurity swept the Gaza Strip in July, forcing late president
Yasser Arafat to overhaul
the Palestinian security system.
The
Palestinian Authority had declared a
state of emergency in the Strip following the kidnapping of top
Palestinian security officials and four French aid workers.
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