How is the Palestinian street responding to the latest cease-fire?
Jamil Hamad: It’s a very unpredictable area, and I don’t advise anybody to make predictions. The feeling among Palestinians is that this cease-fire has been declared without getting anything for them in return. The collective punishments imposed by the Israelis are becoming tougher and tougher. It’s going to weaken the cease-fire, because the feeling is “why should we pay this price when we are getting nothing.” Without giving the Palestinians a prize lifting the closure and the economic sanctions I think the cease-fire will be very temporary. Does Sunday’s decision by 13 radical Palestinian factions to continue the intifada mean they are defying Arafat? What is Arafat’s motivation? It’s an indirect way of rejecting the cease-fire. Arafat called for a cease-fire because he was warned by the Israelis and the Europeans and the Americans. He is interested at this stage to keep the Israelis away from his territory, not to strike against him. Technically he is interested in helping his own
