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<font size="1"><a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20210627-the-palestinian-authority-is-actually-israels-auxiliary-occupation-force/">https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20210627-the-palestinian-authority-is-actually-israels-auxiliary-occupation-force/</a>
</font><h1 class="gmail-reader-title">The 'Palestinian' Authority is actually Israel's auxiliary occupation force</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Asa Winstanley - June 27, 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>Palestinian activist and political candidate Nizar Banat, 44, was killed in the early hours of Thursday morning.</p> <p>But it was not Israeli soldiers that killed him.</p> <p>Banat
was a critic of the Palestinian Authority, or PA, condemning its
corruption and its central policy of "security coordination" with
Israel.</p> <p>His popular Facebook page (as of this writing) has more
than 122,000 followers. The late activist, who lived in the Hebron area,
regularly posted videos online giving his analysis of the Palestinian
political scene, the latest crimes of the Israeli occupation, and the
PA's collaboration with the enemy occupier.</p> <p>Banat had recently called for the European Union to stop funding the PA.</p> <p>From all reports of his death, it sounds like what happened yesterday was nothing short of political assassination by the PA.</p> <p>And
indeed, opposition Palestinian factions – including Hamas and the
Marxist-Leninist group the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
– in their statements have called it precisely that.</p> <p><strong><a title="Why did the PA kill Nizar Banat?" href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20210624-why-did-the-pa-kill-nizar-banat/">OPINION: Why did the PA kill Nizar Banat?</a></strong></p> <p>According
to Banat's family members, present at his home that fateful night, no
less than 25 PA "security" thugs barged in, in the dead of night, at 3
am and beat him bloody. They then dragged him out, barely conscious.</p> <p>That was the last time his family saw him.</p> <div id="gmail-attachment_480085" class="gmail-wp-caption"><p><img src="https://i1.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Cartoon-2-scaled.jpg?fit=933%2C653&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1" alt="Why did the PA kill Nizar Banat? - Cartoon [Sabaaneh/MiddleEastMonitor]" style="margin-right: 0px;" width="452" height="316"></p><p class="gmail-wp-caption-text">Why did the PA kill Nizar Banat? – Cartoon [Sabaaneh/MiddleEastMonitor]</p></div><p>The PA's <a href="https://www.facebook.com/hebron.governorat33/photos/a.796276460393956/4239153849439516/" target="_blank">Hebron governor announced</a> two hours later that Banat had died, without mentioning any cause of death.</p> <p>"A
security force unit arrested him at dawn, during which his health
deteriorated and he was transferred to Hebron's public hospital," the
governor, "General" Jibreen al-Bakri claimed. "Upon examination by the
doctors, it appeared that he was dead," the statement continued
passively.</p> <p>It's very striking how much the gangsters of the PA
have learned from Israeli occupation forces. Surprise "arrests" in the
dead of night, such as that done to Banat, are a common tactic of the
Israeli military in their quest to suppress Palestinian dissent.</p> <p>In
the same way, the PA was furious at Banat for his incisive criticisms
and decided to stamp them out by simply killing him. This murder has
already caused mass disgust among Palestinians in the West Bank, who
have come out onto the streets to protest at the PA's murderous
policies.</p> <p>Aside from the simple and planned issue of their
financial corruption, the key criticism that Banat – like so many other
Palestinians – had of the PA was "security coordination". Unelected PA
president Mahmoud Abbas <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/mahmoud-abbas-collaboration-israeli-army-secret-police-sacred" target="_blank">once infamously called this policy "holy"</a>.</p> <p>"Security coordination" would more accurately be described as a collaboration – cooperation with Israel, the enemy occupier.</p> <p>PA
forces today in the West Bank have absolutely no power to arrest or
even question the Israeli soldiers and Israeli settlers that regularly
carry out killings, abuses, and other crimes against Palestinians. If
they ever tried, they would be swiftly killed.</p> <p>The only direction
the PA is permitted to turn its guns is against the Palestinian
population itself. The location of Banat's home (in an area of Hebron
directly controlled by the Israeli army, with no pretence of PA
presence) makes it clear that the arrest had been directly coordinated
with and given the green light by the Israeli occupation forces.</p> <p>Contrary
to many misconceptions in the West (even among many on the left and in
the Palestine solidarity movement) the PA is not a "government" in
charge of a state. Ironically, considering its name, it has little real
authority and does not serve Palestinian interests.</p> <p>In fact, its main and only real purpose is to quash Palestinian resistance to Israel – whether armed or peaceful.</p> <p>And
the PA's policy of collaboration with the enemy is not a matter of
weakness, degeneration or of corruption (although the PA is also very
corrupt, with a well-known and well-deserved reputation for
misappropriating funds) – it is a matter of design during the Oslo
capitulation process.</p> <p>The PA was <i>always</i> designed as a
subcontractor for the Israeli occupation. Every occupation force and
colonial entity in history has sought to recruit native informants and
agents to its cause, and Israel is no different in that regard.</p> <p><strong>READ: <a title="PLO calls for 'transparent' probe into murder of activist Nizar Banat" href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20210626-plo-calls-for-transparent-probe-into-murder-of-activist-nizar-banat/">PLO calls for 'transparent' probe into murder of activist Nizar Banat</a></strong></p> <p>The
United States recruited Native American trackers and warriors to its
side in its wars of expansion, conquest, and extermination against the
indigenous peoples of North America. The British Empire is a past master
in the brutal colonial art of divide and rule. The Israeli occupation
in South Lebanon – before the Lebanese resistance drove them out in 2000
– ran whole armies of Lebanese collaborators. The Americans in Iraq ran
local sectarian militias.</p> <p>The PA are little different. The
neutralisation of the PLO, the Palestinian liberation movement, was long
a dream of Israel. Not only did they achieve this via the Oslo process
in 1993, but they actually managed to recruit former PLO fighters to
their side – a big win for the Israeli occupation.</p> <p>Today, the PA is one of the main, if not <i>the primary barrier</i> to Palestinian liberation from Israeli occupation.</p> <p>It must be dismantled.</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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