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Showing posts with label Palestinian Authority. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Palestinian Authority. Show all posts
Gearóid Ó Loingsigh ☭ writing in Socialist Democracy compares the Palestinian Authority with Vichy.

The German Nazis invaded France during the second world war, however, they did not occupy all of France, opting instead to leave a part of it in the hands of collaborationist government with its administrative centre in the city of Vichy. 

Secretary of State Antony Blinken with
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

This government under the command of Marshall Petain, a French first world war hero, collaborated closely with the Nazis, repressing the French resistance, deporting Jews to the camps and in addition freeing up German troops to fight the war by taking over the daily work of occupation. Nowadays, the term Vichy is synonymous with collaborator with an occupation, betrayal and surrender. Although the phrase originated in the context of the Nazi occupation of France, it can be applied to many conflicts following the second world war.

The Palestinian Authority government has a lot in common with Vichy. Following the Oslo Accords the PA took over the repression of the more coherent and revolutionary factions, just as Marshal Pétain had done in Vichy. It also freed up Zionist troops and police forces from the daily work of occupation and collaborates closely with the fascist regime in Tel Aviv.

Over the years this government has bent the knee time and again to the Israelis, sometimes begging the Western powers to intervene on issues such as settlements in the West Bank. At no point has it led a struggle against the Zionists. In fact, it presents itself as the reasonable representative with whom negotiations can happen and agreements reached.

Now Israel commits endless war crimes in Gaza and is carrying out a genocide in Gaza against the Palestinians. It aims to wipe Palestinians off the map, expel them from Gaza and also the West Bank, take control over sacred sites, such as the Al Aqsa Mosque, destroy it and build their own temple in its place. And what does the Vichy regime do in the face of such crimes? Little. It sticks to begging the West to put an end to the barbarity, ignoring that these same powers have always supported Israel, politically, militarily and economically.

It does have other options, but they require it declaring war on the Zionist regime and calling on the Arab masses to unite. Such a revolutionary option fills it with fear and it prefers to continue to collaborate with the fascist regime of Tel Aviv. It could also ask the reactionary Arab regimes for help. But it hasn’t placed the first demand on those governments. First, it could demand the expulsion of the Israeli ambassadors and break all diplomatic and commercial relations with the regime. But it hasn’t done so, nor will it. The Houthi rebels who have been fighting against one of the most reactionary Arab regimes for eight years, namely Saudi Arabia, have done more in a few days to strike a blow against the economy of the Zionist regime.

In a short period, the Houthis have attacked at least 12 commercial ships in the Red Sea, according to Yankee military sources. Their attacks have reduced the flow of trade through the sea and Suez Canal. Four of the five big shipping companies, Maersk, Hapag-Lloyd, CMA CGN Group & Evergreen have suspended shipments through the Red Sea(1) and the company OOCL announced that it would not accept shipments to or from Israel and cost of transport had gone up from USD $1,975 to $2,300 within a few days.(2)

Meanwhile, Vichy has done nothing. The Arab regimes have made no demands against Israel and the oil flows not only to Israel but also Great Britain and the USA. Without the Vichy regime, Israel would have had greater problems in the region. Not only should the Zionist regime fall, but also the Arab regimes and the Vichy government of Palestine. They are all, in their own way, responsible for the genocide in ´Gaza.

Notes

(1) CNN (19/12/2023) Who are the Houtis and why are they attacking ships in the Red Sea? Christian Edwards.

(2) Reuters (18/12/2023) Israel shipping costs rising as lines pull out and Red Sea attacks worsen. Jonathan Saul. 

Gearóid Ó Loingsigh is a political and human rights activist with extensive experience in Latin America.

The Role Of The Vichy Palestinian Authority

Fra Hughes ✒ The PA must firstly satisfy the political agenda, not of the Palestinian people it claims to support, but its international benefactors and donors, who have regional political agendas which fully support "Israel" to the detriment of the indigenous peoples of West Asia.

First Published In
Al Mayadeen English.

The Palestinian Authority was brought into existence as part of the 1993 and 1995 Oslo Accord, negotiated between the Palestine Liberation Organization led by Yasser Arafat, and the Israeli government led by Ariel Sharon and Yitzhak Rabin.

Days before the negotiations began, "Israel" recognized the PLO as 'representative of the Palestinian people and the Palestine Liberation Organization recognized, 'the state of Israel'.


With these formalities was concluded the Oslo Accords that envisioned the limited transfer of power, from the illegal Israeli run occupation of the West Bank and Gaza to the Palestinian Legislative Council.

The Palestinian Authority would be established afterward, and power then transferred to it, over the following five years.

Limited self-governance for Palestinians was the proposed outcome of the agreement.

Palestinians believed that a two-state solution would be the eventual result, with a "state of Israel" and a state of Palestine peacefully co-existing side by side.

Many Palestinians and others believed the Palestinian Authority was established to act, as a de facto government in waiting.

The negotiations only ever gave limited autonomy to the Palestinians.

"Israel" would continue to militarily protect its illegal settlements, maintain security on the Egyptian and Jordanian borders and retain full control over the land, sea, and air borders of Gaza.

The Palestinian Authority would be financed by America and the European Union alongside donated monies from other Arab countries.

The hope of peace and justice for the region was short-lived.

The proposals allowed for a Palestinian police force and the civil structures required to govern the local population but remained reliant on external donors.

