De Doghmush clan in de Gazastrook werd rijk en machtig door met name wapensmokkel, importmonopolies en losgeld voor ontvoerde buitenlanders, en door haar omvang. In maart ontvoerde het de Britse journalist Alan Johnston.
Gaza staat bekend om haar hoge geboortecijfer, dat samen met de opname van vluchtelingen uit de 1948 oorlog ertoe geleid heeft dat het één van de dichtstbevolkte streken ter wereld is.
Met weinig werkgelegenheid in de strook, maar de zekerheid van voorzieningen van de UNWRA en andere internationale steun, is de bevolking de laatste 60 jaar enorm toegenomen. Het geboortecijfer wordt als wapen gebruikt in de demografische oorlog tussen Palestijnen en Joden, maar ook voor de clans onderling geldt: hoe meer kinderen, hoe meer macht.
Abby
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Saturday, July 21, 2007
Notorious Gaza clan vows to avenge killings by Hamas
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=83972
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Notorious Gaza clan vows to avenge killings by Hamas
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=83972
Mehdi Lebouachera
Agence France Presse
GAZA CITY: Inside his heavily fortified compound, the head of Gaza's most notorious clan offers insight into his sprawling family that until recently was little known outside the territory.
"We have all the factions in our ranks," Salah Doghmush said of his clan, which shot to international notoriety recently when a group founded by one of its own kidnapped BBC journalist Alan Johnston.
"Fatah, Hamas, Popular Resistance Committees, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Army of Islam," he added, listing some of the main Palestinian factions. "We have them all." "But to remain united, not talking politics has become law within the family," said the head of a clan with an estimated 3,500 members inside Gaza and 1,500 abroad.
Boosted by their numbers, money and arms, the Doghmushes have become one of the most powerful of Gaza's clans over the past several years.
The clan compound lies in the Sabra district of Gaza City, with each entrance featuring a checkpoint guarded by heavily armed men.
"No armed stranger can enter here," said Salah.
"Those who don't know Doghmush criticize us. But those who know us say that we are the best family" in the Gaza Strip, he added, smiling.
One of the people to know the family is Kamel, the 70-year-old head of the Badawi clan linked to the Doghmushes by marriage.
"It's a family that instills fear because there are so many of them and they have a lot of money," said the wrinkled badawi, reclining in his luxurious garden.
"They have managed to establish a monopoly on the import of rubber into Gaza, and they also own a number of garages and work in construction," he added.
The Doghmushes are also suspected of having earned a large part of their fortune in arms smuggling, and Palestinian security services say their pockets have been lined with ransoms paid to free foreigners kidnapped by clan members.
The most infamous kidnapping was that of BBC's Alan Johnston. The veteran newsman was held for nearly four months - by far the longest a kidnapped Westerner was held in Gaza - before being freed unharmed on July 4.
The group that took responsibility for his abduction, the Army of Islam, was founded in 2005 by Mumtaz Doghmush, a high-school dropout who at one point has been associated with Fatah, Hamas and the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC).
Army of Islam is the latest addition to the myriad of factions represented among the Doghmushes, and uses language and symbolism usually associated with Al-Qaeda.
Prior to the Johnston kidnapping, the Army of Islam was mainly known for participating, along with Hamas and the PRC, in the cross-border raid last June in which militants killed two Israeli soldiers and seized a third who remains in captivity.
Salah Doghmush had little to say about them.
"Whatever Mumtaz is up to has nothing to do with the family. It's not something we know about," he said brusquely.
"I don't want to ask. It's none of my business."
Indeed, for several months now, Doghmush has had other business on his mind, amid ongoing tensions with Gaza's new masters, Hamas. The strains began in December, when two Doghmushes loyal to the secular Fatah movement - Mahmoud and Ashraf - were killed by the Islamists during factional clashes in Gaza.
The family vowed to avenge the deaths. "We know that there were 18 people who participated in the attack," Salah Doghmush said. "We have killed three. The others will have to pay. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth."
