ISRAEL + DICTATORSHIP EGYPT HAS PALESTINIAN IN A FINANCIAL PRISON

Palestinian Authority Has No Legitimacy to Govern in Gaza

Click for Video and text of Interview of Ali Abunimah on The Real News Network

Ali Abunimah, Electronic Intifada co-founder, says Palestinians need to be able to rebuild independently of the neoliberal government in Ramallah – September 28, 2014

Ali Abunimah is co-founder of award-winning online publication The Electronic Intifada and author whose latest book is titled The Battle for Justice in Palestine.

ANTON WORONCZUK, TRNN PRODUCER: Hamas and Fatah have agreed to transfer administrative control of the Gaza Strip to the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority after a couple of days of negotiations in Cairo, about a month after a ceasefire of the 50-day BOMBARDMENT and MURDER of 2,100 PALESTINIANS, mostly civilians incluuding 500+ CHILDREN.

PA President Abbas told UN General Assembly that Operation Protective Edge was a “genocidal crime” and demanded a timeline for Israeli withdrawal from GAZA and the West Bank to the 1967 borders.

Ali, let’s start by getting your response to Mahmoud Abbas’s comments to the UN General Assembly.

ABUNIMAH: The Abbas speech was empty of any substantive content and was a disappointment for many Palestinians who expected him to announce boldly that he would sign the International Criminal Court treaty and try to bring to justice the Israelis who carried out the slaughter in Gaza, among other crimes.

ABUNIMAH: Abbas announced instead another UN resolution to add to the hundreds of UN resolutions gathering dust. It was the speech of an individual who lacks legitimacy, lacks authority, and who has absolutely reached a political dead-end.

WORONCZUK: If he brought forth another UN resolution, the U.S. would veto it. The more effective thing for him to do would be to go to the ICC to bring war crimes charges against Israel. Why wouldn’t he do that?

ABUNIMAH: That’s the million-dollar question. And the answer is Abbas and the PA regime are closely allied to Israel in a number of ways. Despite his rhetoric criticizing Israel, he has never stopped the so-called security coordination between the Israeli occupation army and the Palestinian Authority. So, while families were being slaughtered in Gaza, Abbas’s security forces were continuing their routine cooperation with the Israeli Shin Bet security services and with the Israeli army in the West Bank.

ABUNIMAH: Unfortunately his PA relies on cash transfers via Israel for tax revenues to his security forces and their equipment and weapons. So Israel owns him so he never challenges Israel, let alone take these Israeli murderers to a war crime court.

ABUNIMAH: I think his shell game of constantly saying, we will do something, we will do something, has really reached a dead end. All he was allowed to do was announce another USELESS effort to get a MEANINGLESS UN resolution with ZERO IMPACT.

WORONCZUK: This issue of legitimacy is a major factor with tens of thousands of civil servants in Gaza remaining unpaid, and Gazans did NOT vote to transfer administrative control to Abbas and the PA.

ABUNIMAH: Let’s be clear, the reason Hamas agreed to transfer control to the PA in Ramallah is NOT because of the PA’s great legitimacy, but because it has the de facto backing of Israel and USA and EU and Egyptian military dictatorship. The very FORCES that lined up against the Palestinians.

ABUNIMAH: These enemies of Palestinians insisted that any reconstruction aid and any loosening of the Egyptian-Israeli siege on Gaza had THE CONDITION that the PA under Abbas control the border crossings of Gaza as Israeli proxies to function like Israel’s domination of Gaza’s borders. MONEY for survival and rebuilding is the only reason Hamas agreed to this — Certainly not because of ABBAS or PA legitimacy. The resistances including Not just Hamas that fought against Israel saw their popularity and legitimacy soar, because they withstand the brutal Israeli assault for 51 days.

WORONCZUK: If Hamas and its partners have seen such a major surge in their popularity, why would they decide to this agreement?

ABUNIMAH: They did withstand the Israeli assault, but they remain besieged and imprisoned in Gaza — The siege has not been lifted yet, even though that is one of the promises Israel made. To date we’ve seen no change on the borders of Gaza. Previous ceasefires have broken down because Israel has never respected the terms. And once again we’re going down that path where a month later absolutely nothing has changed as the situation in Gaza remains desperate.

ABUNIMAH: It’s not just Israel as the Egyptian dictatorship. Abbas and the PA are trying to use this situation to regain leverage to return to control of Gaza. So he’s very happy with anti-Palestinian forces like Israel and the Egyptians and the Europeans and others insisting that Abbas’s forces be present in Gaza.

ABUNIMAH: But even if Abbas’s forces control the crossings in Gaza, it’s very difficult to see it going beyond that, because I can’t see how the resistance forces in Gaza could trust Abbas’s security forces in Gaza, given their cooperation with the Israeli occupation. The fear of letting PA forces working with Israel into Gaza, is that would endanger the lives of people working in the resistance.

WORONCZUK: It seems that cooperation with Egypt could undermine PS’s legitimacy in the West Bank and Gaza, since Egypt has perpetuated the suffering of Palestinians.

ABUNIMAH: That’s something Abbas has never complained about. In his UN speech Abbas praising Egypt for the conference Egypt is going to host, supposedly for reconstruction aid of Gaza.

ABUNIMAH: The real danger of the Palestinian Authority controlling the reconstruction process with Norway and other European countries, is they historically have subordinated aid to Israel’s interest and Israel’s will. We’ve seen in the West Bank for 20 years since the Oslo Accords the development of a very corrupt neoliberal economy in which a few Palestinians at the top benefit from large construction projects, siphon off huge profits, a sort of a disaster capitalism. Instead of reconstruction in the interests of the people of Gaza. So we we get disaster capitalism.

ABUNIMAH: The people who should really be in control of reconstruction in Gaza are people in Gaza, the communities that have been destroyed. The families, the villages, the refugee camps, they should be the ones who determine how reconstruction is done, and it should be done in their interests and their interests alone.
WORONCZUK: But Hamas is making concessions at a time in its peak popularity. And the decision to go to Cairo to negotiate with the Sisi Dictatorship Gov of Egypt, who wants to eliminate Hamas control of the Gaza Strip. So why did Hamas agree to negotiations in Cairo?

ABUNIMAH: Time and again we’ve seen the Egyptians acting as proxies for Israel. There are voices in Palestine saying, don’t go to Cairo. The calculation Hamas leaders and others have made is that the ceasefire agreement includes going back to Cairo to negotiate the terms of a long-term truce. And I suppose they think that they have to follow through with that.

ABUNIMAH: Real test is will the negotiations lift the siege? Palestinian civilians in Gaza are hostages. Will the Israeli-USA-Egypt side stop using humanitarian aid and reconstruction as a political weapon? Will thy allow Palestinians in Gaza to rebuild their lives regardless of Hamas, Israeli, Americans, Egypt, or European conditions? People in Gaza should be allowed to rebuild. It’s a basic right. And It shouldn’t depend on an Egyptian dictator or the unelected PA leader or the EU being happy.