Abbas’s gratitude for Al-Sisi’s duplicitous role

After much speculation about Mahmoud Abbas’s allegedly forthcoming bombshell, which officials in Ramallah have claimed will be an announcement to end the Oslo Accords, a meeting between the Palestinian Authority president and his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi has proved, once again, the extent of collaboration between the PA and Israel’s allies.

Having embarked upon measures such as extending the border buffer zone in Rafah, criminalising the digging of tunnels to further incarcerate Palestinians in Gaza and, more recently, citing security measures as an excuse to flood the tunnels, Al-Sisi has requested the PA to take over control of Gaza’s border crossings.

The PA has not objected to these criminal tactics, which include depriving the Palestinians of making their own decisions about resisting Israel’s military occupation. Measures taken by Egypt, according to Al-Sisi, were fulfilled “in full coordination with the Palestinian Authority.” Flooding tunnels, he claimed, was a measure that sought “to protect the Egyptian borders and maintain Egyptian and Palestinian security.”

The statements are an affirmation of previous negotiations in the final days of Operation Protective Edge last year, when the PA sought to marginalise Hamas despite its resistance against Israel’s colonial massacre, which Abbas, in diplomatic terms, failed to condemn. In the aftermath of Israel’s aggression, Gaza became an object of oblivion as diplomacy ushered in its regurgitated demands that Abbas be given further domination over the devastated Palestinian territory. Both the agreements brokered by Egypt, as well as the UN mechanism for rebuilding Gaza, have resulted in further oppressive legacies for Palestinians.

With or without Abbas’s direct involvement in Gaza’s border crossings, Egypt is exerting itself to exacerbate conditions for Palestinians. Looming timeframes have been cited by international organisations which stress the unsustainability of living in Gaza. As usual, the timeframes are nothing but a means to delay the truth coming out about Israel’s atrocities last summer, namely the recurring displacement of people and reduced habitable territory.

Presumably on account of his efforts to isolate Gaza even more, Al-Sisi has been given the chance to voice his views on “resolving the Palestinian question” which, he said, remains “an issue for all Arab states.” The statement is said to have elicited gratitude from Abbas, evidence of further acquiescence to Palestinian destruction by Arab states. This is despite the fact that such states remain the principal actors betraying Palestinian aspirations in order to maintain their ties with Israel. Indeed, Al-Sisi has called for more treaty initiatives with Israel to include other Arab countries, causing both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid to gush about forging “an axis of moderate states against Iran and against growing terror in the Middle East, and upholding Israel’s security interests and its existence as a Jewish state.”

Following Al-Sisi’s remarks, Netanyahu called for a resumption of the diplomatic stagnation which has resulted in further Zionist settlement expansion and reduced in size yet further the fragments of territory upon which Palestinians are expected to construct a “viable, independent” — but probably hypothetical — state. Within the wider context, the Egyptian president’s calls for Abbas to control Gaza’s borders, albeit a far-fetched, twisted aspiration, should be seen as evidence of marginalising both Hamas and the Palestinian population in Gaza, an objective evident earlier on and which now, through punitive measures, is close to being achieved.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.