“Arab states have repeatedly asserted that they will not take part in the postwar rehabilitation of Gaza absent Israeli acquiescence to the Palestinian Authority gaining a foothold in the Strip as part of a pathway to a future two-state solution,” The Times of Israel reported on June 27.
But this Arab proposal ignores the PA’s long history of sheltering, assisting, and collaborating with Hamas and other terrorists.
Just a year ago in Beijing, Hamas and Fatah agreed to form a unity government after the Israel-Hamas war is over, and they issued a joint statement about their commitment to future meetings. Abbas has not made any new statements since Beijing, saying that he will no longer abide by his July 2024 pledge to work with Hamas.
The fact that the Israelis are still capturing terrorists decades after the PA agreed to fight Arab terrorism exposes the truth: the PA’s so-called anti-terror stance is a fraud.
Just days after the TOI story, Israeli security forces uncovered an explosives laboratory and large quantities of materials for preparing bombs in the PA-controlled city of Ramallah. The Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) also arrested a terrorist cell that was planning attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF personnel.
Also, within the same couple of days, the Shin Bet arrested 60 Hamas terrorists in the Hebron area. Twenty-two guns were seized, and the terrorists were reported to be set to launch “attacks against Israelis in the immediate future.”
Is it possible that the PA security forces were unable to find Hamas terrorists living in the cities it controls? Not a chance.
It must be noted that Ramallah is where the Palestinian Authority maintains its administrative center.
The PA could have rooted out the terrorists long ago if it wanted to. It just doesn’t want to. It regards the terrorists as its brothers, not its enemies.
Article VII of the first Oslo Agreement, which was signed by Israel and the PA in 1993, authorized the PA to establish a 12,000-man “police force.” The PA proceeded to expand it into a 60,000-man “security force” that has become a de facto army, trained and armed by America’s CIA.
According to World Atlas, the PA has the sixth-largest per-capita security force in the world. The Washington Institute for Near East Policy has described the PA-governed areas as “one of the most heavily policed territories in the world.”
The Oslo Accords state quite clearly what the PA security forces are required to do about the terrorists in cities such as Ramallah and Hebron: they must “apprehend, investigate and prosecute perpetrators and all other persons directly or indirectly involved in acts of terrorism, violence and incitement.” (Annex I, Article II, 3-c of Oslo II).
Yet the Palestinian Authority has never taken any of those actions. That’s why Israeli security forces have to pursue the terrorists in those cities—because the PA refuses to do it, and the international community refuses to hold the PA accountable.
The Palestinian Authority cannot be allowed to have any part in Gaza’s future.
