http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=post&forum=124Such is the dissolute state of Nablus, where more than 30 Palestinians have died in recent months, the victims of bullets fired by other Palestinians.
The killing spree has brought into high relief the existence in Nablus of the other Palestinian struggle, a hidden war that is as much about organized crime as it is about national resistance. Buoyed by what is now a total absence of islah, or public order, a fragmented array of heavily armed criminal gangs has turned the intifada on itself.
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Among the estimated 32 recent slayings were innocent bystanders, suspected Israeli collaborators and, in one particularly high-profile case, Ahmad Buraq Shaqa, the businessman brother of Nablus Mayor Ghassan Shaqa.
The Nov. 25 ambush of Shaqa had all the earmarks of a gangland assassination. The fact that he was driving a car that belonged to his brother raised suspicions the mayor was the intended target.
Both Mayor Shaqa and Nablus Governor Mahmoud Aloul, who survived a recent firebomb attack on his car, deny allegations linking them to the city's crime rings.
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yeah....they're ready