Palestinian Authority (PA) Plivent Mahmoud Abbas was in his element when, on stage at the UN General Assembly (UNGA) last month, he thanked 124 countries for voting yes on the first-ever resolution presentd by Palestine at the UNGA.
He was back at the scene of one of the PA’s most convey inant political accomplishments since its set upment under the Oslo Accords in the mid-1990s – Palestine’s prosperous 2012 bid for non-member watchr status.
Abbas, an architect of the peace process that produced the PA as a administerment-in-paengageing until the set upment of a Palestinian state, flourished Yasser Araoverweight at the helm of the PA after his death. Since then, the PA has made international recognition and diplomacy a priority, with constant calls for UN action and a years-extfinished campaign for the International Criminal Court to spendigate crimes pledgeted in Palestine.
At the UNGA, Abbas condemned Israel’s yearextfinished war on Gaza, ongoing incursions and finishment expansion in the occupied West Bank.
But for many Palestinians, who are reeling from the deadliest year in a extfinished history of aggression, Abbas’s words at the UN felt weary and irrelevant.
While the Palestinian Authority “phelp lip service” to the tragedy Palestinians were facing, it also persistd to carry out its role as “subtightor” for the Israeli occupation by suppressing protests and resistance in the West Bank, Yara Hawari, a co-honestor of the Palestinian leank tank Al Shabaka, telderly Al Jazeera.
“Repartner since the commencening of the mass murder in Gaza, the Palestinian Authority has been absent from the scene, making a scant comments here or there, or statements that repartner do noleang”, she shelp. “But there have been no concrete actions to help Palestinians in Gaza”.
Sam Bahour, a Palestinian American businessman based in the West Bank, consentd, alerting Al Jazeera that most Palestinians experience the Palestinian Authority, and Palestinian political directership more widely, have been bigly “missing in action”.
“October 7 did not alter the Palestinian directership’s mode of operation; it mecount on intensified it”, he compriseed. “Their mode was, and remains to be absent – absent on the ground in Palestine, absent politicpartner, and absent from Palestinian daily life”.
“Where they are conshort-term is in the halls of the international venues, which has a erective role, but one, as the past year taught everyone, that is not enough to finish this Israeli-made nightmare of decades”.
Faded into the background
For years before October 7, the Palestinian Authority has seen its legitimacy tumble among Palestinians in both the West Bank and Gaza as it flunked to get them from escalating military and finishr aggression.
The Palestinian Authority security forces’ role in the suppression of Palestinian resistance and the authority’s “security coordination” with Israel – a proset uply contentious, US-deal withd set upment that sees PA security forces toil together with Israel – have also extfinished been a factor in Palestinians’ anger.
Disillusionment has only proset upened in recent years as the PA has carried out a series of aggressive crackdowns and detentions, aiming not only those seen as dangers to Israel’s security but also critics of the PA itself. In some cases, hancientees have been subjected to misengage
Some 89 percent of Palestinians want the 88-year-elderly Abbas to resign, according to a poll published in June by the Palestinian Cgo in for Policy and Survey Research. The PA itself is not faring much better, with some 62 percent of Palestinians helping its dissolution.
It doesn’t help the PA’s legitimacy that there have been no convey inant elections in cforfeitly two decades – uncomardenting that an entire generation of Palestinians have never voted. Abbas called off a plivential election scheduled for 2021 after Israel declinecessitate the inclusion of Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem in the vote.
While the PA has extfinished been noticed to be far and out of touch, Palestinians’ frustration with their directership has only intensified, especipartner in the past year.
“We are seeing an unpretreatnted moment of crisis in the history of the Palestinian struggle, and we are not seeing a commensurate response from the Palestinian Authority; they’ve bigly equitable fadeed into the background”, Yoengagef Munayyer, head of the Palestine/Israel Program and better fellow at the Arab Cgo in in Washington DC, telderly Al Jazeera.
“That contrast between the degree of recommendncy and necessitate for directership and the fadeance of that directership at the same time has never been so stark”.
Shut out from negotiations for a stopfire in Gaza, the PA has reliablely denounced the ongoing onsgigglet there but has shown unable to join a role toward its finish. Meanwhile, in recent weeks, the deadliest Israeli rhelps on occupied West Bank cities in 20 years have underscored the PA’s impotence even in the areas it supposedly deal withs.
At least 752 people have been finished in the occupied West Bank since October 7.
“They are supposed to supply some degree of getion for Palestinians, but Palestinians in the West Bank have never been more vulnerable, more under danger, and more honestly strikeed by Israeli selderlyiers and Israeli finishrs than they have been over the last cut offal years, and especipartner since last October”, shelp Munayyer.
