[News] The PA is doing Israel’s dirty work; that’s why it was created

[Anti-Imperialist News]

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20191030-the-pa-is-doing-israels-dirty-work-thats-why-it-was-created/ 



  The PA is doing Israel’s dirty work; that’s why it was created

Asa Winstanley - October 30, 2019
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Despite what you may have heard, the Palestinian Authority is not a 
“Palestinian government”. Indeed, “Palestinian Authority” is a misnomer, 
as the entity has no genuine authority, and does not act in the 
interests of most Palestinians.

Above all else, it is certainly not a democratic body. There have been 
no Palestinian Authority elections for almost 14 years now, internal 
ballots aside.

The last time the PA’s sham parliament held genuinely democratic 
elections was in 2006. From the perspective of US imperialism and its 
allies, though, the wrong party won. Palestine’s Islamic Resistance 
Movement, Hamas, won on an anti-corruption and social welfare ticket, 
with an electoral list of candidates called Change and Reform. 
Palestinian voters opted for Hamas as a change from the corruption 
viewed as rife in the ruling Fatah movement of Mahmoud Abbas.

The failure of the PA President’s “peace process” strategy of 
capitulation to Israel via negotiations, was also a factor in his 
party’s surprise defeat. However, instead of reflecting on the message 
that voters sent out loud and clear, and preparing for life in 
opposition, Fatah refused to accept the results of the “free and fair” 
elections and transfer power to Hamas, the newly elected government. The 
Fatah leadership was encouraged in this dangerous response by the 
Americans, the Europeans, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. The result was the 
brutal 2007 Palestinian civil war.

*READ: Israelis just voted for occupation – stop pretending they want 
peace 
<https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190928-israelis-just-voted-for-occupation-stop-pretending-they-want-peace/>*

Armed forces in Gaza run by the then powerful Fatah figure Mohammed 
Dahlan prepared to stage a coup against Hamas and its fighters. Hamas 
discovered the plot and drove Dahlan and his men out of Gaza. A coup was 
then launched by Abbas in the West Bank against the elected Hamas PA 
government.

Despite years of interminable on-off “national unity government” 
negotiations between Hamas and Fatah, there have been no parliamentary 
or presidential elections ever since. The “Palestinian Authority”, 
therefore, has no democratic mandate. Nor, in fact, does Abbas himself; 
his term of office should have ended in 2009.

More fundamentally, the PA does not have the mandate of the entire 
Palestinian people, the majority of whom live in exile and as refugees. 
Their rights are not protected by the PA. Under the bankrupt Oslo Accord 
process which began in the early 1990s, their legitimate right of return 
has been neither honoured nor protected.

Furthermore, even in its own limited sphere of influence and the 
fragment of the Palestinian people that it purports to represent within 
the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip — which together form just 22 per 
cent of historical Palestine — the PA acts to enforce Israel’s will. The 
authority’s most active and well-funded sector is security, with around 
70,000 officers operating through half a dozen security agencies.

*READ: The EU, UN and PA masquerade as activists while highlighting 
their colonial complicity 
<https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20191024-the-eu-un-and-pa-masquerade-as-activists-while-highlighting-their-colonial-complicity/>*

PA security personnel are trained by the US and Europe, and exist solely 
to control the Palestinian people. Their only mission is to prevent 
resistance to Israel (whether armed or peaceful), to protect Israel and 
to protect the PA’s leaders. Their orders are to stand down if armed 
Israeli security personnel arrive at the scene of any incident.

In 2014, Abbas described 
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/mahmoud-abbas-collaboration-israeli-army-secret-police-sacred> 
the PA’s security coordination with Israel as “sacred”. Over the years, 
though, he has threatened repeatedly to end this collaboration with 
Israel, usually when the PA’s funding is being threatened. Despite this, 
he has remained true to his 2014 speech, and security coordination 
between the PA and Israel remains steadfast.

The PA, by any reasonable measure, is thus a puppet; a quisling entity 
doing the bidding of the Israeli occupation. It is no surprise, 
therefore, to find that it is blocking free speech and acting in an 
oppressive, authoritarian manner. In this, the PA complements Israeli 
policy towards the Palestinians, which has always been dictatorial.

In its latest authoritarian move, the PA has banned a large number of 
Palestinian and other Arabic websites and social media. At the request 
of the PA’s attorney general, on 17 October the Ramallah magistrate’s 
court ordered 59 news websites and social media pages to be blocked 
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/tamara-nassar/palestinian-authority-blocks-59-news-outlets>.

The court order claimed that the sites violated the Electronic Crimes 
Law, which the PA passed in 2017 
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/charlotte-silver/mahmoud-abbas-decrees-sweeping-internet-speech-restrictions>. 
Human rights groups have called 
<https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/12/20/joint-letter-secretary-general-council-ministers-salah-alayan-about-law-electronic> 
the law a “tool to silence legitimate free expression and criticism of 
the authorities.”

The list of banned sites includes /Arab48/, /Wattan TV/, /Shehab News 
Agency/, /Quds News Network/, /Gaza Now /and /Metras/. It’s notable that 
none of the blocked sites are Israeli.

*READ: Palestinian court blocks websites critical of PA 
<https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20191022-websites-critical-of-pa-are-blocked-by-palestinian-court/>*

“The Palestinian Authority is burying its head in the sand by trying to 
prevent freedom of expression and returning national media to the 
darkness that the Israeli occupation sought to return it to and 
couldn’t,” said Hamas spokesperson 
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/tamara-nassar/palestinian-authority-blocks-59-news-outlets> 
Husam Badran. “The new ban can only mean that the Palestinian Authority 
and the occupation are fighting on the same side against Palestinian 
national expression and its exposure of the occupation’s violations, and 
of corruption and crime.”

The PA markets itself as a useful tool for the Israeli occupation; it 
can do things that Israel can’t. Increasingly, though, Israelis see the 
PA as irrelevant. Why should they employ a subcontractor for occupation 
when they can run it themselves directly? This is the conundrum that the 
PA finds itself in, hence its periodic empty threats to shut down 
security collaboration.

Nevertheless, for now at least, we can expect to see the PA continuing 
to do Israel’s dirty work. After all, that’s exactly why it was created 
in the first place.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not 
necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.

-- 
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