ISRAEL: A gathering of 'The Formers' in Gaza

By Ashraf Khalil in Gaza City

The evidence of last year’s power shift in Gaza (Hamas in, and the Fatah faction very, very out) is apparent in lots of big and small ways. Green Hamas flags are everywhere, of course, and the black-clad security guys keeping order in the streets are more likely to be sporting bushy beards.

But every now and then, it sneaks up on you in more subtle ways.

Yesterday, my colleague Rushdi and I met with Faisal Abu Shahla, a doctor who heads a major medical assistance charity. As soon as we walked in his office, we noticed the pictures of the late Yasser Arafat and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on the wall. It was clear this was one of Gaza’s dwindling patches of Fatah ground.

Abu Shahla identified himself as "the former director general of all hospitals in Gaza." Then he introduced several middle-age guys sitting on his office couch, sipping tea and smoking. There was a former director of administrative services and a former chief of engineering for the health ministry.

Quickly we realized we were in a room full of senior Ministry of Health guys who were purged for their Fatah connections after Hamas took over Gaza last summer.

The last man on the couch was a ministry of health doctor who had managed to keep his job. "He’s hasn’t become a ‘former’ yet," Abu Shahla joked.

This doctor responded with a morbid, but deeply funny, joke. He quoted an Arabic proverb normally spoken when passing a graveyard, a phrase designed to emphasize the fleeting nature of our time on this earth.

“Entu al sabiqoon, wa nahnu al lahiqoon,” he said, grinning.

Loose translation: “It was your turn and soon it will be ours.”