It had no self financing regulation of taxation, and as such, it is subject to the withdrawal of that international aid at the whim of the American and European administrations.

In order to exist, the PA must firstly satisfy the political agenda, not of the Palestinian people it claims to support, but its international benefactors and donors, who have regional political agendas which fully support "Israel" to the detriment of the indigenous peoples of West Asia.

"Israel" is perceived by many as a white European colonization of parts of West Asia and all of Palestine.

It is similar to the white European colonization of North America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, where the indigenous population were first militarily subdued, then killed, with tens of thousands ethnically cleansed from their indigenous lands, fully colonized and then fully marginalized.

Even now they suffer discrimination, from their white political leaders, those descended from the original colonizers who still govern those countries today.

This template is being followed by the Israeli government with its continued expansionist policies.

The growth of the illegal settlements is a testament to Zionist desires to fully colonize Palestine at the expense of the indigenous population.

"Israel" is being built on the broken bones, broken bodies, and broken dreams of the Palestinian people.

Yet "Israel", is not alone.

With the continuing normalization policy, where some, pro-western Arab states in the region recognize "Israel", the Palestinian Authority, is now accused of using brutal methods to repress its own people for the advancement of "Israel’s" ongoing colonization of Palestine.

Zionism defines its main enemies as those who oppose "Israel" and its expansionist policies, either peacefully or militarily.

Palestinians who aspire to a Palestine free from Israeli occupation are perceived as a threat to continued Zionist domination.

Peaceful protestors, along with kids who throw stones and men who throw rocks are seen as the enemies of "Israel".

Increasingly over the years, they have become the enemy for the Palestinian Authority.

The PA initially was set up as a shadow government for a Palestinian state which has de-evolved into an organization that, through its security cooperation with "Israel", acts as a tool of Israeli repression.

The Zionists have helped to create a Palestinian Authority that polices the Palestinian people on behalf of the occupiers and not the occupied.

They sit in consultation with "Israel" yet spurn national reconciliation talks with Hamas.

They refuse to hold elections, recently won by Hamas in 2006 with 44.45% of the vote, electing 74 representatives of the 132 Palestinian Legislative Council. Fatah the Palestinian faction which controls the PA would not endorse the result as they, in effect, lost control of the council.

The Palestinian Authority acts as a guarantor of "Israel’s" security within the borders of the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

It protects Israeli soldiers, its illegal occupation, and the illegal Zionist settlements.

The PA exists only to oppress its own people in the interests of foreign powers and their foreign policies.

When illegal Israeli occupation soldiers raid Palestinian refugee camps and homes in order to subdue and arrest its inhabitants, where are the PA police to be found?

These paid mercenaries of the PA are restricted to their barracks.

An armed Palestinian force stands idly by while its community is murdered, beaten and tortured daily, dragged off to interrogation centers, Imprisoned on statements made under torture and duress or written in Hebrew which people then sign, informed they are release papers but are in fact false confessions which condemn them to years in prison. Many of them are young teenagers.

The dream of a Palestinian Authority to rule a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza is not what the PA represents.

The PA has an annual budget in 2021 of 360 million dollars from the United States and 34.4 million euros from the European Union.

The money is desperately needed to sustain jobs and the local economy in the West Bank and Gaza.

These monies are viewed by many as a bribe to Fatah, who runs the PA, to isolate, marginalize and sanction Hamas, as they politically challenge Fatah for the hearts and minds of the Palestinian people.

The PA stands accused of corruption.

It stands accused of using its budget to promote Fatah above the needs of the Palestinian people.

It stands accused of abandoning Gaza.

Using its military and finance power as leverage over Gazan's, to withhold wages from civil servants, like teachers and firemen in order to pressurize Hamas.

Egypt and "Israel" are complicit in the siege on Gaza and so to some extent is the PA.

There are historical parallels to be drawn with the actions of today's Palestinian Authority.

When white European settlers, militarily colonized North America, some of the indigenous natives helped repress their own people.

They joined the ranks of the military oppressors and helped to eliminate their own communities.

In South Africa, another white European colonization was settled, and the indigenous population witnessed the same phenomenon.

Black Africans joined apartheid white police force to suppress their own people.

The Vichy regime in France in World War II not only acted on behalf of the Nazi occupation, it stood accused of sending its own citizens to death camps.

Now the PA through its police and security apparatus has been accused of torturing and killing Palestinians, this is considered a threat to Fatah, and as a threat to "Israel".

When the oppressed become the oppressor something has gone fundamentally wrong.

The PA is now working on behalf of "Israel", and in favor of American and EU foreign policy.

If America or the EU cared about Palestinians, it would withhold funding from "Israel". In 2021, America planned to give "Israel" 3.8 billion dollars on top of the 3.3 billion it gave them last year. Perhaps would it be better if America and the European Union bring Israeli leaders to the Hague for war crimes in Gaza, instead of funding their wars?

America and the EU are not neutral honest brokers in the conflict and neither is the PA.

In fact, they are all working in tandem to further Zionist expansionist policy in Palestine.

Is it time to puncture the facade of the Palestinian Authority and expose its deceit?

𒍨The opinions mentioned in this article do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Al Mayadeen, but rather express the opinion of its writer exclusively.

Fra Hughes is a columnist with Al Mayadeen. 

Has The Close Relationship Between The PA And "Israel" Blurred The Lines Of Separation?

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