Tamara Nassar
The Electronic Intifada / July 24, 2024
The Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority held a secret meeting with American and Israeli officials in Tel Aviv earlier this month to conspire on “day after” plans in Gaza that would involve the collaborative body in reopening the Rafah crossing with Egypt.
“Egypt wants personnel from the Palestinian Authority to operate the crossing,” Axios reported. The crossing, when open, is typically operated by Hamas personnel from Gaza’s side, as the political and armed organization governs the interior of the Strip.
“Israel wants people who aren’t affiliated with Hamas to do it, but objects to any official involvement of the Palestinian Authority – mostly for domestic political reasons,” Axios added.
The Palestinian Authority rejected a proposal that would involve it in reopening the crossing in any unofficial capacity, the publication said.
The meeting reportedly included White House official Brett McGurk, the head of Israel’s domestic spying agency Ronen Bar, secretary-general of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s executive committee Hussein al-Sheikh and head of the PA’s military intelligence Majed Faraj.
This was the first time that Palestinian officials have met with US and Israeli counterparts “to discuss the day after the war ends in Gaza,” reported Barak Ravid, the Axios writer who is frequently fed information by Israel’s military and intelligence apparatus.
The United Arab Emirates also appears eager to conspire for a day-after plan in Gaza.
The Gulf state, which formalized relations with Israel in 2020, is looking “to deploy a temporary international mission” in Gaza that would establish “law and order,” the UAE ambassador at the United Nations, Lana Zaki Nusseibeh, wrote in the Financial Times last week.
“A temporary international presence in Gaza can only result from a formal invitation from the Palestinian Authority,” the ambassador wrote.
The Palestinian Authority was created in the early 1990s following the Oslo accords to act as native auxiliary on behalf of the Israeli occupation. It has performed that role – one that PA leader Mahmoud Abbas calls “sacred” – without interruption since day one.
It wouldn’t be surprising if Israel and its Arab allies sought to copy this model in a post-genocide Gaza Strip.
But in order for Israel to execute its vision in the wrecked coastal enclave, the Israeli military would have to achieve its stated goal of eliminating Hamas as a governing and military presence in Gaza.
This doesn’t appear close to happening.
Meanwhile, Fatah and Hamas agreed to “end the Palestinian national division” after the rival factions held negotiations in China this month alongside other Palestinian political parties.
Notably, the factions “underlined the Palestinian people’s right to resist occupation and to end it in accordance with international law,” according to Lebanese broadcaster Al-Mayadeen, which obtained a copy of the declaration.
This is not the first time that the parties have made these declarations, and there is no indication that this one will be different.
A Palestinian Authority official said over the weekend that the Palestine Liberation Organization is the sole legitimate representative of Palestinians.
“Leaked news indicating that Washington is discussing plans on the future of the Gaza Strip with some parties will not have any legitimacy and will not be accepted by the Palestinian people,” Nabil Abu Rudeineh is paraphrased to have said, according to WAFA News Agency.
Echoing Israeli propaganda
Following an Israeli massacre in al-Mawasi earlier this month that killed at least 90 Palestinians and injured hundreds of others, the Palestinian Authority issued a statement effectively blaming Hamas for Israel’s slaughter.
“The presidency sees that by escaping national unity, and providing free pretexts to the occupation state, the Hamas movement is a partner in bearing legal, moral and political responsibility for the continuation of the Israeli war of genocide,” PA leader Mahmoud Abbas wrote in a statement.
Another PA official actually used an Israeli propaganda talking point against Hamas.
“Hamas is actually hiding between the residents to protect and save itself,” PA official Munir al-Jaghoub reportedly said.
“If Hamas wanted to fight face-to-face with Israel, it would’ve done so in areas where the army is located, and not in places where there are people.”
We were joined by writer and Birzeit University lecturer Abdaljawad Omar on 17 July on The Electronic Intifada livestream to talk about the situation in the West Bank.
Omar said that the Palestinian Authority “is trying to echo Israeli psychological warfare.”
It is doing so “by attempting to kind of de-link the Palestinian society overall from its resistance, and serving through this severance, serving Israeli war aims, which is to defeat the resistance and render Gaza unlivable.”
“We have this model in the West Bank: that’s what is in the fantasy of every military and political leader in Israel, to replicate some sort of system, a political system, a native authority that serves it, that cooperates with it and collaborates with it and makes the occupation inexpensive,” Omar said.
“Not an authority or a governance structure like the one that Gaza had at least before 7 October,” Omar added, which binded armed resistance with the party governing the interior affairs of the Gaza Strip.
The Palestinian Authority is “most responsible for the continuation of war, for empowering Israel to think that it can defeat the Palestinian people,” Omar added, by producing “this docile, ineffective, corrupt leadership that is running now the West Bank.”
The successes of multiple factions of Palestinian resistance forces on the ground in Gaza are agitating the collaborationist body in Ramallah, Omar suggested, pointing to how the Palestinian Authority did not rise to the occasion following the Hamas operation of 7 October.
“The national challenge that has been opened on 7 October,” is for the Palestinian Authority “to actually participate and attempt, at least, to the best of its capacity to not allow Gaza to go through this war alone,” Omar said.
Not only did the Palestinian Authority abandon Gaza, he added, but it must be blamed “for even the continuation of the war.”
The elite of the collaborationist PA and the comprador class in Ramallah “is betraying the nation in the name of the nation,” Omar said.
“This elite has extreme anxiety over Hamas and Islamic Jihad and all the recent resistance groups in Gaza, coming out with significant strategic results from this war.”
Meanwhile, the resistance in the occupied West Bank has been developing and refining its tactics, but this uprising is not happening in all corners of the West Bank.
Omar said he would confine the description of a “third intifada” to specific areas.
“I would confine it geographically to the north of the West Bank. So the areas that surround or go from the Jordan Valley upwards to Tubas, Tulkarem, Nablus, Jenin,” Omar said.
“These are the areas that have active militant formations that are engaging in the buildup of [improvised explosive devices], the capacity to resist, and refining tactics,” Omar said, making “it hard for the Israelis to enter freely into these areas.”
Israel responded with devastating revenge on entire communities where resistance emerges from, wreaking widespread devastation, severely damaging electricity networks, water and sewage infrastructure, uprooting roads and destroying homes.
More than 550 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank since 7 October, including at least 539 by Israeli forces, according to UN monitoring group OCHA.
Israeli settlers have killed at least 10 Palestinians, and another seven were killed by either Israeli army or settler fire.
Of those killed in the occupied West Bank since 7 October, 138 were children.
But the “Israelis have not been able to really shock that resistance into a place where it’s defeated or raises the white flag,” Omar said.
On the contrary, “the resistance has been able to actually develop, evolve and and ensure that its defensive posture, or offensive posture has become more deadly for the Israeli forces entering the area.”
Watch the full interview with Abdaljawad Omar on The Electronic Intifada’s YouTube channel, or by clicking on the videos above.
Tamara Nassar is an assistant editor at The Electronic Intifada