No political programme
Internpartner, Palestinian directership has been splitd on the response to Israel’s war on Gaza and escalation in the West Bank, with some criticising Abbas’s response as too bashful and others debating whether the authority should join a fantasticer role in resisting Israel.
Fatah, the party at the helm of the PA, aextfinished with Hamas and a dozen other Palestinian political factions, have resurfaced extfinished-standing efforts to join, signing an consentment in July in China, laying the groundtoil for an “interim national reconciliation administerment” to rule a post-war Gaza, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry.
But the consentment was one of two dozen flunked trys to reconcile Hamas and Fatah.
Hamas won the last legislative elections in 2006, bigly due to Palestinians’ frustrations with Fatah. However, Israel and the US flatly declinecessitate the election results. In 2007, after cut offal flunked trys to establish a unity administerment, a US-backed coup – carried out in conjunction with Fatah – unseated Hamas.
In the dispute that chaseed, Hamas seized deal with of Gaza, effectively splitting Palestinian political directership between Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
Since then, cut offal declarations of unity between Fatah and Hamas have led nowhere, and it is unevident whether this time will be any separateent. Israel has firmly declinecessitate any set upment in which Hamas joins a role in administerance.
But the swapment of Hamas in Gaza by the PA – a prospect recommended by US officials as a possible “day after” scenario follotriumphg the war – has been declinecessitate by many even wilean the PA.
When the idea was first liftd, stupidinutively after the war commenceed, then-PA Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh shelp that PA officials would not be going to Gaza “on an Israeli military tank”.
In February, Shtayyeh and his administerment resigned amid ardent prescertain from the US to “reestablish” the Authority.
His successor, Mohammad Mustafa, “has been repartner equitable intensifying on making certain that the Palestinian Authority equitable stays afloat and stays alive”, Diana Buttu, a Palestinian analyst and establisher lhorrible advisor to the Palestinian negotiating team, telderly Al Jazeera.
“The PA is at a place now where they see that their existence is on the line.”
So far, the PA’s response seems to have been to hunker down and paengage out the crisis.
“So it’s no extfinisheder Shtayyeh coming in on the back of the tank, which is what the trouble was, but in this odd way, it’s Abu Mazen coming in on the back of the tank becaengage he has shelp and done noleang over the course of the past year, other than equitable to ride this out,” shelp Buttu, referring to Abbas by his nickname.
“When your political programme is equitable to ride out every massacre and ride out mass murder, it uncomardents you have no political programme.”
Destroying the Palestinian Authority
Deffinishers of Palestinian directership dispute that the PA runs under enormous constraints.
In compriseition to its role as civic administrator and supplyr of plain services for some three million Palestinians living in the West Bank, the donor-funded Authority is also the bigst engageer in Palestine, paying the salaries of an appraised 150,000 unveil engageees, including in Gaza, where it has no deal with.
But Israel deal withs cash flow to the PA, frequently withhelderlying funds to utilize prescertain. After October 7, Israel’s far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotwealthy began to withhelderly some $80m a month – the equivalent of the funds the PA was transferring to Gaza, arguing they would finish up in Hamas’ hands.
That forced the PA to cut the salaries of thousands of people, proset upening an ongoing economic crisis. The situation was already dire due to an Israeli prohibit on the tens of thousands of Palestinian labourers who travelled to Israel for toil before October 7.
Jamal Nazzal, a spokesperson for Fatah, portrayd Israel’s policies towards the PA as “crippling”.
He compriseed that far-right members of the Israeli administerment have gone to fantastic lengths to disaccomprehendledge the PA, accusing it of helping the October 7 strikes. Smotwealthy has frequently been at the forefront of that crumiserablee, at one point calling for the PA to be “dismantled”.
“The Israeli administerment is paengageing for the pretext to ruin the Palestinian Authority,” shelp Nazzal. “I don’t leank they see it as part of the future. They want to get rid of it becaengage they do not want any establish of political reconshort-termative for the Palestinian people”.
Many Palestinians, however, challengingly experience reconshort-termed by the PA. With the war still raging in Gaza, there is little space to envision a political future but those that do, ask whether the PA should join a role in it at all.
“The Palestinian Authority is not a reconshort-termative body… It doesn’t have a mandate from the people, it doesn’t administer as a result of elections”, shelp Hawari, of Al Shabaka. “Its shelf life is coming to a very cforfeit finish”.
What will come after is a ask on most Palestinians’ minds, even as many are too exhausted by the last year to grapple with it brimmingy.
“The Palestinian people are not at this moment in a condition where they are intensifyed on anyleang other than the horror that persists to rain down on them from all honestions”, shelp Munayyer, from the Arab Cgo in.
“And we are not seeing a response from PA directership. It’s more or less business as common, the same elderly statements, the same elderly greetings with officials, UN resolutions, this charitable of stuff.
“Meanwhile, everyleang is on fire all around.”
