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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Rhetoric about international intervention is an excuse for risking nothing, while Palestinians risk their lives</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Ramona Wadi - May 11, 2021</div></div>
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<div class="gmail-moz-reader-content gmail-reader-show-element"><div id="gmail-readability-page-1" class="gmail-page"><div id="gmail-post-content"> <p>The
international community is quite happy to keep up the narrative of the
"barren land" until Israel's colonial violence escalates to attract
global attraction and condemnation. When this happens, the UN
rediscovers the existence of the colonised Palestinian population,
albeit while feigning ignorance about its own role in maintaining the
colonial state and settler violence. If we depart from the premise that
the UN exists to fail in its mandate to protect human rights, then its
political stance is to be both expected and abhorred.</p> <p>When the
Palestinian Authority emulates a similar stance in terms of recognising
the perils that the people of occupied Palestine face when it makes news
headlines, it is horrific.</p> <p>"Storming Al-Aqsa Mosque is a crime
committed by the occupation," tweeted the PA's Civil Affairs Minister,
Hussein Al-Sheikh. "The Palestinian leadership is examining all options
to respond to this heinous aggression against the holy sites and the
citizens." <i>Wafa</i> news agency, which is the PA's media arm, ran the brief news <a href="https://english.wafa.ps/Pages/Details/124382" target="_blank">report</a> akin to an official statement.</p> <p><strong><a title="Sheikh Jarrah is a historic Jerusalem neighbourhood" href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20210511-sheikh-jarrah-is-a-historic-jerusalem-neighbourhood/">OPINION: Sheikh Jarrah is a historic Jerusalem neighbourhood</a></strong></p> <p>Meanwhile, <i>Wafa</i>'s
reports on PA leader Mahmoud Abbas's statements show how abysmal the
Palestinian leadership is. Abbas holds the Israeli government "fully
responsible" for the aggression against Palestinians in Jerusalem and
the aerial bombardment of Gaza, without having any framework for
pursuing culpability. Following the PA's usual script, in the full
knowledge that it has no political power to wield, Abbas <a href="https://english.wafa.ps/Pages/Details/124399" target="_blank">appealed</a>
for international intervention to stop the violence against
Palestinians and halt the dispossession of the residents of the Sheikh
Jarrah neighbourhood in occupied Jerusalem.</p> <p>In the face of such
an aggressive display of Israeli colonial violence, the PA's "all
options" are still tied to rhetoric, allowing Israel once more to
distort the narrative away from the Palestinian people who are out on
the streets protecting what is left of their heritage. A quick online
search reveals one omission for which the PA should be held to account:
where are the Palestinian security services and why are they not
protecting the Palestinian people?</p> <div id="gmail-attachment_469541" class="gmail-wp-caption"><p><img src="https://i1.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/IMG_2616-scaled.jpg?fit=933%2C579&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1" alt="Israel preventing Palestinians from returning to their homes in Jerusalem - Cartoon [Sabaaneh/MiddleEastMonitor]" style="margin-right: 0px;" width="476" height="296"></p><p class="gmail-wp-caption-text">Israel prevents Palestinians from returning to their homes in Jerusalem – Cartoon [Sabaaneh/MiddleEastMonitor]</p></div><p>A
few years back, the PA security services were out beating Palestinians
for opposing Abbas's policies on Gaza but were absent when the president
called for street protests over the US recognition of Jerusalem as
Israel's capital, knowing full well that protestors would be facing the
Israeli occupation forces. Rights organisations have spoken about the
role that the PA security services play in funnelling Palestinian
detainees to Israeli jails. Abbas has, on occasions, reiterated that
security coordination is "sacred". Sacred for who? The Palestinian
people have not benefited from the only entity that could,
hypothetically, offer some form of protection, but the international
community funds PA security personnel in the occupied West Bank for
other reasons, namely to act as an extension of their Israeli
counterparts — and bosses — in the territory.</p> <p>So while Israel
continues its aggressive display which has sent shockwaves around the
world, spare a thought for the way that the PA rises to the occasion to
masquerade as a political power without actually wielding any
independent authority whatsoever. The international community had an
obligation to prevent Israeli colonialism even before it started. That
would have protected Palestinians from all the violence and displacement
that they have faced since the 1948 Nakba. Without true leadership,
they are risking their lives in an attempt to protect what is left of
their land. The PA, meanwhile, has shown through its "official" position
on "international intervention" that it is risking nothing.</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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