Examining the role of self-governing organizations in the continuation of the massacre of the people of Gaza

report Mehr News Agency, Al Jazeera news channel, in a series of articles, examined the role of the Palestinian Authority in the process of the 6-month war after the Al-Aqsa storm operation, and wrote that the issue of Palestine today is at a crucial stage. .

The Americans have declared that they need an updated self-governing organization. In this regard, the former prime minister of the self-governing organization, Mohammad Eshtieh, announced that the organization that the Israelis and their allies want is not our organization. At the same time, after announcing this, he submitted his resignation to Mahmoud Abbas, head of the self-governing organization, because according to his quote, “the future stage and its challenges require a new political and governmental structure that takes into account the new situation in the Gaza Strip.” give.”

In this way, the self-governing organizations signaled their agreement with the American-European innovation within themselves, so that they could, in what was introduced by the West’s plan for the day after the war, have a role In this collection, we will try to review the articles related to the positive and negative actions of the self-governing organizations in the process of the Gaza war:

security services of the Palestinian Authority

With the beginning of the Battle of al-Aqsa, an American perspective emerged that called for the transfer of the sovereignty of the Gaza Strip to a new Palestinian Authority. This issue was discussed by National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, and relevant American officials discussed this issue in separate meetings with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

At the beginning of 2024 and after a few months of the Gaza war, “Mohammed Ashtiyeh”, the former prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, decided to launch a project to rebuild the security forces of this organization. He announced that the number of security institutions is 8: National Security Forces, Police Forces, Public Intelligence Forces, Preventive Security Forces, Military Intelligence Forces, Civil Defense Presidential Guard and Customs Police. In February 2024, Ashtiyeh announced his resignation and Major General Abdul Qadir al-Tamari was appointed as the director of the Preventive Security Department affiliated with the Palestinian Authority, and there were changes in the work path of the security services of the Palestinian Authority, the number of which are currently in the West Bank. It reaches 50,000 people, and 30,000 soldiers have remained unemployed since the rule of the Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip, but despite this, they receive salaries from the self-governing organizations.

On this basis, we intend to examine the history of the security services of the self-governing organizations that were formed in 1994.

The problem of establishment after Oslo

In 1964, the army of the Palestine Liberation Organization was established as the military branch of this organization and following the events of “Black September” in Jordan in 1970 and then the departure of Yasser Arafat and his companions from Lebanon after the 1982 war, i.e. the attack of the occupying army on Lebanon to expel the Palestine Liberation Organization from this country, the members of the Palestine Liberation Organization army were stationed in several countries including Jordan, Lebanon, Tunisia, Yemen, Sudan, Algeria and Iraq. .

The first Oslo agreement in 1993 between the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Zionist regime included an agreement to establish a Palestinian police force to maintain public order and the internal security of Palestinians in the West Bank. and the Gaza Strip, and based on this agreement, the Israeli army assumed the responsibility of fighting against foreign threats. Then the Cairo Agreement was signed in 1994, and its text referred to the withdrawal of the occupying army from a number of areas in the Gaza Strip and the city of Jericho to start the first phase of the Palestinian Authority. It was also agreed that 9,000 people would work as Palestinian security forces, 7,000 of whom were allowed to go abroad with their families. These forces were composed of four branches: civil police, public security, intelligence and civil defense. Then the second Oslo agreement in 1995 divided the West Bank into three regions as follows:

-Area A, which the Palestinian Authority was responsible for administrative and security, and includes eight large cities in the West Bank and the entire Gaza Strip, excluding settlements and military positions It was Israel.

-Region B, where the Palestinian Authority was responsible for only administrative duties and included 450 towns and villages.

-Area C, which includes 61% of the West Bank and was controlled by the Zionists in terms of security and administration.

security services of self-governing organizations after Oslo 2

The Oslo 2 agreement allowed the establishment of preventive security services and presidential security to the Palestine Liberation Organization, and the number of members of the organization’s security forces increased to 30,000 people, from This number of 12,000 people settled in the West Bank and 18,000 in the Gaza Strip.

These developments, the members of the Fatah movement, which was actually the pillar of the Palestine Liberation Organization and whose members were present in most of the security services of this organization, faced an identity crisis. faced big The Fatah movement, which established a revolutionary political and military organization and had fought against the occupation for three decades, now saw itself in a situation where it should be called “non-violence” and “fight against terrorism” and in security coordination with the occupation against the Palestinian groups that They were against Oslo and worked under the pretext of paving the way for the formation of the Palestinian state.

