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<div class="header reader-header reader-show-element"> <font
size="-2"><a class="domain reader-domain"
href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20191017-israel-and-the-pa-security-relations-have-never-been-better/">https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20191017-israel-and-the-pa-security-relations-have-never-been-better/</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">Israel and the PA: security relations
have never been better</h1>
<div class="credits reader-credits">Dr Adnan Abu Amer<span> -
October 17, 2019 </span></div>
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<p>A number of Hamas cadres in the West Bank have been
arrested by the Israeli army in recent weeks. This has
raised questions about security coordination with the
occupation authorities, as it has become common for
Israel to arrest prisoners a day after they are released
by the Palestinian Authority as part of the revolving
door policy adopted by both sides.</p>
<p>The commander of the Israeli army in the West Bank,
General Eran Niv, has expressed his satisfaction with
this security coordination; without it, he believes that
Israel would have faced a substantial increase in armed
operations. He claimed that the army had confiscated 100
kilograms of explosives in Jenin; arrested two Hamas
cells in Nablus and Hebron that had built two explosives
laboratories and planned attacks; thwarted 200
resistance operations; and arrested 3,000 Palestinians.</p>
<p>Niv noted that the level of security coordination with
the Palestinian security agencies has reached
unprecedented levels. However, such overt Israeli praise
will expose senior Palestinian figures as collaborators
with the occupation, which will be embarrassing for
them.</p>
<p>The current level of coordination between the PA and
Israel goes beyond political commitments. It reveals the
actual alignment between the PA and Israel against the
resistance: information is exchanged and members of
resistance groups are arrested, exacerbating the
difficult situation of such groups in the occupied West
Bank. According to senior Israeli security officers, the
coordination relies on the backing of the Palestinian
President, Mahmoud Abbas.</p>
<p>The head of the Research Division in Israeli Military
Intelligence, Brigadier General Dror Shalom is one such
officer. “The relations between Israel and the PA, the
attempt to uphold day-to-day life and improve the
economic situation, and especially effective security
coordination with the Palestinian security services,
depend to a large extent on Abbas,” explained Shalom. “A
lot of people in Israel see him as an inciter, but he is
key to the quiet that has been in effect since 2006… I
find it hard to imagine anyone who would present more
moderate or pragmatic positions than Abbas. We need to
take that into consideration.”</p>
<p>Right-wing Israeli writer Nadav Haetzni said that the
heads of the Israeli security services provide Abbas
with complete cover, especially senior generals in the
Israeli army, Mossad and the Shin Bet security service.
All, he has claimed, position themselves to defend Abbas
and his PA. According to the head of Shin Bet, Nadav
Argaman, he and his colleagues are recruiting other
senior officers to defend Abbas’s security services in
the West Bank, and continue to support them by pumping
funds to the authority.</p>
<p>Members of the Palestinian security services sneak into
the West Bank disguised as Israeli Special Forces in
their attempts to capture members of Hamas who are
wanted by Israel. Recently-released prisoners are also
re-arrested and taken to unknown locations, even though
they have just left an Israeli jail a few days earlier,
after spending several years in prison. Some of them are
very ill. Such re-arrests are common to both the Israeli
and the Palestinian security services. Recent victims
include political researcher Yasser Manna, Marwan Astita
and teacher Muawiya Hanani. A few days after being
released by the PA they were picked up by the Israelis
at their homes in Nablus, along with former prisoner
Mahmoud Kharouf on his way home to Qalqilya. Palestinian
political detainee Alaa Bashir is another who has been
affected by this “revolving door” arrest policy.</p>
<p>The policy is nothing new, and is now out in the open
and well-known. The problem with this is that the PA and
Israel are arresting Palestinians on the same charge.
The Israelis are no longer content with the PA arresting
activists, because they do not trust the PA to provide
the information they need, so Israel must also arrest
the individual again for questioning about the same
case. The policy means that the occupation authorities
and the PA basically take turns to arrest resistance
cadres. Any announcements to the contrary by Abbas about
stopping security coordination are simply for media
consumption.</p>
<p><strong>READ: <a
href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20191016-the-pa-is-tainting-palestinian-resistance/">The
PA is tainting Palestinian resistance </a></strong></p>
<p>There is very little difference on the modus operandi
of the Israeli and PA security services. Each escort the
other through checkpoints and their own areas of control
to facilitate arrests. Those who have been arrested and
interrogated by one side only to be re-arrested by the
other speak of the same information being told to them
by the second batch of interrogators, on an almost word
for word basis. The Palestinian security services also
boast of returning Israelis who entered West Bank cities
“by mistake” back to the Israeli army in the context of
security coordination, while the PA has also transferred
a number of detainees from prisons in the West Bank
through Israeli military checkpoints.</p>
<p>All of this confirms that security coordination between
the Palestinian Authority and Israel continues despite
supposed political disagreements and differences between
Ramallah and Tel Aviv. Abbas may claim that he has
severed ties with Israel, but the facts on the ground
suggest that security coordination in particular is
still very much a fact of West Bank life. What goes on
behind closed doors reveals the true nature of the
relationship between the PA and Israel. While Israel has
been attacking Abbas, accusing him of rejecting the
peace process and being a hostile leader who must be
dismissed, it is also working with him extensively to
prevent the deterioration of the security situation that
could trigger the third intifada.</p>
<p>Despite the decisions of the Palestine National
Council, Palestinian Central Council and Palestinian
Legislative Council to stop security coordination with
Israel, Abbas still meets with Shin Bet’s Nadav Argaman
every now and again in Ramallah. Security relations
between the two sides have never been better.</p>
<p>The views expressed in this article belong to the
author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial
policy of Middle East Monitor.</p>
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