[Pnews] The PA's loyalty is to Israel, not the Palestinians - protesters demanding release of political prisoners attacked

[Prisoner News]

middleeastmonitor.com
<https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220912-the-pas-loyalty-is-to-israel-not-the-palestinians/>
The PA's loyalty is to Israel, not the Palestinians
Motasem A Dalloul - September 12, 2022
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Dozens of Palestinian families, activists and factional leaders organised a
protest on Saturday in the centre of the occupied West Bank city of
Ramallah. They called for the Palestinian Authority (PA) to release
political prisoners. Sources in Ramallah said that the protesters raised
placards which said that the PA "should protect Palestinians, not detain
them", and that "Palestinian prisoners inside PA jails are heroes, not
criminals".

This was clearly a step too far for the PA, and its undercover security
forces attacked the protesters, tore up the placards, beat them and
dispersed them forcefully. The protesters described the attack as "treason…
on behalf of the Israeli occupation."

According to *Al-Resalah* newspaper, there are currently 23 Palestinian
political prisoners enduring severe torture and harsh treatment in PA
prisons across the occupied West Bank. They are mainly held in the
notorious Jericho Prison, known locally as the "slaughterhouse".

The Committee for Families of Political Prisoners said that the PA security
services committed 315 violations against the people of occupied Palestine
in August. The violations included house raids, detention, summonses for
interrogation, physical assaults and destruction or confiscation of
property.

The official spokesman of the PA Police Force, Major General Talal Dweekat,
denied two weeks ago that there are political prisoners inside the jails
run by the PA. "The claims by Hamas that there are political prisoners and
the chasing of political opponents is completely false," he claimed. All
detentions carried out by the PA "are to treat illegal issues and to impose
order and maintain safety in society."

While this is the situation in the occupied West Bank, the US and Israel
have been discussing how to strengthen the PA and its security services in
order to curb Palestinian resistance against the Israeli occupation and the
increasing number of daily attacks against Palestinians by Israel's illegal
Jewish settlers.

Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz discussed an initiative to strengthen
the PA with an American official last year. "This morning, I met with
Michael Ratney," Gantz tweeted
<https://twitter.com/gantzbe/status/1418550988558983170>. "We discussed the
importance of economic and social initiatives to strengthen the PA."

According to sources reported by *Axios*
<https://www.axios.com/2022/09/07/us-israel-west-bank-palestinian-authority-crisis>,
the Director of Israel's internal security agency known as Shin Bet, Ronen
Bar, told US Assistant Secretary of State for Middle Eastern Affairs
Barbara Leaf recently that the agency supports strengthening the PA, but it
is harder to make decisions at this time because of November's General
Election in Israel.

Meanwhile, the PA's Minister of Civil Affairs, Hussein Al-Sheikh, told Leaf
during her visit to the region that he did not complain of a weak economy
or the lack of funds for the inability to act against the Palestinian
resistance. The reason, he said, is the repeated action of the Israeli
occupation forces against the Palestinian resistance. "How can the PA
security forces work in the day while their Israeli counterparts work in
the night?" he wondered. "We cannot function when the Israeli military
enters our cities every day arresting people and killing people. What do
they expect?"

It is clear that the minister does not want the Israeli occupation forces
to do anything; they should leave it all to the PA's own security forces.
He wants PA employees to arrest Palestinians, beat them and, if necessary,
kill them.

The latter should be no surprise. Dozens of Palestinians have been killed
by the PA security forces since the authority was created in 1993. Killings
have happened in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

In 1996, for example, PA security agents surrounded Palestine Mosque in
Gaza City and immediately after the Friday prayers opened fire on the
worshippers, killing 17 and wounding hundreds. They have killed Palestinian
resistance fighters during home raids, in the streets and in PA prisons
under torture. They killed activist Nizar Banat last year just for
criticising PA President Mahmoud Abbas.

So the US and Israel now agree that the PA needs their support to boost its
security services allowing them once again to be able to work alongside the
Israeli occupation forces in cracking down on Palestinian resistance
activities, which have been increasing in the occupied West Bank.

Leaf has said that the PA cannot act against the Palestinian resistance due
to its ailing economic situation as it has been unable to pay full salaries
for its employees for more than a year. She warned that the PA might
collapse at any time if it does not get financial support. *Axios* quoted
her as telling officials in Tel Aviv that the "the ball is in Israel's
court" when it comes to strengthening and stabilising the PA.

This is not entirely accurate, because the PA is already acting against the
Palestinian resistance and complies with Israeli diktats without
hesitation. It imprisons Palestinian fighters, and then supplies detailed
information about them to the Israeli occupation authorities so that Shin
Bet and other security operatives can find and kill them easily. The
security coordination — collaboration in all but name — with the Israeli
security services is "sacred", according to Abbas. The PA is loyal to
Israel, not the people of occupied Palestine.

The Palestinian resistance in the occupied West Bank has surged, not due to
the weakness of the PA or its economic crises, but to the Ramallah
authority's increasing oppression of the people; the increasing aggression
of the Israeli occupation; and the increasing number of attacks by
extremist Israeli Jewish settlers emboldened by international silence and
complicity.

Palestinian resistance will only end when the Israeli occupation of
Palestine ends. It may be suppressed and beaten down, but it will always
rise again, like a phoenix. The liberation of Palestine and freedom for its
people — from the oppression of the Israelis and the Palestinian Authority
— remain the objectives as Palestinians continue to struggle for their
legitimate rights.


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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