Now for a different look at the Middle East. Just for a change, not the bloodshed, nor the political double-speak which has come to characterise this long, sickening conflict. Instead, a search for potential peacemakers. The United States has joined Israel in defining Yasser Arafat, the chairman of the Palestinian Authority, as an obstacle to peace. Arafat doesn't agree of course. As he told 'Foreign Correspondent' a few months ago. "What do you think? The assassination of our leaders. The destroying of all our infrastructures. The complete siege of our towns and cities and villages, and reoccupation again of our Palestinian areas." Since that interview the killing has intensified and Arafat's Palestinian Authority has demonstrated even less authority over the Occupied Territories. Under strong US pressure Arafat has declared that Presidential, legislative and local government elections should be held early next year. If so, might genuine Palestinian Democrats emerge? 01:59
Clark: When it comes to what might have been Gaza is a good place to start. 02:11
If the defunct Oslo peace process had delivered the Palestinian state it promised, Gaza would have been the holiday capital. 02:17
Its Mediterranean beaches a playground for Palestinians and Israelis dream on. 02:27
Palestinian statehood is on hold Palestinians have been told to get rid of Yasser Arafat and find new leaders who can cut a deal. 02:38
Yasser Arafat at meeting. - Clark: As thing stand, telling Palestinians they have to dump Yasser Arafat is a pretty good way of guaranteeing his re-election as President. But while Mr Arafat still tries to look like the man in charge, around him there is a mood for change and more open discussion of his future. 02:58
Clarke: In a time of despair for Palestinians what chance is there of a new leadership emerging which fits the wests democratic credentials? 03:17
Clark: Its pretty difficult for Palestinians to be optimistic at the moment. Theyre living under Israeli military occupation again and the government which was meant to lead them to independence lies in ruins. But amid all this there are some Palestinians who believe there is an historic opportunity to give Palestinians something they should have had long ago genuine democracy. 03:27
Clarke: And a few of them are already limbering-up for elections which should be held early next year. It will be a chance to give Palestinians an alternative to what many see as leaders who have simply run out of puff. 03:50
Sarraj Sarraj: We have to deliver two things to people. One is the message and the other is the care and services they need, so people can have confidence. The message, of course, is a message of respect of the rule of law, democracy, human rights, equality and so on. 04:05
Clark: Dr Eyad Sarraj, psychiatrist, human rights activist and self-declared democrat is a long time critic of Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Authority he leads. 04:32
Sarraj: Over the last seven years corruption became like a trademark of the Palestinian Authority, so you have to distance yourself from that and you have to show people an alternative. 04:43
Clark: But dissent in this society carries a price. 04:58
Women walking along beach People are used to being told what to by people who are used to being obeyed. 05:01
Sarraj in his home Five years ago Eyad Sarraj found himself in prison after criticising Arafat. 05:11
Sarraj: I was arrested again and this time I was beaten and put in solitary confinement for 17 days.Clark: Could that have happened without his express order?Sarraj: Of course not. Absolutely not. Nobody would have dared arrest me without his explicit order. I saw the order myself with his signature 05:16
Clark: Eyad Sarraj says Palestinians should demand democratic reform, not because America wants it but because itll be good for them. 05:41
Sarraj: More and more people are aware that we have to go through this process of democratisation for our own sake, not because of the international or American pressure. 05:51
Sarraj: This is very important for us because we have to get rid of the mismanagement and corruption and the lack of visionary and courageous leadership. 06:02
Clark: If Palestinian politics is going to be given a new look then itll need fresh faces at the top. 06:19
Clark: Hussam Khader is still a young man, but hes a veteran of the Palestinian struggle. 06:27
Clark: Fifteen years ago the Israelis deported him he joined Yasser Arafats PLO leadership then in exile.
Khader: This is me and him in his office in Tunis. 06:42
Clark: But he quickly became disillusioned with Yasser Arafats style of leadership. 06:46
Khader: n the national level I respect him. I love him so much 06:50
Khader: but I disagree early with him. I cannot follow the other people in Tunis who say yes for everything, even if Yasser Arafat says the sun rises from east or north, you have to say yes 06:55
Clark: Hussam Khader is one of Arafats harshest critics. And he argues that Palestinians can only really be liberated by democracy. 07:15
Khader: I hope that Chairman Arafat change his style.
Clark: At 73 years of age do you think thats very likely?
