GAZA CITY, 25 March 2004 — Hamas firebrand Abdelaziz Al-Rantissi may have to temper his style to improve relations with the Palestinian Authority after his elevation to the helm of the Islamist movement in the occupied territories, analysts said yesterday.
Rantissi told AFP there was no prospect of a cease-fire with Israel until it ended its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, after earlier calling on the movement’s military wing to “teach Israel a lesson”.
His uncompromising stance lay at the heart of his rise up the Hamas ladder, said analysts. Few were surprised by his appointment as successor to Sheikh Ahmed Yassin on Tuesday, just a day after the movement’s founder and spiritual leader was killed in an Israeli helicopter strike.
Rantissi, seen as being on the radical wing of Hamas, will serve as the effective leader in the Gaza Strip and West Bank while Damascus-based Khaled Meshaal will remain as head of its political branch.
“Rantissi was the strongest man within Hamas after Sheikh Yassin, even if he was one among many other chiefs,” Gaza MP and political analyst Ziad Abu Amer told AFP.
“The rank-and-file is inclined to follow him because he is a hard-liner and that is precisely his appeal,” he added.
Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei was among the thousands of people who paid their condolences to Hamas here Tuesday after Yassin’s death, coming together in a giant tent erected in Gaza’s main soccer stadium.
Hamas, founded by Yassin in 1987, has emerged as the major rival to Yasser Arafat and Qorei’s Palestinian Authority since the outbreak of the second intifada in 2000. Its powerbase is centered in Gaza.
Hamas has defied any suggestion by the authority that it hand in its weapons and some of its fighters were even involved in a deadly shoot-out with security forces last week. Relations hit an absolute last low last summer when the Palestinian Authority froze the bank accounts of six charitable organizations linked to Hamas in a bid to comply with a US demand to clamp down on armed groups. Thousands of supporters took to the streets in the territories to denounce the move.
But Abu Amer said Rantissi was likely to seek to build a working relationship, not only with the authority but with other Palestinian factions.
“Rantissi will have to change his style of leadership,” he said. “The imperative of leading the movement warrants this kind of flexibility.”
Gaza-based political analyst Hassan Al-Kashef said Rantissi had a shrewd political sense and would appreciate the need for good ties with the Palestinian Authority.
“He is used to politics, and with Yassin’s assassination he will enjoy efforts at national unity and smoother relations with the PA, at least in the short term,” said Kashef.
Rantissi’s annointing as successor to Yassin means that he will be leader of the movement in the territories but he will share power with Meshaal. Abu Amer, who participated in many cease-fire and mediation talks with Hamas leaders, said Rantissi and Meshaal “have a close dynamic” although how they manage their split leadership would remain to be seen.
“Their ideology is not opposed in any way. How they cooperate will depend on the political issues on the table,” he said.
Kashef did not foresee competition with Meshaal who already headed the movement’s politburo prior to Yassin death. “Each of them will have his role. At any rate, they share the same ideology.”