On the other hand, there were thousands of Palestinian fighters outside of Palestine who needed to return to their country, as well as a new generation of Palestinians who participated in the first intifada. They needed to fight the occupation. Meanwhile, Yasser Arafat, with his charismatic personality, played the role of a liaison and mediator between the different cadres of the self-governing organizations and established the security services with the approach he used during his struggle against the invaders and related their responsibilities to each other. However, the competition between these services and their officials continued.

At the end of 2000, the number of security services of the Palestine Liberation Organization reached 17 different services consisting of 50 thousand troops and these forces were present everywhere in Palestine; To the extent that “Ramadan Abdullah Shalah”, one of the founders of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement, said at that time that “if you open the window of your house, the security forces will look at you proactively, if you go to your garden, you will see the presidential security service, and if you go to the street Go and you will face the military intelligence forces”.

The security coordination of the self-governing organizations with the Zionist regime and the beginning of the conflict with Hamas

After the Oslo Accords, a joint coordination committee consisting of representatives of the relevant security services was formed, led by an Israeli officer with the rank of brigadier general and a Palestinian officer with the rank of major general, and the patrols A meeting was also organized in the contact areas between the two sides. According to the statement of Ehud Barak, the then prime minister of the Zionist regime, in 1992, about 2,400 resistance operations were carried out in the West Bank, and this number decreased to 140 in 1999, which was the result of the security coordination of the self-governing organizations with the Zionists.

This security cooperation of the Palestinian Authority with the enemy had a strong negative impact on the relations between these organizations and the resistance groups, headed by the Hamas movement, and the relationship between them deteriorated on November 18. 1994 reached its peak when the police forces of the self-governing organization shot at the demonstrators who were held in the protests organized by Hamas in Gaza; where 18 of the participants in this demonstration were martyred by the self-governing forces. Also, the preventive security forces of the self-governing organization started a big campaign of arresting Hamas elements in 1996.

The second intifada and the destruction of the security services of the autonomous organizations

Nevertheless, Yasser Arafat tried to avoid the crisis with Hamas because the tension in the relations between the self-governing organizations and the Hamas movement had reached the threshold of Palestinian internal conflicts. . Therefore, Yasser Arafat allowed Hamas’s political, social and logistical institutions to operate on the self-governing organizations during his presidency.

At that time, the United States asked the Palestinian Authority to give priority to the issue of “fighting terrorism”. It should be noted that the US meant the fight against terrorism as the security coordination of the self-governing organizations with the Zionist army in order to suppress the resistance. According to a report published by the Congressional Research Center, since 1996, the CIA has provided tens of millions of dollars annually to special security services to deal with the Palestinian resistance.

After the failure of the “Camp David” summit with the participation of the American and Zionist officials and Yasser Arafat to reach a permanent peace agreement, the Zionist forces launched a brutal attack on September 28, 2000 Al-Aqsa Mosque and this barbaric attack ignited massive protests that became the second Palestinian Intifada and lasted for about 5 years.

Fath security structure changes after defeat Camp David

On the second day of the Zionist attacks on Al-Aqsa Mosque, an Israeli policeman was killed by a Palestinian policeman during a joint patrol near Qalqilya in the West Bank, and a number of members of the forces The security forces of the self-governing organization participated in the attacks against the occupying forces, and it was during that period that the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Battalions affiliated with the Fatah movement were formed.

On the other hand, the Israeli army bombed the headquarters of the weapons and equipment that it had provided to the security services of the self-governing organizations, and also attacked Area A in the West Bank, which It was under the control of the self-governing organization, destroyed all the military vehicles of the security services of the self-governing organization, destroyed their equipment, arrested thousands of members of these services, and put Yasser Arafat under siege in a small part of his presidential headquarters in Ramallah. .

Abu Mazen’s betrayals to Palestine

After the death of Yasser Arafat in 2004, Mahmoud Abbas known as Abu Mazen succeeded him. During this period, the second Palestinian intifada continued strongly and Abu Mazen approved the road map proposed by the international quadripartite group, which demanded the restructuring of the security services of the self-governing organizations and dismantling the infrastructure of the resistance groups in 2005, thus betraying the Palestinian nation. started by trying to extinguish the flames of their intifada.

