Nov 3, 2008

Palestinian Authority (PA) officials and spokesmen have been lying through their teeth lately about their increasingly vile treatment of the Palestinian people.

These people have been claiming, nearly on a daily basis, that their American-paid and trained forces are not arresting political activists and that only "criminals" and "terrorist elements" are being hounded and arrested.

Well, we who live here in the West Bank, don’t have to be presumptive about what is happening in our neighborhoods, streets, towns and villages these days. We see the daily arrests with our own eyes, we know the detainees, we know their families and their friends. Hence, we don’t even have to compare and contrast various accounts of the disgraceful onslaught by the PA against the Palestinian masses. Things are simply too plain to be controversial.

Hence, it is our responsibility as journalists to communicate the truth and facts concerning this unmitigated wave of repression by the Ramallah regime against its perceived political opponents.

And the truth of the matter is that the PA is working in broad day light and in concert with the Israeli occupation army to repress, humiliate and torment Palestinians Israel considers "subversive elements."

In the past few days, hundreds of teachers, students, businessmen and civil servants were rounded up throughout the Hebron region in a theatrical show of force that is meant to provoke and intimidate ordinary citizens.

On Saturday, 1 November, hundreds of American-supplied Jeeps, decorated with all sorts of colorful flags and bearing the official logo of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), stormed many villages and hamlets along the former armistice line west of Hebron terrorizing the local population and rounding up anti-Israeli activists.

The provocative campaign, which took place under the watchful eyes of the Israeli occupation army, was made possible only thanks to Israeli troops who allowed the long PA security convoys through Israeli roadblocks and checkpoints.

In fact, one can safely argue that these highly-publicized forays, a mere poor imitation of Israeli raids on Palestinian population centers, are utterly stupid, absolutely unnecessary and ultimately futile.

Indeed, instead of storming people’s homes in the quiet hours before dawn, the PA security apparatus could have summoned the "wanted persons" for questioning, without all this hubris and flamboyancy..

However, it is abundantly clear that the PA security apparatus is not really pursuing legitimate security goals, as the PA claims. The security apparatus is simply putting up a show of force in the hope that the Palestinian masses will be deterred from putting up any further resistance to the Israeli occupiers. This is what they are ordered to do by their American masters and bankrollers.

We all know that the PA has no power of its own, since this quisling-like entity is totally and absolutely dependent on Israel for its very survival.

Hence, one can only conclude that these provocative and stupid inquisitions against Palestinian towns and villages, which PA officials claim are meant to restore law and order, are in fact Israeli-envisaged acts of repression aimed at further weakening the Palestinian society by Palestinians hands, very much like the Judenrate (or Jewish councils) did to the Jewish masses under the Nazi regime.

The PA claims that these raids enjoy widespread support amongst the people. But this is a scandalous lie. People everywhere, not just in Palestine, resent watching cruel and undisciplined soldiers, accompanied by sniffing dogs, break into their living rooms without any pre-warning.

This was evident from the hostile reactions by simple, un-politicized villagers who called the raiders "collaborators," "traitors," "Lahdis" and "Israel’s agents."

In downtown Hebron, this writer watched rather PA security Jeeps (supplied by the US) racing through the crowded streets with their sirens on and soldiers leaving one foot suspended in the air, ostensibly to impress onlookers and demonstrate their skills.

When I asked some policemen why they were acting this way, I was told they were training and putting up a show of force.

A show of force designed to intimidate their own people. !!!

As to the detainees, it is highly likely that all or most of them will be freed in a few days or weeks because they are simply innocent of any wrong doing. If so, then what is the point of storming peoples’ homes in the darkness of night and nabbing, handcuffing, blindfolding and beating their children? Is this the way Palestinian security forces are supposed to treat Palestinian citizens?

Another point. I can’t really understand how PA political and security leaders continue to claim that they want to see to it that the upcoming reconciliation talks with Hamas are successful. Well, does the PA think that persecuting the Palestinian people on Israel’s behalf will make the national reconciliation talks succeed?

Which really begs the question of whether Fatah is trying to provoke Hamas into boycotting the talks in order to blame the Islamic group for the ultimate collapse of the talks?

I am really disquieted, to put it very mildly, by the persistence of this narrow-mindedness which relates to the Palestinian people as if they were mere subjects to be controlled, humiliated and reined in?

This treatment can be expected from the Nazi-like occupiers of our country and tormentors of our people. But it shouldn’t be expected nor understood from the very people who call themselves a "national" authority which we are told is pursuing the strategic goal of creating an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.

Is Palestinian statehood realized by hounding and beating young Palestinians? By insulting the dignity of Palestinian families, the families that endured decades of Israeli cruelty and terror while many of the current symbols and figures of the PA were basking in the hotels of Beirut and Amman.

Is this why the PLO was created in the first place? Where is Ahmed al Shukairi? Where is Yahya Hammouda? Where is Yasser Arafat?

Nor can I understand why the PA is firing hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Palestinian civil servants, including teachers, from their jobs because of their "wrong" political association?

Is this the democracy that we struggled and shed our blood for all these years? Is this the civil society that have been striving to build?

Where are our leaders? Where are the civil right and human rights organizations? Where are the members of the Palestinian Legislative Council? And where is Fatah? Has it also been through a Kafkaesque metamorphosis.

And above all, where is the administration of justice?

Have the men and women who are supposed to meticulously guard the authority of justice been silenced or neutralized by hefty salaries or big sticks?

Shame on you, for your betrayal and breach of public trust.