Khader: No, its not easy, actually, but he should take into consideration the needs of the Palestinian people for democracy, for laws and sooner or later we should struggle for democracy in the same level as we are struggling now for independence and freedom. 07:23
Clark: Hussam Khader lives in the Balata refugee camp, on the outskirts of Nablus, a city in the northern part of the West Bank. 08:10
Clarke: He doesnt venture onto the streets sleeping in one house and meets us in another climbing from roof to roof to make the journey. 08:22
Palestinians here live under Israeli military curfew in an area which used to be controlled by the Palestinian Authority. 08:33
Khader: its not safe. All the activist Palestinian in the political level or the popular level they are targets for Israel.Clark: Do you support suicide bombings?Khader: I do not agree with suicide bomber, martyr, bomber because its against the civilian and it do not serve our national targets. 08:46
Clark: Hussam Khaders views are Palestinian mainstream attacks against Israeli soldiers and settlers on occupied territory are okay attacks inside Israel are not. 09:16
Khader: Since the beginning of the uprising, since October, I call all the Palestinian fact 09:29
Khader: ion to stop attacks against civilians inside Israel and to escalate their struggle against the soldiers and settlers in West Bank and Gaza and the occupied territories, because this will be better for us. 09:40
Clark: If the elections go ahead then Palestinians will have greater choice this time. Radical Islamic parties will probably run candidates and probably do well. For those trying to sell democratic reform the priority is organisation. 09:57
Shayah: This is our main problem. We need to address this. Lets talk about reforms, lets get back to our subject. 10:14
Clark: At his home in Gaza Dr Eyad Sarraj is trying to pull together a new political movement. He has a name and reputation but not much practical political experience. 10:24
Clarke: Ghazi Abu Shayah spent 16 years in Israeli prisons and stood unsuccessfully when elections were held in 1996. Eyad Sarraj wants a team which can run a campaign. 10:38
Shayah: Now the question is how do we build this movement? In my view the elections are an opportunity not just to reform the Palestinian Authority and society, but a chance to reform the parties. 10:55
Clark: Salah Abdul Shafi is the son of one of the most widely respected Palestinian politicians in Gaza. 11:08
Shafi: I see the elections as an opportunity for a new trend'. Who is this trend? They are you and me and him. 11:14
Clark: The difficulty is getting beyond salon politics. And agreeing on policies. Eyad Sarraj wants non-violent mass protests of Palestinians, Israelis and foreigners. 11:25
Sarraj: If we have 5,000 people demonstrating in that street against the movement of the settlers, block the street, right, and people coming from different parts of the street, so the Israelis will not dare to shoot and kill because they can dare to shoot Palestinians, but not Israelis, not Jews. 11:36
Clark: Pacifism might appeal to western sensibilities but its tough selling it to Palestinians whove been reared on the martyrdom of the suicide bomber. 12:11
Sarraj: I believe strongly that the Palestinian suicide bombing inside Israel, killing civilians inside Israel is politically counterproductive, in fact it has damaged the Palestinian cause. 12:22
Sarraj: In every case of suicide bombing there is a history of trauma. Every case of people who committed such acts had experience of being exposed to terrible traumatic experiences. Children of the first intifada 12 years ago are the suicide bombers of today. 12:34
Clark: As a psychiatrist, Eyad Sarraj sees cause and effect at first hand. 13:02
Sarraj: Were going to see a young boy named Mohammed. He used to live in a different place. His home was destroyed by the Israelis. They demolished the house. He came home and there was no house. 13:07
Clark: The Hassanat family has been given an apartment in a new housing project just outside Gaza city. 11 year old Mohammed is one of hundreds of people who are helped by the Gaza mental health clinic which Eyad Sarraj founded more than a decade ago. Its what people in Gaza know him for. 13:23
Sarraj: when you grow up would you like to be a doctor or a football player?Boy: Id rather be a doctor.Boy: Because if someone in the house is shot, Ill be able to take care of them. 13:45
Clark: While Mohammed busies himself with the sort of picture that just about every child here knows how to draw the lone Palestinian facing off against the Israeli tank - adult conversation turns to politics. 14:05
Suleiman: Jamilia Seidam came to us and said we should vote for so and so. She said these people would find jobs for the young men. It was all talk. They did nothing. 14:16
sun
Clark: Looking out over Gazas ramshackle squalor its difficult to see many signs of hope. And things aren't any better in Nablus. 14:45
The deserted streets of a town under curfew -- years of lost opportunity.
