The PA strives to keep its own violations away from scrutiny

The Palestinian Authority (PA)’s official news agency Wafa published details of a report describing testimonies of Palestinians from Gaza detained, tortured and interrogated by Israel. Many detainees are suffering from ongoing physical and psychological trauma, the PA’s Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners Affairs Commission’s report states.

The details are horrifying. Prisoners scalded with hot water, brutally beaten, doused with sewage, assaulted by Israeli soldiers and deprived of food and medical treatment. But while these testimonies are important to record, what is the PA doing with the information? Furthermore, what is the PA doing in the occupied West Bank and Gaza that makes it stand apart from Israel? The answer: nothing.

The PA might hold on to the anti-colonial narrative when it suits the occasion, but its actions in the occupied West Bank have portrayed otherwise for many years now. Only two days prior to Wafa’s report on Palestinians tortured by Israel, PA leader Mahmoud Abbas maintained his support for the security services’ operations in Jenin during a briefing. According to Wafa, Abbas praised the security services for “maintaining stability and order” and somehow managed to link achieving the Palestinian people’s aspirations with the purges of Palestinian resistance in the occupied West Bank. Of course, only Abbas and his hierarchy could link the two together and feign any semblance of coherence.

OPINION: Is the Palestinian Authority protecting the ‘Homeland’ or Zionist Bantustans?

If the PA deems it necessary – and it certainly is – to publish details of Israel’s horrendous torture of Palestinians in Gaza, why does it not apply the same measures for its security services? Basel Al-Araj was killed by Israel in collaboration with the PA’s security services and Nizar Banat was beaten to death by the PA’s security services – and those are just two prominent examples.

Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, notably in Jenin, are being terrorised by the PA’s security services for the simple reason that the resistance is acknowledging the wider anti-colonial struggle it needs to conduct. The PA more accurately represents Israel and the international community, not the Palestinians. It is a legitimate concern for Palestinians that, for example, the PA recently requested $680 million from the US to train its security services, as well as supply vehicles and equipment.

Al Jazeera, which the PA recently banned from the occupied West Bank, recently reported that many Palestinians who have been detained and beaten by the security services do not feel safe sharing their experiences, not even with human rights organisations such as Al-Haq. So much for the safety and security of all Palestinians. Maybe Abbas means the Palestinians remaining after the purges? And at what point do the purges stop?

What is Abbas attempting to prove – that the PA can return to Gaza on account of its track record in Jenin and, more generally, the occupied West Bank? Or that the PA can be counted upon to implement the same tactics that Israel has been relying on for decades to the point of genocide in Gaza? One thing stands out: the PA’s method of annihilating the Palestinian resistance is to co-opt Palestinians into detaining, torturing and, at times, even killing other Palestinians.

Operation Protect the Homeland only seeks to protect the PA from the repercussions of its own oppression at all costs. The PA’s media ought to take note of that.

The PA strives to keep its own violations away from scrutiny