Beirut, Lebanon – The Palestinian Authority (PA) is fighting the armed forces in the refugee camp in Jenin in what experts say is an attempt to restore its limited power in the occupied West Bank and to convince the President of the United States Donald Trump that it can be an effective protection. beloved.
However, the crackdown has drawn criticism from many Palestinians, especially after the killing on Saturday night of 21-year-old journalist Shatha Sabbagh, who was covering Jenin and whose family said she was killed by PA gunfire.
Since the beginning of the PA's attacks, they have been criticized for serving Israeli interests by supporting the Palestinian struggle for freedom and independence.
“Over the past few years, the PA has lost control of the West Bank, and I think it is trying to control it to prove it is needed by those who control it – Israel and the United States,” said Omar Rahman, an Israeli expert. -Palestine and the Middle East Council on Global Affairs, think tank in Doha, Qatar.
“I think it is trying to prove that it can do a job that is still important, especially at a time when there are voices in the Israeli government that are trying to force the collapse of the PA,” Rahman told Al Jazeera.
Big damage
Over the past three years, Israeli insurgents – both military and civilian – have killed and displaced many civilians in the West Bank and destroyed homes and lives.
Since Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023, Israeli forces and residents have increased their attacks in the West Bank, killing 729 Palestinians, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
About 63 were from the Jenin camp.
PA security officials have shown some Israeli tactics since launching an anti-camp operation in early December.
It surrounded the camp with armored personnel carriers, indiscriminately shooting civilians, briefly imprisoning and torturing young men, and cutting off water and electricity.
Another video circulating online and verified by Sanad, Al Jazeera's news agency, shows PA policemen dragging a young man into a garbage bin and beating him.
“(The Americans) have been training PA soldiers to act as SWAT teams and special forces – not state police – to attack (Palestinian) armed forces,” said Tahani Mustafa, an Israel-Palestine expert for International. Crisis Group.
“Every time you see American involvement in education, that's when you see strong and coercive measures being used against the Palestinian people,” he told Al Jazeera.
Security agreement
PA was it was created to bring about a Palestinian state After the Oslo accords of 1993 and 1995, which started the peace process between the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and the Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin.
Under the agreements, the PA's Western donors – the European Union and the US – committed to protecting Israel's security by withdrawing Palestinian forces from occupied Palestinian territory, according to Diana Buttu, a Palestinian legal expert and former adviser and spokesperson for the PA. .
In the 1990s, he explained, the PA defended its military crackdown as necessary to preserve peace.
However, the peace process has been dead for at least two decades because Israel continues to seize Palestinian land to build Israeli settlements, he said.
The settlements are prohibited by international law, and since Oslo, the number of settlers has risen from 250,000 to 700,000, according to Peace Now, an Israeli nonprofit that tracks illegal settlements.
As of October 7, 2023, Peace Now said, Israel they have taken over many Palestinians land in the West Bank – 23.7sq km (9.15sq miles) – more than the last 20 years combined.
Buttu criticizes PA leader Mahmoud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, for continuing to follow the Oslo process when Israel has secretly abandoned it.
“He is going after people who want to be released, not from him, but from Israel,” Buttu told Al Jazeera.
The PA's security mandate brought it into direct conflict with Hamas, a rival group that refused to give up its war against Israel after defeating Fatah in the 2006 general election.
The PA's Western donors – especially the US – forced Fatah to regain control of Hamas, deepening tensions between the two groups and sparking the civil war that began in 2006.
The conflict led to a split in the Palestinian Authority that has not yet been established despite efforts to reconcile.
Fatah, under the PA, has been controlling two-thirds of the West Bank while Hamas has controlled Gaza.
“The (PA) process has not been successful. This has never won the hearts and minds of the Palestinian people,” Buttu said.
Fighting for survival
PA officials say they are arguing that the work in the refugee camp in Jenin is necessary or else Israel will use the presence of fighters there as a pretext to evict many Palestinians from their homes and properties in the West Bank, as they did in Gaza.
However, experts say that Israel is planning to annex the West Bank and topple the PA, despite the fact that armed resistance continues.
Israel's finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, came close earlier breaking the Palestinian banking system by refusing to renew the government license that allows Israeli banks to merge with Palestinian banks.
The PA does not have its own bank and relies on Israeli banks to pay salaries and secure imports.
Under pressure from the US, Smotrich renewed the ban for a year in early December, but experts fear he will not do so again under Trump's presidency, which begins on January 20.
Not doing so would collapse the PA – and the West Bank – financially and accelerate the establishment of the West Bank, Rahman of the Middle East Council said.
In addition, Rahman warned that the coming chaos could be the reason for Israel to clean up the West Bank, so he believes that the PA is trying to pressure the incoming Trump administration that they are still allies to strengthen Israel's security.
“You can't blame the PA for trying to stop things like this,” Rahman told Al Jazeera. “At the same time, he has no other vision.”
Mr. Mustafa, from the International Crisis Group, agreed and added that the PA has isolated itself from its provinces and territories, making its survival dependent on Israel and its allies.
“Israel will occupy the West Bank, and we are already seeing this – de facto and de jure,” he said. “(The increase) may not be huge, but it will be a slow burn.”
“PA is counting its days.”