During this period, many leaders of the security services who were affiliated with Yasser Arafat were dismissed and new members were appointed who were trying to break up the al-Aqsa Martyrs Battalions and They received rewards for arresting the members of these battalions and handing them over to the Zionist regime.

In this way, the United States and the European Union supported Mahmoud Abbas and an extensive security coordination between the Palestinian Authority and the Zionist regime was established under the supervision of the United States and Europe. And the security forces of the self-governing organizations participated in training courses under the supervision of European and American officers.

The focus of the security services of the self-governing organizations on the West Bank

After the end of the second Palestinian intifada with the betrayal of the self-governing organization and the deception of the United States and the West, which had promised the people of the Palestinian state, legislative elections were held in 2006. And Hamas won a parliamentary majority that allowed it to form a government in the Gaza Strip, including an interior ministry that formally oversaw the work of the security services. suspended.

During this period, the American officers who were responsible for the security coordination between the self-governing organizations and the Zionist regime cut off their contacts with these organizations and their relations with the office The presidency of the autonomous organization was limited, and the American effort during this period was focused on strengthening the presidential guard of the autonomous organization in order to position it as a powerful element to confront Hamas.

At the same time, Mahmoud Abbas issued a series of orders according to which the security services of the self-governing organizations are under his direct supervision, and in 2007, Mohammad Dahlan was appointed as an advisor. The National Security of the Self-Governing Organization was appointed to supervise all the security services affiliated with this organization.

This atmosphere led to the intensification of the tension between Hamas and the Fatah movement, as well as the intensification of the competition between the Palestinian services, as a result of which Hamas on June 10, 2007, in the military clashes between They happened to win and primarily targeted the Preventive Security Service and Public Intelligence affiliated with Mohammad Dahlan. This caused other security services of the self-governing organizations to avoid participating in this military conflict.

After that, Mahmoud Abbas announced the formation of a new government headed by “Salam Fayaz” and allowed him to rebuild the security services of the self-governing organization. However, despite this, the security coordination between the services of the self-governing organizations and the Zionist regime continued and even during the battle of Al-Aqsa Storm, when all Palestinians have united against the occupation, unfortunately, they still witnessed the betrayal of the Abu Mazen organization to the Palestinian people in this sensitive historical moment of the conflict. We are Palestinians, Israelis.

Obstacles to future prospects for self-governing organizations

Mahmoud Abbas, despite the end of his presidency in the Palestinian Authority in 2009, still remained as the center of gravity of the Palestinian Authority and has been in this position since two decades ago. Mansab is present. Also, due to the absence of the Palestinian Legislative Council since 2007, Abu Mazen monopolized the issuing of decisions regulating the work of the security services.

While Mahmoud Abbas promised all these years to try to form an independent Palestinian state, the peace talks have been suspended since 2014 and the two-state solution rejected by the cabinet The occupation regime and its insistence on Israel’s security control over the entire West Bank of the Jordan River destroyed all hopes for the formation of a Palestinian state, and after that, the actions of the former US President Donald Trump’s administration in recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of the regime. Zionist, the suspension of financial aid to UNRWA (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees) and the closing of the Liberation Organization’s office in Washington was a new blow to the ambitions of the self-governing organization, which imagined that it could establish itself as the savior of the Palestinians and a reference point by forming an independent Palestinian state. to introduce a powerful force that has the ability to defend the Palestinian people.

The security organization of self-governing organizations at the service of the occupiers

But regarding the approach of the Zionist regime to the security services of the Palestinian Authority, we must say that the occupying regime looks at its relationship with these services only from the perspective of its own security, so it never uses them. It was not equipped with advanced equipment and this security coordination is completely one-sided and serves the Zionists.

In the attacks of Zionist soldiers and settlers on the cities and camps of the West Bank, as well as in the checkpoints of the Zionist army, the security forces of the self-governing organizations are always insulted, and this is that these forces help the occupying regime by brazenly betraying the Palestinian people in pursuing and arresting and even assassinating Palestinian fighters and providing information to the Zionists about the resistance activities in the West Bank. This issue has caused the status of the self-governing organization and its security services among the Palestinian people to decline and lose their legitimacy.

The continuation of the cooperation of the security services of the self-governing organization with its Zionist enemy, in the middle of the Al-Aqsa storm battle and the great war that the Palestinian people and resistance have with the occupying regime, there are doubts about the future of these organizations. In the shadow of the decline of its position, and in addition, the discussion of the conflict over the succession of Mahmoud Abbas among the leaders of the Fatah movement continues.