Gaza's cyber cafés and music stores now sit on front line

SONIA VERMA
Special to The Globe and Mail

GAZA CITY, GAZA STRIP -- When a pipe bomb ripped through his Internet café late one night last week, Omar Otlah made a mental list of his known enemies.

After careful consideration, he ruled out an attack by the Israelis. Nor could he blame fallout from fighting between rival Palestinian factions, which has claimed more than 30 lives in the past month alone. This bombing was the work of a new foe, one that's been waging a much quieter war along an emerging front line that runs right through Gaza's bustling cyber cafés, music shops and universities.

The new group, calling itself the Swords of Islamic Righteousness, recently declared open war on any business, or Palestinian, it considers immoral. Among its targets: Internet cafés, for providing access to online porn; CD shops, for playing racy pop music; and pharmacies, for peddling drugs it deems recreational.

Palestinian culture in Gaza has always been more conservative compared with the West Bank. There are no bars and most women wear head scarves and long robes.

But even in Gaza, radical interpretations of Islam have rarely taken root on a social level. For most Palestinians, Swords of Islamic Righteousness ranks somewhere near the Taliban in its extreme interpretation of Islam.

Palestinian police have traced 47 bombings in the past month to the fundamentalist group.

And, as fighting rages between Fatah and Hamas, the attacks by Swords of Islamic Righteousness are becoming increasingly brazen and going largely unpunished because security forces are embroiled in the inter-Palestinian conflict.

"The situation in Gaza these days prevents us from working on the ground to stop them," said a senior Palestinian police source in Gaza.

"We are trying to arrest them, but there is only so much we can do," said the officer whose works with a security branch loyal to Fatah.

Last month, Swords of Islamic Righteousness circulated a letter in Gaza's busiest business districts threatening to "impose the laws of God" against anyone transgressing its fundamentalist interpretation of Islam.

It claimed responsibility for "shooting rocket-propelled grenades at internet cafés in Gaza" because they "prevented people from praying to God" and boasted of blowing up a car to punish the driver who played his stereo too loud.

The group also claimed to have thrown acid on unveiled women studying in Gaza's Islamic University and promised to ensure the "honour" of all Palestinian women.

"If people don't listen, we'll take further steps," the militants warned in the letter.

Although the group is new to the Gaza, the attacks have sent a chill through its conservative streets. Local entrepreneurs say dozens of businesses have been forced to close over the past few months.

Human-rights advocates complain women are particularly vulnerable.

"Many are too scared to walk down certain streets without a male relative. It's become really bad," said Farah Abdullah, who runs a women's support group at Gaza's Islamic University.

Mr. Otlah figures it's far too risky to reopen his Internet café. Most of his customers were students who dropped by after class. The morning after the bombing, a letter signed by 'Swords' landed on his front doorstep claiming responsibility for the attack and warning of another strike if he went back into business.

"They said they bombed my shop in the name of Islam. They said it was a message from God," said Mr. Otlah, 37, holding the letter in his trembling hand.

All of his computers were equipped with filters preventing anybody from surfing online porn, he said. "I am a devout Muslim. I go to mosque. Now I have no way to feed my family," he said.

Even if he did reopen, he doubts any of his regular patrons would return. He filed a complaint with the Palestinian police, but so far, there have been no arrests.

Down the street, Amar Hasoon's Internet café is one of the few still open. "I have no choice but to continue working," he said.

He is the only member of his extended family pulling in a paycheque since a boycott against the Hamas-led Palestinian government froze the salaries of most public employees.

In the charged streets of Gaza, rival Palestinian factions blame each other for the rise of the new group. "We think this group is close to Hamas, but so far we can't prove it," said the police source aligned with Fatah.

Fatah alleges Hamas is orchestrating the crackdown on secular life, using the new militant group as a front.

But Fawzy Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman, insists his movement is innocent.

"We said from the beginning that we are not interested in imposing morality. This group is not related to Hamas. It is simply the result of no security on the Palestinian street."