The tensions with Hamas further increased during the Johnston kidnapping. Hamas, eager to show to the outside world that it would introduce a measure of law and order to chaotic Gaza, surrounded the Doghmush compound to put pressure on Mumtaz to free the journalist.
"There is no more confidence between us and Hamas," said a senior Army of Islam official, declining to identify himself.
"We could never believe Hamas could kill Mahmoud and Ashraf, after all that Mumtaz had done for them. There will be no forgiveness," he warned.
Agence France Presse
GAZA CITY: Inside his heavily fortified compound, the head of Gaza's most notorious clan offers insight into his sprawling family that until recently was little known outside the territory.
"We have all the factions in our ranks," Salah Doghmush said of his clan, which shot to international notoriety recently when a group founded by one of its own kidnapped BBC journalist Alan Johnston.
"Fatah, Hamas, Popular Resistance Committees, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Army of Islam," he added, listing some of the main Palestinian factions. "We have them all." "But to remain united, not talking politics has become law within the family," said the head of a clan with an estimated 3,500 members inside Gaza and 1,500 abroad.
Boosted by their numbers, money and arms, the Doghmushes have become one of the most powerful of Gaza's clans over the past several years.
The clan compound lies in the Sabra district of Gaza City, with each entrance featuring a checkpoint guarded by heavily armed men.
"No armed stranger can enter here," said Salah.
"Those who don't know Doghmush criticize us. But those who know us say that we are the best family" in the Gaza Strip, he added, smiling.
One of the people to know the family is Kamel, the 70-year-old head of the Badawi clan linked to the Doghmushes by marriage.
"It's a family that instills fear because there are so many of them and they have a lot of money," said the wrinkled badawi, reclining in his luxurious garden.
"They have managed to establish a monopoly on the import of rubber into Gaza, and they also own a number of garages and work in construction," he added.
The Doghmushes are also suspected of having earned a large part of their fortune in arms smuggling, and Palestinian security services say their pockets have been lined with ransoms paid to free foreigners kidnapped by clan members.
The most infamous kidnapping was that of BBC's Alan Johnston. The veteran newsman was held for nearly four months - by far the longest a kidnapped Westerner was held in Gaza - before being freed unharmed on July 4.
The group that took responsibility for his abduction, the Army of Islam, was founded in 2005 by Mumtaz Doghmush, a high-school dropout who at one point has been associated with Fatah, Hamas and the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC).
Army of Islam is the latest addition to the myriad of factions represented among the Doghmushes, and uses language and symbolism usually associated with Al-Qaeda.
Prior to the Johnston kidnapping, the Army of Islam was mainly known for participating, along with Hamas and the PRC, in the cross-border raid last June in which militants killed two Israeli soldiers and seized a third who remains in captivity.
Salah Doghmush had little to say about them.
"Whatever Mumtaz is up to has nothing to do with the family. It's not something we know about," he said brusquely.
"I don't want to ask. It's none of my business."
Indeed, for several months now, Doghmush has had other business on his mind, amid ongoing tensions with Gaza's new masters, Hamas. The strains began in December, when two Doghmushes loyal to the secular Fatah movement - Mahmoud and Ashraf - were killed by the Islamists during factional clashes in Gaza.
The family vowed to avenge the deaths. "We know that there were 18 people who participated in the attack," Salah Doghmush said. "We have killed three. The others will have to pay. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth."
The tensions with Hamas further increased during the Johnston kidnapping. Hamas, eager to show to the outside world that it would introduce a measure of law and order to chaotic Gaza, surrounded the Doghmush compound to put pressure on Mumtaz to free the journalist.
"There is no more confidence between us and Hamas," said a senior Army of Islam official, declining to identify himself.
"We could never believe Hamas could kill Mahmoud and Ashraf, after all that Mumtaz had done for them. There will be no forgiveness," he warned.
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