Julia Frankel
AP / July 12, 2023
JERUSALEM – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas briefly visited the occupied West Bank’s Jenin refugee camp Wednesday in the wake of a devastating Israeli offensive last week, marking his first visit to the camp since 2005.
The visit, which lasted just over an hour, came at a time of seething discontent among Palestinians in the West Bank toward Abbas and the Palestinian Authority, the autonomous government which administers parts of the West Bank but has largely lost control over several militant strongholds in the region, including Jenin. The 87-year-old president is widely seen as out of touch with the public and rarely ventures outside of his Ramallah headquarters.
The Palestinian leader’s visit to the Jenin refugee camp came a week after Israel launched a massive two-day military operation there. It was the largest Israeli offensive in the West Bank in nearly two decades, killing at least 12 Palestinians and one Israeli soldier, forcing thousands to flee their homes and leaving large swaths of the camp in ruins. The Israeli army said the operation was necessary to crack down on Palestinian militant groups following a spate of recent attacks.
Abbas arrived in Jenin aboard a Jordanian helicopter on Wednesday afternoon. Thousands clustered around his heavy security detail, and children chased his motorcade as it moved along the streets. He visited a freshly-dug cemetery, where he laid a wreath at the graves of those killed in last week’s operation, before speaking to a tightly-packed crowd.
“Jenin camp is the icon of struggle, steadfastness and challenge,” said Abbas. He pledged the reconstruction of the camp would begin immediately. “I say to everyone near and far, this country is safe and its authority will remain one… we must get rid of the occupation and we say to them: leave us, we are here to stay.”
Abbas’s leadership has come under criticism over rampant corruption in the Palestinian Authority and the lack of any progress toward independence. Just 17% of Palestinians are satisfied with Abbas’ leadership and 80% want him to resign, according to a Palestinian public opinion poll in June.
The Palestinian Authority has long drawn resentment for its security cooperation with Israel, which allows its security forces to crack down on rival militant groups such as Hamas, but the Jenin raid further degraded its reputation among many Palestinians.
U.S. President Joe Biden said in an interview with CNN this week that “the Palestinian Authority has lost its credibility” among Palestinians and has “created a vacuum for extremism” in the West Bank.
Abbas’s visit came after a statement by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ‘s office that his government would take steps to strengthen the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, but gave no specifics about what steps it would take.
Since taking office in December, several ultranationalist ministers in Netanyahu’s government have called for the Palestinian Authority to be disbanded.
Netanyahu heads one of the most hard-line governments in Israel’s history, made up of ultranationalist and ultra-Orthodox factions along with his ruling Likud party.
Over the last year, Israel has conducted stepped-up raids into Palestinian areas in response to deadly Palestinian attacks targeting Israelis over the past year.
More than 150 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire since the start of the year, while at least 26 people have been killed in Palestinian attacks against Israelis.
__________
Palestinian leader Abbas visits Jenin camp after Israeli raid
Al-Jazeera / July 12, 2023
President visits days after mourners’ anger forces three of his senior officials to leave a funeral for those killed.
Jenin, occupied West Bank – Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas has visited the Jenin refugee camp, a week after a 48-hour Israeli assault and days after some of his senior officials were driven away from a funeral procession by large crowds angry at the PA’s response to the attack.
The official PA news agency, WAFA, said Abbas, who arrived by helicopter on Wednesday, made the visit “to check citizens’ conditions and progress in the reconstruction of the camp and the city following the last Israeli aggression”.
Flanked by presidential guards, 87-year-old Abbas addressed crowds at the camp in his first visit to Jenin since 2012.
“The heroic Jenin camp stood against the aggression, sacrificed its casualties and offered all it has for the sake of the homeland,” Abbas said, promising that the camp would be rebuilt.
Members of Fatah, the party that Abbas leads, welcomed the president’s visit.
Nidal Nanaieh, a Fatah leader in the camp and a former fighter who took part in a 2002 battle with Israeli forces there, said Abbas’s visit was a “show of support” for the camp.
“This historic visit was made to show that all Palestinians are standing by the Jenin refugee camp and that there is a unified Palestinian stance,” Nanaieh told Al-Jazeera.
But others have not been as positive.
“We would have wanted him to stand with us at all times, not just in this instance,” Saidah, a camp resident, said. “When the Israeli army was here, where was he? Why did he leave us to fend for ourselves? … Our kids are gone. There are martyrs. There are prisoners in Israeli jails.”
“Tomorrow we will replace the doors and windows and rebuild. But we wanted him to be with us from the beginning. What is the point of his visit?”
Another man who did not want to be identified also shared that perspective.
“When the president came, I stayed home because I knew his visit would not make any difference,” the man told Al-Jazeera. “My home was destroyed. Where should me and my family go? Abbas only came for a photo opportunity.”
Deadly raid
Last week, Israeli forces launched the largest attack on the Jenin refugee camp since the 2002 battle. Drone-fired missiles and hundreds of soldiers pounded the camp for three days, killing 12 Palestinians, including three children.
At least 3,000 people fled their homes while dozens of houses were shelled, and widespread destruction was caused to roads and other infrastructure.
Soon after the raid, three top Fatah officials, including Deputy Chairman Mahmoud Aloul, visited the camp, only to be driven away from a funeral by mourners chanting, “Get out! Get out!”
Their anger highlighted the deep unpopularity of the PA, particularly in the Jenin refugee camp. For the past two years, Israeli forces have launched a series of deadly raids on the camp as well as other areas in the northern occupied West Bank while Jewish settler attacks have increased. This has led to increasing criticism of the PA for its perceived lack of ability to defend or protect Palestinians.
The PA was created under the 1993 Oslo Accords between the Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel. It was formed as an interim, five-year governing body meant to lead to an independent Palestinian state consisting of the occupied territories of East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
However, the Israeli occupation and restrictions, Jewish settlements and illegal land grabs are among the factors that have prevented the formation of a Palestinian state.
Today, the PA retains largely administrative control over only 18 percent of the occupied West Bank and can do nothing to stop Israeli raids.
SOURCE: AL-JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES
