Hamas` down-home prime minister most popular Palestinian politician despite strife-ridden year

Source: AP, 23-2-2007
SHATI REFUGEE CAMP, Gaza Strip- He has a gaggle of guards now and a silver Mercedes, but to the people of this refugee camp, Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas is still just "Abul Abed," the neighbor who distributes electricity from his generator during power cuts and attends their weddings and funerals.
Haniyeh`s down-home style - he walked home through Shati`s alleys after mosque prayers Friday - has helped to make him the most trusted Palestinian politician, outscoring his main rival, moderate President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, despite Hamas` strife-ridden and lackluster year in power.
Haniyeh`s crossover appeal is expected to serve him well as he tries to put together a Hamas-Fatah unity government in the coming month, following a power-sharing deal that ended deadly factional fighting. Unlike most Hamas figures, Haniyeh has a cordial relationship with Fatah leaders, clearing the way for future cooperation in a coalition government.
His folksy nature - rare in Palestinian politics - has won him the label of pragmatist, but analysts say he is just as ideologically driven as others in the Islamic militant group.
His new Hamas-Fatah government - he`s assured the prime minister`s job under the coalition agreement - is as unlikely to recognize "Israel" as the outgoing one. Haniyeh`s detractors, mainly in Fatah, say he is just a frontman for Hamas` supreme leader, the Syria-based Khaled Mashaal, and that his inexperience shows; Haniyeh never held political office before becoming prime minister.
For many Palestinians, Haniyeh`s most attractive quality is his modest lifestyle. The gray-haired, gray-bearded 45-year-old with a bearlike build kept his two-story home in the Shati refugee camp even after being appointed prime minister following Hamas` victory in January 2006 parliament elections.
He may have had little choice but to stay put, since Hamas had campaigned on a clean government platform, riding to victory on a wave of frustration over Fatah`s official corruption during more than a decade in power.
However, Haniyeh`s neighbors say he`s a genuinely nice man. "People like him. He has no enemies," said Shati resident Hassan Abu Ali, 55, who has known Haniyeh since childhood.
Residents said Haniyeh shares electricity from his generator during frequent outages, attends social events in the camp and once spent an hour digging dirt at a neighbor`s construction site.
Haniyeh`s home is located in an alley off Shati`s main beachside road. Two sandbag-fortified guardposts are the only sign a senior official lives in the area.
On Friday, Haniyeh, escorted by assault rifle-toting bodyguards in utility vehicles, drove in a silver Mercedes from his house to the local Baghdad Mosque, a few hundred yards away on the beach road.
However, on the way back, he decided to walk, surrounded by guards in gray suits who kept pushing little kids away as the entourage made its way along the shabby promenade. Haniyeh halted at one point to greet a child in a wheelchair and, later, to gaze at the Mediterranean.
Once home, he invited cameramen and photographers into the walled courtyard, had aides distribute soft drinks and offered to pose for photos with journalists. Asked why he remained in Shati after becoming prime minister, he said: "I was born here, I was raised here, I walked the streets here. I must stay with my people."
He attributed his popularity to "divine mystery."
In a recent poll, Haniyeh emerged as the most trusted Palestinian politician, with 22.2%, compared with 19.1% for Abbas and 16.1% for jailed Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti. In a direct comparison with Abbas, the president was only slightly ahead, 51% to 49%. The February survey among 806 Palestinians, conducted by the independent polling company Neareast Consulting, had an error margin of 3.4 percentage points.
Haniyeh, a father of 13, was born in Shati in 1962, to parents who fled what is now "Israel" during the 1948 Mideast war. He served as student council leader at Gaza City`s Islamic University, and in 1992 was deported by "Israel" to southern Lebanon for a year, along with hundreds of other Islamic militants. After his return, he took a job in the dean`s office of the Islamic University and for more than five years served as personal assistant to the charismatic Hamas founder, Sheik Ahmed Yassin.
After the assassination of Yassin and other leading Hamas figures by "Israel", Haniyeh moved up in Hamas. In the 2006 election, he headed the Hamas list because of his voter appeal, even though Hamas firebrand Mahmoud Zahar was considered more senior. After Hamas` election upset, Haniyeh was appointed prime minister.
Haniyeh`s ratings remained high even as Hamas` popularity dropped, from a high of 40% support a year ago to 27% now, according to the poll. Hamas` luster has faded in the past year, because of the worsening economic crisis following the international sanctions and because it was blamed, along with Fatah, for the infighting.
Emad Eissa, 38, who runs a fish restaurant in Shati, said he likes Haniyeh, with whom he played soccer as a boy, but that this does not translate into political support. Eissa, a Fatah loyalist, said the aid boycott has meant a 90% drop in his business in the past year, and the situation will remain grim as long as Hamas is in power.
Political analyst Jihad Hamad said that while Haniyeh has been able to appeal to voters outside Hamas and do business with political rivals, "he is still a hardliner in his heart."