US embassy cable - 04TELAVIV6039

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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