Indicators of increasing security chaos in the West Bank

The West Bank has recently started to experience unprecedented security tensions following the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) decision to arrest Hamas supporters. There have been numerous accounts of armed clashes between youth and security forces, as well as raids against the offices of Gazan policymakers currently living in The West Bank.

While Hamas continues to call for an end to the Palestinian Authority’s abuses of power, the PA continues to target Hamas members as well as all individuals currently resisting the occupation. In an effort to create a sense of panic and chaos in the West Bank, the PA has recently suggested that an agreement has taken place between Hamas, Israel and Mohammad Dahlan. There are also groups who currently seek to bring an end to Mahmoud Abbas’s rule in the West Bank and emulate Hamas’s Gaza takeover in mid-2007.

It has become quite clear that the increasing sense of chaos affecting the West Bank goes beyond political arrests and prosecution. The PA is currently living out a dangerous obsession based on a several regional and domestic scenarios, all of which seek to bring an end to the Abbas era. This, at least, appears to be true when considering that everyone from Israel to Hamas to Dahlan suddenly finds it in their best interests to temporarily get rid of Abbas.

Abbas currently finds himself in an unenviable position as he is fighting for his survival on many fronts, both internal when it comes to Dahlan and Hamas, and external when it comes to Israel. And yet, he would not have found himself in this situation if he had focused his energy on solving crises rather than exacerbating them. For example, Abbas incited his enemies with the decision to cut off the salaries of Hamas supporters in the Gaza Strip when he should have been focusing his energy on Dahlan’s rising number of supporters. It is as a result of these factors and many others that he finds himself facing such threats.

Dahlan’s faction has warned the PA several times of the dangers of a collapse in security if the crackdown in the West Bank continues, since it would mimic the division that occurred in Gaza in mid-2007. There are currently many conspiracy theories circulating suggesting that there is an effort to lead a coup against the PA.

Within this same context, there are many discussions currently taking place on the backburner among members of the Palestinian decision-making circle that seek to address growing security concerns in the West Bank. There is also a increasing level of concern for Mahmoud Abbas’s growing sense of isolation, as many people are now worried about the fact that there appears to be a large number of Palestinian politicians collaborating with the Israeli and American administrations by informing them of Abbas’s private meetings. These details give Tel Aviv and Washington the ability to pre-empt Abbas’s political manoeuvres before he has the proper chance to execute them, while also warning him of the consequences of making certain unilateral decisions.

And yet, despite all these challenges, Hamas continuously insists that Abbas is ultimately responsible for the sense of chaos taking over the West Bank, which forces the Palestinians to experience a sense of loss as they are unable to properly confront the occupation.

Moreover, the increasing security tensions in the West Bank are undoubtedly sources of inconvenience for Abbas, as he faces Israeli threats and warnings not to deal with them or they will stop the transfer of funds to the PA’s treasury. Thus, Abbas currently finds himself in a scenario that is very much similar to that of former President Arafat’s position when he was ousted by Israeli and Palestinian decision-makers.

Therefore, Abbas is currently concerned with making strict changes within the security sector; ones that address certain individuals who seek to dispose of him in the political front. Despite the fact that the PA continues to promise that it will not allow anything to threaten the security and the stability of the West Bank, whether it is in the form of preventing chaos or allowing anything to take place that would threaten the security of Palestinian residents, many armed clashes have been taking place in various refugee camps across the West Bank. The most recent of these clashes took place in the Balata refugee camp in Nablus between youth affiliated with Fatah and security forces.

The rise of tensions that we have been witnessing in the West Bank coincide with the efforts of Arab and foreign diplomats in recent weeks to meet with Palestinian political personalities, both governmental and otherwise, to discuss the next step of the Palestinian people. Finally, the current situation in the West Bank greatly resembles the time that President Arafat was held hostage in the Muqata’a in Ramallah in 2003, which coincided with the Israeli invasion of several Palestinian cities, internal clashes within Fatah led by Dahlan and the rise of political differences with Hamas before national division. Similarly, neighbouring Arab countries were preoccupied with wars in their own countries and were not focused on the Palestinian issue.

The PA will try its best to maintain its iron grip on Palestinians in the West Bank out of fear of reaching a point of no return. There is no insurance policy that would allow the PA to make true substantial changes both internally and externally as they try to find a way to topple Abbas without causing bloodshed between the Palestinians.

Translated from felesteen

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