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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/20191030-the-pa-is-doing-israels-dirty-work-thats-why-it-was-created/">https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20191030-the-pa-is-doing-israels-dirty-work-thats-why-it-was-created/</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">The PA is doing Israel’s dirty work;
that’s why it was created</h1>
<div class="credits reader-credits">Asa Winstanley - October 30,
2019<br>
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<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p><strong>READ: <a
href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190928-israelis-just-voted-for-occupation-stop-pretending-they-want-peace/">Israelis
just voted for occupation – stop pretending they
want peace</a></strong></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p><strong>READ: <a title="The EU, UN and PA masquerade
as activists while highlighting their colonial
complicity"
href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20191024-the-eu-un-and-pa-masquerade-as-activists-while-highlighting-their-colonial-complicity/">The
EU, UN and PA masquerade as activists while
highlighting their colonial complicity</a></strong></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>In 2014, Abbas <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/mahmoud-abbas-collaboration-israeli-army-secret-police-sacred"
target="_blank">described</a> 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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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 <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/tamara-nassar/palestinian-authority-blocks-59-news-outlets"
target="_blank">ordered 59 news websites and social
media pages to be blocked</a>.</p>
<p>The court order claimed that the sites violated the
Electronic Crimes Law, which <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/charlotte-silver/mahmoud-abbas-decrees-sweeping-internet-speech-restrictions"
target="_blank">the PA passed in 2017</a>. Human
rights groups have <a
href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/12/20/joint-letter-secretary-general-council-ministers-salah-alayan-about-law-electronic"
target="_blank">called</a> the law a “tool to silence
legitimate free expression and criticism of the
authorities.”</p>
<p>The list of banned sites includes <i>Arab48</i>, <i>Wattan
TV</i>, <i>Shehab News Agency</i>, <i>Quds News
Network</i>, <i>Gaza Now </i>and <i>Metras</i>.
It’s notable that none of the blocked sites are Israeli.</p>
<p><strong>READ: <a title="Palestinian court blocks
websites critical of PA"
href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20191022-websites-critical-of-pa-are-blocked-by-palestinian-court/">Palestinian
court blocks websites critical of PA</a></strong></p>
<p>“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,”
<a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/tamara-nassar/palestinian-authority-blocks-59-news-outlets"
target="_blank">said Hamas spokesperson</a> 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.”</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</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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