Security coordination renders Palestinian activists targets for murder

One glance at the PA’s political record reveals a grotesque sliver of competence in one particular area – that of ensuring Israel is supplied with targets for murder. In the early hours of Monday morning, Basel Al-Araj was murdered in Qaddura by Israeli forces during a raid which escalated in a two hour aggression. Israeli forces were unscathed; however two Palestinians seeking to prevent the raid were injured.

Al-Araj had been arrested by Palestinian security forces last April along with two other Palestinian activists, Muhammad Harb and Haitham Siyaj. According to Ma’an news agency, PA President Mahmoud Abbas had at that time declared: “Our security forces are working very efficiently to prevent terror. Just a couple of days ago three young men were tracked down and arrested. They were planning an attack. In this context, our security cooperation with Israel is functioning well.”

Ma’an also reported that Al-Araj had been detained without charge – a trend reminiscent of Israel’s administrative detention policy. Al-Araj’s detention had been harshly criticised by Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri, as reflecting “a rise in the security cooperation between these security services and [the Israeli] occupation in an attempt to foil the Palestinian resistance.”

Harb and Siyaj were apprehended by Israel upon their release from in September, subjected to administrative detention and tortured in Israeli jails. Al-Araj managed to evade Israeli forces until yesterday when, after being surrounded by armed Israeli soldiers. Having run out of ammunition to defend himself, he was executed by his aggressors “at close range with several bullets”.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PLFP) issued a lengthy statement detailing the PA’s accountability in Al-Araj’s murder. One particular declaration, which ties in directly to the criminal collaboration between Israel, the PA and the international community reads thus: “Loyalty to the martyr Basel Al-Araj requires an end to the Oslo Accords, against which the martyr always struggled, and the formation of a new national strategy to confront the current challenges and unite the energies of the Palestinian people in the intifada and resistance.”

Even as additional scrutiny regarding security coordination and its ramifications increases, the PA is showing no signs of relenting in its persecution of Palestinians exercising their right of resistance. Condemnations of the murder from Fatah were forthcoming; however, there was complete dissociation through the refusal to mention security coordination as the prime reason which facilitated the targeting of Al-Araj.

More importantly Al-Araj’s murder also serves to illustrate the PA’s abhorrence towards Palestinian memory. Al-Araj has been described as an intellectual and theorist. According to the PFLP statement, the latest victim of PA and Israeli treachery was “a revolutionary intellectual who put all of his cultural and intellectual energies into the service of the resistance together with his own actions on the ground, confronting security coordination and collaboration.”

His targeting, therefore, is hardly surprising. Neither is the PA’s avoidance of outright condemnation of his murder. Indeed, this crime exposes a network of complicity endorsed by the international community and is a reflection of what is observed at international institutions. The collective decision to refrain from explicitly halting Israeli colonial violence signals unbridled impunity for Israel. Diplomacy has enforced an abnormal silencing of Palestinian narratives. This, however, needs to be sustained by actions on the ground for complete credibility. The PA’s revulsion for Palestinian collective memory has long been established. What better ways to inscribe violence against Palestinians, than having the internationally-recognised leadership contribute willingly to such tasks and endorse security coordination as “sacred”?

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