Clark: The chance of a prosperous future grand plans all coming to nothing. And over every political discussion hovers the future of Yasser Arafat. 15:05
Khader: I call on president Yasser Arafat to create a special investigations committee to ascertain how public funds were misappropriated. 15:22
Clark: Still confined by the curfew, Hassam Khader continues pumping out the message. 15:36
Khader: Its a live interview with Bethlehem 2000 radio. 15:43
Khader: Its broadcast in Hebron, Bethlehem and Jerusalem and Ramallah. They ask me if I will run in Presidential election or not.Clark: Everybody wants to know, dont they, about the election for President. Is that because everybody believes that unless you change Arafat then nothing else will change?
Khader: Maybe, maybe.
Clark: Do you believe that?Khader: I always mention that I trust in Yasser Arafat in the national level, but I never trusted on him on the administrative level. He lead us to this corrupt situation. 15:49
Clark: The Israeli occupation and revolutionary dogma have left Palestinian politics with shallow roots and an over reliance on one man. 16:39
Since they cant move about because of the curfew, Hussam and his political allies cant do much except sit about and chat.
Khader: In the Fatah party, in our circles, many still view Arafat with awe and almost as a deity.Man: When they called for Arafats removal there was a knee jerk reaction on the streets and his popularity rose. People dont want the Americans to dictate if the Americans dont want Arafat then people will vote for him just to spite the U.S. 15:56
Clark: But change is in the air, make no mistake. The Palestinians of Balata refugee camp might not feel that change tomorrow, ut they sense its coming. 17:24
Khader: No-one born to be leader forever. So if Yasser Arafat lead our people to their own target on all the levels, we will support him. 17:38
Khader: If he will use his being a symbol to punish the Palestinian people, to destroy the social structure of the Palestinian people, why not, we should change him. He is not our own God and he is not our own faith. 17:53
Clark: Generations of Palestinians have already lived and died in the squalid refugee camps of Gaza and the West Bank.18:18
Imprisoned by the conflict - used as pawns by both sides.
Clarke: But will a new leadership step forward? 18:31
Khader: I will never stop criticising the Yasser Arafat until we reach the correct point. Even if I will die for that. I am ready since the beginning for that. 18:34
Clark: What happens to internal Palestinian politics will define the future of the conflict. 19:00
Palestinian society is being radicalised.
Democracy wont guarantee calm, but it looks better than the alternative.
Sarraj: Perhaps this is one of the last chances to try and build a secular Palestinian democracy. 19:17
Sarraj: If the world is not helping to settle the Palestinian-Israeli problem today I think it will be very difficult to find moderates and secular movement in the future. 19:32
Views of sun set Music 19:48
Credits: PALESTINIAN DEMOCRATSReporter: Chris ClarkCamera: Louie ErogluEditor: Simon BrynjolffssenResearchers: Vivien Altman Mary Ann Jolley 20:04
Clark: When it comes to what might have been Gaza is a good place to start. 02:11
If the defunct Oslo peace process had delivered the Palestinian state it promised, Gaza would have been the holiday capital. 02:17
Its Mediterranean beaches a playground for Palestinians and Israelis dream on. 02:27
Palestinian statehood is on hold Palestinians have been told to get rid of Yasser Arafat and find new leaders who can cut a deal. 02:38
Yasser Arafat at meeting. - Clark: As thing stand, telling Palestinians they have to dump Yasser Arafat is a pretty good way of guaranteeing his re-election as President. But while Mr Arafat still tries to look like the man in charge, around him there is a mood for change and more open discussion of his future. 02:58
Clarke: In a time of despair for Palestinians what chance is there of a new leadership emerging which fits the wests democratic credentials? 03:17
Clark: Its pretty difficult for Palestinians to be optimistic at the moment. Theyre living under Israeli military occupation again and the government which was meant to lead them to independence lies in ruins. But amid all this there are some Palestinians who believe there is an historic opportunity to give Palestinians something they should have had long ago genuine democracy. 03:27
Clarke: And a few of them are already limbering-up for elections which should be held early next year. It will be a chance to give Palestinians an alternative to what many see as leaders who have simply run out of puff. 03:50
Sarraj Sarraj: We have to deliver two things to people. One is the message and the other is the care and services they need, so people can have confidence. The message, of course, is a message of respect of the rule of law, democracy, human rights, equality and so on. 04:05
Clark: Dr Eyad Sarraj, psychiatrist, human rights activist and self-declared democrat is a long time critic of Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Authority he leads. 04:32
Sarraj: Over the last seven years corruption became like a trademark of the Palestinian Authority, so you have to distance yourself from that and you have to show people an alternative. 04:43
Clark: But dissent in this society carries a price. 04:58
Women walking along beach People are used to being told what to by people who are used to being obeyed. 05:01
Sarraj in his home Five years ago Eyad Sarraj found himself in prison after criticising Arafat. 05:11
Sarraj: I was arrested again and this time I was beaten and put in solitary confinement for 17 days.Clark: Could that have happened without his express order?Sarraj: Of course not. Absolutely not. Nobody would have dared arrest me without his explicit order. I saw the order myself with his signature 05:16
Clark: Eyad Sarraj says Palestinians should demand democratic reform, not because America wants it but because itll be good for them. 05:41
Sarraj: More and more people are aware that we have to go through this process of democratisation for our own sake, not because of the international or American pressure. 05:51
Sarraj: This is very important for us because we have to get rid of the mismanagement and corruption and the lack of visionary and courageous leadership. 06:02
Clark: If Palestinian politics is going to be given a new look then itll need fresh faces at the top. 06:19
Clark: Hussam Khader is still a young man, but hes a veteran of the Palestinian struggle. 06:27
Clark: Fifteen years ago the Israelis deported him he joined Yasser Arafats PLO leadership then in exile.
