Fatah has been giving the impression that it is striving to achieve Palestinian national reconciliation, torn into smithereens after CIA-backed PA elements attempted to topple the democratically elected government of Hamas following the 2006 general elections.

 However, Fatah’s actions on the ground suggest that national reconciliation is the last thing on the group’s agenda. Ultimately, this dichotomy between what Fatah says and what it does shows that Fatah is indulging in hypocrisy and that its words and undertakings can’t be trusted.

 In recent days and weeks, the various Fatah-run security agencies carried a harsh campaign of arrest, vandalism and repression against people suspected of affiliation with Hamas. Dozens of Islamic community leaders, many of them veteran prisoners in Israeli jails, have been unceremoniously rounded-up by PA security personnel. In many cases, the detainees were arrested days after they were released from Israeli prisons.

 Many of the detainees are elderly people enjoying much esteem in society, while others are professionals and civic leaders who enjoy a good reputation. This is why their arrest, unjustified and unethical, is really raising a lot eyebrows throughout the Palestinian society, prompting many to wonder if the PA is working for Israel or serving, as it claims ad nauseam, the national interests of the Palestinian people.

 In the town of Dura near al-Khalil in the southern West Bank, PA security forces raided in February businesses belonging to Jamal Awawdeh, who had spent more than 12 years in Israeli jails on charges of resisting the Israeli occupation. According to eyewitnesses, the forces ransacked and confiscated all the merchandise in his store on the suspicion that he had received money from Hamas to start a business.

 The forces went further by raiding Awawdeh’s home in the nearby village of Karma where they seized a number of livestock, including goats and sheep.

 These draconian measures are unprecedented and underscore the low level of depravity to which the PA security apparatus has reached.

 One elderly man in Dura confronted the security personnel ganging up on Awawdeh’s business with the following words: “I have been through the British mandate, the Egyptian rule, the Jordanian rule and the Israeli occupation, and I’ve never seen a government behave like this. Authorities do arrest people, but they don’t raid their homes and confiscate their businesses and money.”

 The PA claims that Awawdeh may have received money from Hamas to help him restart his life after so many years of imprisonment in Israel.

 Well, is this a crime? A movement or political party that helps former freedom prisoners restart their lives deserves commendation not condemnation, unless, of course, we are seeking advice from Keith Dayton or the Shin Bet.

 Otherwise, there would be no incentive to resist the Israeli occupation, the ultimate enemy of the Palestinian people.

 Hence, one is prompted to ask if this is what Fatah is seeking, namely to discourage Palestinians from resisting the Zionist occupiers and punish, even retrospectively, those who had spent the prime of their lives in Zionist jails and detention camps.

 Needless to say, people, such as Awawdeh, and thousands of other Palestinian prisoners who paid dearly for the cause of freedom, ought to be respected and treated in a dignified manner, not snatched from their homes and in full view of their family and children and dumped into dark, rancid-smelling cells as if they were involved in committing a crime.

 It is really lamentable that Fatah is indulging in this abominable behaviour against patriotic Palestinians whose only crime is their association with Hamas, a movement that has been spearheading the Palestinian struggle against the Nazi-like Israeli occupation.

 Indeed, this disgraceful behaviour on the part of the Fatah organization and the Palestinian Authority, which it controls, puts Fatah on equal footing with the Zionist regime which seeks Hamas’s eradication and liquidation in the hope that this would force the Palestinian people to lower the ceiling of their national aspirations.

 True, we can’t blame the entire Fatah organization for the perfidious acts of certain elements in the security agencies. We are certain that many honourable people within Fatah don’t approve of this ignominy and would want to see their movement thoroughly cleansed of traitors who are at Israel’s beck and call.

 However, it is not acceptable to remain silent in the face of this scandalous, even treacherous, inquisition being carried out relentlessly against Hamas, the very movement Fatah claims to want to reach national reconciliation with.

 Silence in this case means acquiescence and approval, which squarely contradicts all pretentions about national reconciliation and unity.

 Hamas has allowed numerous Fatah delegates from the West Bank to visit in Gaza and meet with the Fatah leadership there. True, Fatah and other Palestinians don’t need a permit from Hamas to visit their country and return to their homes. But Hamas could have prevented these people, some of whom are fanatical enemies of Hamas, from entering Gaza. That fact that it has allowed them free entry back to Gaza should be construed as an expression of good will and honest desire for national reconciliation.

 Hamas has also released dozens of Fatah operatives who had been involved in violent acts of vandalism and incitement in the hope that this would make Fatah reconsider its cruel and repressive measures against Hamas’ supporters in the West Bank.

 Nevertheless, Fatah’s provocative and stupid behaviour have remained unchanged, which suggests that there are influential people in Fatah who are hell-bent on keeping the Palestinian people in a state of divisiveness and disunity.

 The Fatah leadership must realize that it is not enough to make ostensibly earnest appeals for national reconciliation on Arab satellite television channels. Fatah must act on its words by putting an end to this witch-hunt campaign against Hamas. Failing to do so only spells hypocrisy and insincerity.

 In the final analysis, this mode of behaviour, by Fatah and its authority, toward Hamas’s supporters is a perfect prescription for the continuation, perpetuation and deepening of the national rift.

 In the end, Fatah would bear full responsibility for this folly.