Muhammad Halasa - researcher specializing in Zionist affairs

The expulsion of the people of Jenin Camp, in the northern occupied West Bank, of leaders from the Palestinian Authority and members of the Central Committee of the Fatah movement, from the funeral of the martyrs of the recent Israeli aggression on the camp, received widespread repercussions in Palestinian society, both those who were indignant at this act and those who understood it.

Despite the fact that those who spoke out against this act focused, in their responses, on the personality of Mahmoud Al-Aloul, and not anyone else who participated, because of the respect the man enjoys among many Palestinians, given his history, positions, and image that was not tainted by corruption charges, as it is. As is the case with many Palestinian leaders, the scene embarrassed a number of Palestinian Authority officials, and the Fatah movement in particular. 

Although a significant portion of the resistance in the camp are affiliated with Fatah or are the sons of people associated with its organisation, this does not negate the anger of the majority of the camp’s residents towards the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian security services, due to their inability to protect the population and leaving the settlers and the Israeli occupation army to wreak havoc, killing and destruction of the infrastructure. Civilian camp. This behavior in Jenin, as in Turmus Aya in Ramallah and elsewhere, reinforces the prevailing belief that the Palestinian Authority is completely disconnected from what is happening on the ground, and that it is better for it to return to the people and support them, not only on the economic and social levels, or to support Jenin through “reconstruction.” “But also within the framework of keeping pace with the general popular mood that embraces the resistance act, and rejects any identification with the occupation and its ambitions. 

While “Israel” and the United States seem very concerned about the Palestinian Authority’s loss of power in Jenin, they are seeking to try to restore control to it, that is, the Authority, especially after the occupation army’s storming of the camp and its failure, which led to results opposite to the Israeli desire to break the resistance and cool the Jenin arena. As the circle of Palestinian popular embrace of the resistance act expanded, “Israel” appeared weak and defeated in the face of the resistance’s steadfastness and the popular rally around them. 

“Israel” says that the close security cooperation and coordination between it and the Palestinian Authority aims to prevent the entry of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad movements in order to fill the security vacuum that has arisen on the ground, in a way that weakens the Palestinian Authority’s rule in the region, especially with the increase in the conflict over Abu Mazen’s succession. .

In this context, the Chief of Staff of the occupation army, Aviv Kochavi, last week pointed to what he called the reason for the escalation of the phenomenon of armed action in the northern West Bank, which, as he described, is the Authority’s loss of control over the Jenin and Nablus regions, and the laxity of its security services, which created “Fertile soil for the growth of terrorism,” as he put it, but, like every Israeli official, he is blind to the political and practical aspects that lead to the weakening of the Palestinian Authority. This was confirmed by the director of the Israeli National Security Research Institute, Tamir Hayman, when he spoke about the absence of authority in Jenin from a purely security point of view, and not from an economic and civil point of view. The loss of the Palestinian Authority in the northern West Bank only addresses the security assessment and security challenges, which means “Israel” exclusively in its relationship with the Palestinian Authority.

“Israel” was the one that sought to weaken the Palestinian Authority and the political status of its president, “Abu Mazen,” and thus wanted to create a gap between the Authority and the Palestinian people, and to show it in the eyes of the Palestinian street as a spokesman for “Israel” and the United States, and a corrupt dictatorship that suppresses its political opponents with force and torture. This is to remain captive to the security relationship with it to ensure the continuation of its rule. Perhaps for this reason, President Abu Mazen realized that he had to do everything to avoid direct and unnecessary contact with the resistance organizations in the West Bank, in the absence of a political horizon or even talk about it, as he had no incentive to show excessive determination to disrupt the resistance action, as long as “Israel” “Do not give him any other alternatives. Perhaps this is one of the reasons that prompted him to visit Jenin personally, and to push for direct and rapid government action to support the residents of the Jenin camp and rehabilitate the infrastructure and homes that were destroyed by the occupation in its recent aggression against the Jenin camp.

“Israel” realizes that the current Palestinian generation feels that there is no way out of the impasse that the long, dark Oslo Tunnel placed it in, which has only led to more settlement encroachment and the insolence of the settlers, and that the Authority is no longer a real address nor actually present in the Jenin area. All of this pushes Palestinian youth to do what their fathers did, which is to take up arms and resist.

Yes, there is a vacuum in the governance of the Palestinian Authority in the region, especially with the increase in settler terrorism against Palestinian cities and towns, which “Israel” does not want to talk about, but rather covers up and supports in many cases, and the Palestinian Authority cannot protect Palestinian civilians or, for example, Conditioning the fight against settler terrorism to intervene to address the security situation in West Bank cities. 

After its recent aggression against Jenin, “Israel” seeks to give the Authority a “return of security,” in order to try to restore control to it in light of the arrangements, understandings, and “facilities” that it was said that “Israel” would grant to the Authority with the aim of strengthening it and preventing its collapse. “Israel” also realizes that it must help the Palestinian Authority to impose its control over the West Bank, because the alternative to returning authority to the northern West Bank is for the Israeli occupation army to seize the region and administer it as an independent canton, so that the responsibility and burden of caring for the Palestinian population falls on “Israel,” and this It will be a major step in accelerating the transition to the “one-state” reality, which “Israel” fears. 

In the end, the big question remaining after the Israeli aggression on the camp, and Abu Mazen’s visit to it, is: Can the Palestinian security services impose the authority’s influence in the region again, and what means may they resort to to achieve this: a serious national dialogue that leads to unity? As President Abu Mazen called for during his visit to the camp, will it choose to engage in imposing Palestinian control through military security solutions that could lead to a painful confrontation with its agencies?

In fact, anyone who follows the reaction of many of the Authority’s leaders to the incident of expelling its leaders from the Jenin camp realizes that although the people’s behavior expressed a spontaneous reaction resulting from a feeling of disappointment and discontent with the Authority, its security services, and their positions and behavior before and during the aggression, especially since they, that is, the people, They were left prey to the occupation's aggression during the days of the storming. The authority and its leadership, instead of reviewing themselves and correcting and modifying their behavior, began to shift the blame onto specific parties, accusing them of incitement against the authority and its leaders. 

The authority, while living the mentality of “Don Quixote” who fights windmills, because he thinks they are demons with arms, cannot bridge the gap that is widening between it and the people, and unfortunately this is exactly what it does, as it evades facing the truth, and its crisis that it experiences in every... levels, especially the popular level. Instead of drawing lessons and lessons from what happened in the camp, and searching for the reasons for the people’s aversion to it and addressing them in order to restore its relationship with the mass base, and change its policy of identification with the occupation and reject the corrupt people who work for their personal interests, it is inexplicably fighting, as Don Quixote did, fighting windmills. She engages in imaginary battles with parties that she imagines are leading a conspiracy against her! 

It is better today for the Authority to build on this visit and to give up, above all, on a project that has proven its failure day after day, and has become a burden on those who represent it, and nothing remains of its “remains” except what it wants and which “Israel” clings to and seeks to establish it as the only Muslim in its relationship with the Palestinian Authority. It is the security coordination and role that Israel is now trading with the Palestinian Authority for in exchange for strengthening it and enhancing its role. Will the authority repeat the tried and tested experience from which we have reaped nothing but woe, or will it reconsider its calculations and direction and overcome the contradictions of confusing the ideology of resistance with the ideology of counting resistance as “terrorism” that requires the prosecution and arrest of those involved in it?

Source: Al-Mayadeen Net