Khader: This is me and him in his office in Tunis. 06:42
Clark: But he quickly became disillusioned with Yasser Arafats style of leadership. 06:46
Khader: n the national level I respect him. I love him so much 06:50
Khader: but I disagree early with him. I cannot follow the other people in Tunis who say yes for everything, even if Yasser Arafat says the sun rises from east or north, you have to say yes 06:55
Clark: Hussam Khader is one of Arafats harshest critics. And he argues that Palestinians can only really be liberated by democracy. 07:15
Khader: I hope that Chairman Arafat change his style.
Clark: At 73 years of age do you think thats very likely?
Khader: No, its not easy, actually, but he should take into consideration the needs of the Palestinian people for democracy, for laws and sooner or later we should struggle for democracy in the same level as we are struggling now for independence and freedom. 07:23
Clark: Hussam Khader lives in the Balata refugee camp, on the outskirts of Nablus, a city in the northern part of the West Bank. 08:10
Clarke: He doesnt venture onto the streets sleeping in one house and meets us in another climbing from roof to roof to make the journey. 08:22
Palestinians here live under Israeli military curfew in an area which used to be controlled by the Palestinian Authority. 08:33
Khader: its not safe. All the activist Palestinian in the political level or the popular level they are targets for Israel.Clark: Do you support suicide bombings?Khader: I do not agree with suicide bomber, martyr, bomber because its against the civilian and it do not serve our national targets. 08:46
Clark: Hussam Khaders views are Palestinian mainstream attacks against Israeli soldiers and settlers on occupied territory are okay attacks inside Israel are not. 09:16
Khader: Since the beginning of the uprising, since October, I call all the Palestinian fact 09:29
Khader: ion to stop attacks against civilians inside Israel and to escalate their struggle against the soldiers and settlers in West Bank and Gaza and the occupied territories, because this will be better for us. 09:40
Clark: If the elections go ahead then Palestinians will have greater choice this time. Radical Islamic parties will probably run candidates and probably do well. For those trying to sell democratic reform the priority is organisation. 09:57
Shayah: This is our main problem. We need to address this. Lets talk about reforms, lets get back to our subject. 10:14
Clark: At his home in Gaza Dr Eyad Sarraj is trying to pull together a new political movement. He has a name and reputation but not much practical political experience. 10:24
Clarke: Ghazi Abu Shayah spent 16 years in Israeli prisons and stood unsuccessfully when elections were held in 1996. Eyad Sarraj wants a team which can run a campaign. 10:38
Shayah: Now the question is how do we build this movement? In my view the elections are an opportunity not just to reform the Palestinian Authority and society, but a chance to reform the parties. 10:55
Clark: Salah Abdul Shafi is the son of one of the most widely respected Palestinian politicians in Gaza. 11:08
Shafi: I see the elections as an opportunity for a new trend'. Who is this trend? They are you and me and him. 11:14
Clark: The difficulty is getting beyond salon politics. And agreeing on policies. Eyad Sarraj wants non-violent mass protests of Palestinians, Israelis and foreigners. 11:25
Sarraj: If we have 5,000 people demonstrating in that street against the movement of the settlers, block the street, right, and people coming from different parts of the street, so the Israelis will not dare to shoot and kill because they can dare to shoot Palestinians, but not Israelis, not Jews. 11:36
Clark: Pacifism might appeal to western sensibilities but its tough selling it to Palestinians whove been reared on the martyrdom of the suicide bomber. 12:11
Sarraj: I believe strongly that the Palestinian suicide bombing inside Israel, killing civilians inside Israel is politically counterproductive, in fact it has damaged the Palestinian cause. 12:22
Sarraj: In every case of suicide bombing there is a history of trauma. Every case of people who committed such acts had experience of being exposed to terrible traumatic experiences. Children of the first intifada 12 years ago are the suicide bombers of today. 12:34
Clark: As a psychiatrist, Eyad Sarraj sees cause and effect at first hand. 13:02
