All 20 remaining living hostages held in Gaza and scores of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel have walked free as part of a ceasefire pausing two years of war.
Leaders from all over the world are making a show of it in honor of the reality-TV-star-US-president. They only invite one Palestinian representative (Abbas) from the PA to their talks. The same PA that controls only parts of the West-Bank and is highly unpopular with the Palestinian populace because they are seen as collaborators with the occupation. The “peace” “deal” came about without involvement of Palestinians. Just like 100 years ago, the fate of Palestine is being decided by colonial powers.
All the while, militant groups (if they were fighting against Israel they would be rightfully called terrorists) are continuing Israels’s tradition of killing journalists in the strip and are fighting Hamas for control.
It’s good that the bombings have stopped, that humanitarian aid has started to reach a population under a medieval-style siege for so long, offering a bit of - even if incomplete - respite. But I fear for the population once the show in Cairo is over.
EDIT: And no one is looking at the horror that is going on in the West-Bank. Nor is anyone including any points in a “deal”.
The PA is the internationally recognized representative of the Palestinian people. When other governments recognize the state of Palestine, it’s the PA they recognize as its government.
The PA is an arm of Israeli Apartheid, Occupation, and Suppression.
The PA creates the appearance of Palestinian autonomy, but in fact, much like the governments of the Bantustans of apartheid South Africa, it is simply an extension of the colonial state, a tool of counterinsurgency that is highly effective for the repression of local rebellions, because it makes the native population police itself. Fatah, which was a revolutionary movement in the early days of the armed struggle, is now mostly contained by the PA.
Israel’s stabilization strategy, inspired by modern counterinsurgency doctrine, has rested on two pillars: the employment of pacification measures to co-opt Palestinians and reliance on the Palestinian Authority (PA) to police its population on Israel’s behalf. However, many Palestinians are now fighting back against this approach, while the PA’s eroding legitimacy has only hardened the population’s refusal to accept its restrictive methods.
It is presented here as it has been perceived by the Israeli policymakers and bureaucrats down the years. For them the PA was an integral and crucial component in the open-air prison model suggested in the 1990s, and one which the pragmatic elite of Israel still hopes to instate in the West Bank, at least in the near future.
Ilan Pappe - The Biggest Prison on Earth
In appearance, the PA has all the trappings of a state, with ministries and a civil service, but Israel wields the real power, turning the tap on tax revenue, and controlling access to the shrinking territories – a status quo often compared with the Bantustans of apartheid-era South Africa.
The PA has actively helped Israel to keep tight control over the Palestinian population. Many perceive the body as a tool of the Israeli security apparatus, its US-trained forces not only targeting those suspected of planning attacks on Israelis, but also arresting union figures, journalists and critics on social media.
Israel relies on this division of the West Bank to foster the fiction that the Palestinian Authority is the entity primarily responsible for administering the life of the majority of Palestinians in the West Bank. In practice, however, Israel still retains control over the entire West Bank and all its residents.
That is not entirely true. Italy and Japan for example have just a few weeks ago said, that they are thinking of recognition of a Palestinian state making it contingent on several changes of Hamas.
But this is neither here or there. If among a whole people, the only organization that is invited does represent only a minority of the people, which can be seen from their low approval, then this meeting is a farce. In the case of the PA, if you read the linked article, they have actively focused on cracking down on anti-occupation groups in Jenin, while Israel has forced around 40000 Palestinians out of their homes during ‘Operation Iron Wall’ early this year. Instead of opposing, they colluded. This is not the Palestinian people deciding their own fate, but colonial powers imposing their will on them.
Leaders from all over the world are making a show of it in honor of the reality-TV-star-US-president. They only invite one Palestinian representative (Abbas) from the PA to their talks. The same PA that controls only parts of the West-Bank and is highly unpopular with the Palestinian populace because they are seen as collaborators with the occupation. The “peace” “deal” came about without involvement of Palestinians. Just like 100 years ago, the fate of Palestine is being decided by colonial powers.
All the while, militant groups (if they were fighting against Israel they would be rightfully called terrorists) are continuing Israels’s tradition of killing journalists in the strip and are fighting Hamas for control.
Now we don’t know which groups these are, but back in June Netanyahu has admitted to backing militant groups in Gaza. Occam’s Razor would imply, that these would be among them.
It’s good that the bombings have stopped, that humanitarian aid has started to reach a population under a medieval-style siege for so long, offering a bit of - even if incomplete - respite. But I fear for the population once the show in Cairo is over.
EDIT: And no one is looking at the horror that is going on in the West-Bank. Nor is anyone including any points in a “deal”.
PA are collaborators not a single doubt about it
The PA is the internationally recognized representative of the Palestinian people. When other governments recognize the state of Palestine, it’s the PA they recognize as its government.
The PA is an arm of Israeli Apartheid, Occupation, and Suppression.
That is not entirely true. Italy and Japan for example have just a few weeks ago said, that they are thinking of recognition of a Palestinian state making it contingent on several changes of Hamas.
But this is neither here or there. If among a whole people, the only organization that is invited does represent only a minority of the people, which can be seen from their low approval, then this meeting is a farce. In the case of the PA, if you read the linked article, they have actively focused on cracking down on anti-occupation groups in Jenin, while Israel has forced around 40000 Palestinians out of their homes during ‘Operation Iron Wall’ early this year. Instead of opposing, they colluded. This is not the Palestinian people deciding their own fate, but colonial powers imposing their will on them.
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