By Wafa Amr GAZA, July 13 (Reuters) - Conflict between President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction and rival Islamist Hamas have damaged the fabric of Palestinian society and torn families apart, especially in the Gaza Strip. A year after Hamas's seizure of Gaza from Abbas, political differences that were kept in check through decades of struggle against Israel have ripped through the coastal enclave, leaving scars on relationships at every level, touching marriages and close-knit families, even disrupting funerals. "This is a new phenomenon in our society," Ahmed Youssef, a Hamas official in Gaza said, arguing that Palestinians had become polarised to an unprecedented extent. "One of our neighbours refused to receive mourners from Hamas at his house. "When a man goes to ask for a woman's hand in marriage, her family now inquire about his political affiliation first." Like many in Gaza, he also spoke of reports that marriages had broken down in divorce over politics since last year's factional violence, which followed Hamas's unprecedented victory in a parliamentary election the previous year over Fatah, long the unchallenged dominant force under the late Yasser Arafat. These new internal divisions pose a grave threat to Abbas's hopes of establishing a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza at the end of current, U.S.-sponsored talks with Israel. The violence of uprisings against Israeli occupation in the past 20 years was generally seen as drawing Palestinians closer, despite ideological and other differences between factions. Fighters from Fatah and Hamas often cooperated and formed unified commands. It was common for families to have sons belonging to rival factions who covered for one another. NEW BITTERNESS Arafat earned the hostility of Hamas leaders when he cracked down on the Islamists in 1996 after suicide bombings in Israel threatened his interim peace accords with the Jewish state. But during that period, some in the Fatah-dominated security forces hesitated to arrest relatives who had joined Hamas. Yet the bitterness that erupted in fighting in which over 150 people were killed in Gaza last June has changed all that. "The strong divisions have reached the level of the small family," Palestinian commentator Talal Okal told Reuters in Gaza. "It is now common for a member of Hamas to hide his face behind a mask and arrest his brother from Fatah." Similar political divides exist in the West Bank and there has been violence, and fears of more, in the larger of the two Palestinian territories. Fatah-dominated security forces in the West Bank cracked down on Hamas since the violence in Gaza. Fayyad Aghbar, a well-known figure in Hamas, complained he was dismissed from a senior clerical post in the West Bank city of Nablus last year: "I was removed from my job because of my political and ideological differences with the Palestinian Authority and they suspected I was affiliated with Hamas." However, perhaps because there has been less bloodshed in the West Bank, he said he believed the tension between factions had not filtered quite as far into daily life as it had in Gaza. "Despite the differences, I carry out daily social duties such as visiting Fatah sick people and going to Fatah mourning events," Aghbar said. "Social divisions in the West Bank have not reached the level they have in Gaza." DILEMMAS In Gaza, Atta Qaisi said he had a doctorate in healthcare but was fired after the Hamas takeover: "I was sacked because I'm not affiliated with Hamas. People are paying the price." Thousands of government employees in Gaza, who were either sacked by the Hamas administration in the enclave or were told by Abbas's West Bank ministries to avoid cooperating with Hamas and to stay away from work, are still being paid Abbas. Qaisi said the dilemmas were profound: "They are afraid of losing their salaries from Ramallah if someone reports they went to a mosque or bought a Hamas newspaper. They are at the same time afraid of Hamas if they visit a (Fatah) mourning house." Life for the 1.5 million people packed into the Gaza Strip has become harder since Israel and its allies tightened sanctions on the territory following the Hamas takeover, adding to social strains. Um Rami, too, cited an increase in marriage break-ups as a result, although statistics were not available. Many are sceptical that recent calls for reconciliation by Abbas can end the rift. While a general pessimism is common to Palestinians in both the West Bank and Gaza over the chances of establishing a viable state alongside Israel, the hardships of the Gaza Strip seem to add to a sense of helplessness. One middle-aged Gaza woman, who only gave her name as Faizeh because like many she was afraid to speak out publicly on internal politics, said: "Life under Fatah was bad. But we've found that life under Hamas is worse. What can we do?" For all that pessimism, some see more internal violence ahead if the rival factions continue to defend their positions by force: "People here want their freedom," said Qaisi, the Gaza health official. "They will not remain passive forever."
Muslim children gather at the Dome of the Rock in the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the old city of Jerusalem July 12, 2008. Thousands of Israeli Arabs attended a rally for ...
