PA awaits Abbas decision to stop security coordination with Israel

The Palestinian Authority said on Tuesday that it is awaiting instructions from President Mahmoud Abbas regarding the cessation of security coordination with the Israelis. In a statement issued after its weekly meeting in Ramallah, the government said that it is committed to following Abbas’s decision regarding relations with the occupying power.

Last week, the PLO Central Council agreed that all security coordination should end. That meeting was attended by Abbas, who once described such cooperation with the Israelis as “sacred”.

The Palestinian president left for Jordan on Friday en route to Switzerland for an official three-day visit due to begin on Sunday. No decree regarding security coordination had been issued before he left the occupied Palestinian territories. Abbas is due to travel to Egypt from Switzerland to participate in the economic conference, which will be held on Friday in Sharm el-Sheikh, at the invitation of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi.

One member of the PLO Executive Committee and Central Council, Qais Abdul Karim, wrote on his Facebook page that the council’s recent decisions “cannot remain [simply as] ink on paper.” He insisted that such decisions are “binding on all PLO institutions, including the civil administration.”

According to Hamas official Ismail Al-Ashqar, the Central Council’s resolutions regarding security coordination with Israel “have failed miserably to stop the Palestinian security agencies and their violations against the Palestinian people.” Ashqar’s remarks came after the news that Palestinian security forces had arrested dozens of Hamas officials and members in the occupied West Bank on Monday. The decision to carry out the arrests, he added, contradicts the council’s decision, placing security coordination “in a very dangerous position”.

The Israeli-Palestinian security relationship is part of the Oslo accords signed in the early 1990s. Palestinians have complained since 2000 that Israel has abandoned any semblance of commitment to the terms of the Oslo deal.