The Palestinian Authority’s failure “to build itself as a state-like entity” is at the root of ongoing unrest in West Bank territories under its administration, Pinchas Inbari, a longtime Arab affairs correspondent for Israel Radio, wrote in an analysis published Wednesday by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.
In recent weeks, at least five Palestinians, including two policemen, have been killed as a result of factional infighting in Nablus. The man suspected of leading the shooting attack on the officers was later arrested and beaten to death by Palestinian security forces.
These incidents, which have been accompanied by cases of “vandalism, arson attacks on cars, shootings during daylight hours, and blocking roads with burning tires,” are symptomatic of the “anarchic conditions in Nablus,” Inbari wrote.
While the PA fears losing control of the West Bank and allowing it to “revert to the rule of clans,” it has been reluctant to send its forces into refugee camps in Nablus for fear of facing violent opposition. The camps are a stronghold of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a terrorist group established on the eve of the second intifada as the armed wing of Fatah, the party currently led by PA President Mahmoud Abbas.
“As a strategy against Israel, the PA has been trying to upgrade itself to statehood in international forums and the United Nations,” Inbari observed. “It has not, however, taken care to build itself as a state-like entity, and at present its lack of national cohesion poses a threat to its existence.”
Inbari’s caution echoes sentiments expressed by other experts on the threats posed by the PA’s factional rivalries and corruption. Grant Rumley, a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, warned in May that the West’s refusal to challenge Abbas’ increasingly autocratic rule “could have a devastating effect on the long-term prospects for a viable Palestinian state.”
Days later, longtime Palestinian affairs correspondent Khaled Abu Toameh observed that infighting within the PA are eroding its the credibility and preventing Palestinian aspirations from being realized. “Rather than striving to improve the lives of Palestinians, Fatah leaders spend their time playing at being gangsters, settling scores,” he wrote. “Meanwhile, Abbas continues his charade of lies with the international community that he and his Fatah faction are ready for a sovereign state.”
In We Really Need to Talk About Corruption, which was published in the December 2013 issue of The Tower Magazine, Jonathan Schanzer observed:
It seems clear that, despite being rejected by both the ballot and the gun, Abbas has failed to learn his lesson. He has failed to reform the dysfunctional Palestinian Authority, and does not show any signs of attempting to do so in the near future. And the West, addicted to top-down peacemaking, shows little interest in genuinely helping the Palestinian people attain a government dedicated to coexistence with Israel, nor one built on the open, fair and transparent civil society and legal system required to build a successful state.
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