Ramallah's broken clock: In defence of the Palestinian Authority

Despite Israel killing more than 38,700 Palestinians in Gaza, the Palestinian Authority (PA) remains invisible.

Battling corruption, self-inflicted political paralysis, and losing popularity to its rivals, Hamas, Israel Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich is using the cover of genocide in Gaza to sanction the PA, expand settlements, and legalize outposts in the West Bank to bring Ramallah to its knees; much to the dismay of the United States. 

The prospects of the PA’s downfall have been received positively amongst Palestinians. According to the Palestinian Center for Survey and Research Policy, over 60% of Palestinians endorse the dissolution of the Palestinian Authority. However, there would be a significant difference between Palestinians dissolving the PA and Israel collapsing it.

Whereas Palestinians would be dissolving the PA to recalibrate their national movement and breathe new life into the maligned Palestinian polity, Israel deliberately destroying the PA is an attempt to ignite a series of cataclysmic events geared towards permanently annexing the occupied lands todissolve the Palestinian national movement.

The latter is occurring, which would not benefit Palestinian aspirations. It would simply be a fool’s errand to hope Israel collapses the PA.

Can the Palestinian Authority stop Israel from stealing the West Bank?

While the PA’s drawbacks are known, its international legitimacy is its saving grace. One could argue this is why Israel fears them so much.

Their actions at the United Nations (UN) helped Palestinians obtain non-member state status. Although the UN Security Council has continually rejected Palestinians' bid for full membership, the initiative alone shows potential for combatting the Israeli occupation and enhancing the Palestinian struggle at an international level by cementing Palestine as a legal concept; a tool that is still useful to Palestinian liberation efforts.

In what has been perhaps his most important contribution, Mahmoud Abbas signed the Rome Statute in 2014, giving the PA the ability to pursue war crimes charges against Israel through the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Although Abbas and his loyalists initially refused to sign the statute, doing so inadvertently became the most consequential decision of his embattled tenure.

Now, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant fearing impending ICC arrest warrants, Ramallah’s access to global institutions has shaken the occupation and is one of the main reasons why Israel seeks the PA’s destruction. 

Another overlooked aspect of Israel destroying the PA lies in the fact that the current regime wishes to create a power vacuum in the West Bank.

Israel hopes the PA’s collapse would trigger chaos and disorder. In turn, the Israeli regime will use thisunder the pretext of security to formally annex and occupy the West Bank.

Although the de-facto annexation of the West Bank is already activelyoccurring, Israel officially absorbing with no PA to provide civil services such as healthcare, security, and education would be relegated to Israel.

Given the extremist nature of Israel’s government, they will likely neglect such duties to make living conditions in the West Bank unbearable to hasten the ethnic cleansing of a group of people they see as a demographic burden. 

The pathway to Palestine

While such realities seem depressing now, the tides are changing. Israel knows the Palestinian cause is not going away anytime soon, a political reality that is hard for them to process.

What was once a dormant cause is now more popular than ever before. Before October 7, the Palestinian issue had seemingly been deprioritised by the US and the broader Middle East. Last summer, Israel and Saudi Arabia were on the brink of normalizing relations, potentially leaving the Palestinians stateless and without recourse.

The Abraham Accords, another regional initiative designed to bypass Palestinians, was full steam ahead. The tune is different now. Demonstrations and encampments on US college campuses have seared Palestine into the world’s consciousness and 143 countries now recognise Palestine as a state.

The Palestinian Authority’s collapse could stifle the newfound momentum propelling the cause. Even if the Palestinian Authority is currently an ineffective entity, its existence is still a symbol of progress and legitimacy that Palestinians naturally generated. Thus, it’s narrow-minded to hope Israel succeeds in causing the PA’s collapse. It only serves the occupation’s interest in squashing the Palestinian national struggle.

Of equal measure, it is important to note that national movements do not materialize overnight. After the Nakba in 1948, it took 16 years for the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) to form, another few years for it to gain its effective political independence, and another 30 before the inception of the PA.

The conversation should be creating a new movement that can replace it rather than hoping Israel breaks it. As things currently stand, the lack of a viable alternative to the PA could permanently hamstring the cause.

Abdelhalim Abdelrahman is a freelance Palestinian journalist. His work has appeared in The Hill, MSN, and La Razon. 

Follow him on X: @AbdelA1924

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Opinions expressed in this article remain those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The New Arab, its editorial board or staff.