Sarraj: Were going to see a young boy named Mohammed. He used to live in a different place. His home was destroyed by the Israelis. They demolished the house. He came home and there was no house. 13:07
Clark: The Hassanat family has been given an apartment in a new housing project just outside Gaza city. 11 year old Mohammed is one of hundreds of people who are helped by the Gaza mental health clinic which Eyad Sarraj founded more than a decade ago. Its what people in Gaza know him for. 13:23
Sarraj: when you grow up would you like to be a doctor or a football player?Boy: Id rather be a doctor.Boy: Because if someone in the house is shot, Ill be able to take care of them. 13:45
Clark: While Mohammed busies himself with the sort of picture that just about every child here knows how to draw the lone Palestinian facing off against the Israeli tank - adult conversation turns to politics. 14:05
Suleiman: Jamilia Seidam came to us and said we should vote for so and so. She said these people would find jobs for the young men. It was all talk. They did nothing. 14:16
sun
Clark: Looking out over Gazas ramshackle squalor its difficult to see many signs of hope. And things aren't any better in Nablus. 14:45
The deserted streets of a town under curfew -- years of lost opportunity.
Clark: The chance of a prosperous future grand plans all coming to nothing. And over every political discussion hovers the future of Yasser Arafat. 15:05
Khader: I call on president Yasser Arafat to create a special investigations committee to ascertain how public funds were misappropriated. 15:22
Clark: Still confined by the curfew, Hassam Khader continues pumping out the message. 15:36
Khader: Its a live interview with Bethlehem 2000 radio. 15:43
Khader: Its broadcast in Hebron, Bethlehem and Jerusalem and Ramallah. They ask me if I will run in Presidential election or not.Clark: Everybody wants to know, dont they, about the election for President. Is that because everybody believes that unless you change Arafat then nothing else will change?
Khader: Maybe, maybe.
Clark: Do you believe that?Khader: I always mention that I trust in Yasser Arafat in the national level, but I never trusted on him on the administrative level. He lead us to this corrupt situation. 15:49
Clark: The Israeli occupation and revolutionary dogma have left Palestinian politics with shallow roots and an over reliance on one man. 16:39
Since they cant move about because of the curfew, Hussam and his political allies cant do much except sit about and chat.
Khader: In the Fatah party, in our circles, many still view Arafat with awe and almost as a deity.Man: When they called for Arafats removal there was a knee jerk reaction on the streets and his popularity rose. People dont want the Americans to dictate if the Americans dont want Arafat then people will vote for him just to spite the U.S. 15:56
Clark: But change is in the air, make no mistake. The Palestinians of Balata refugee camp might not feel that change tomorrow, ut they sense its coming. 17:24
Khader: No-one born to be leader forever. So if Yasser Arafat lead our people to their own target on all the levels, we will support him. 17:38
Khader: If he will use his being a symbol to punish the Palestinian people, to destroy the social structure of the Palestinian people, why not, we should change him. He is not our own God and he is not our own faith. 17:53
Clark: Generations of Palestinians have already lived and died in the squalid refugee camps of Gaza and the West Bank.18:18
Imprisoned by the conflict - used as pawns by both sides.
Clarke: But will a new leadership step forward? 18:31
Khader: I will never stop criticising the Yasser Arafat until we reach the correct point. Even if I will die for that. I am ready since the beginning for that. 18:34
Clark: What happens to internal Palestinian politics will define the future of the conflict. 19:00
Palestinian society is being radicalised.
Democracy wont guarantee calm, but it looks better than the alternative.
Sarraj: Perhaps this is one of the last chances to try and build a secular Palestinian democracy. 19:17
Sarraj: If the world is not helping to settle the Palestinian-Israeli problem today I think it will be very difficult to find moderates and secular movement in the future. 19:32
Views of sun set Music 19:48
Credits: PALESTINIAN DEMOCRATSReporter: Chris ClarkCamera: Louie ErogluEditor: Simon BrynjolffssenResearchers: Vivien Altman Mary Ann Jolley 20:04