The PA is developing a penchant for coercion and intimidation

The Palestinian Authority is continuing with its reconciliation charade, this time through a visit by Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah. He has met with a delegation from Hamas to reiterate the PA’s preconditions and manipulate Palestinian resistance aims.

Dictating terms in the name of reconciliation is a fraudulent gesture, particularly when Gaza is suffering additional hardship as a result of the authority’s decision to cut funding. Nevertheless, Hamdallah had no qualms about repeating the same demands; reconciliation must happen on the PA’s terms. The aim is not to put Hamas at a disadvantage, but to eliminate its political power.

Ma’an news agency reported the demands stipulated by Hamdallah: handing over control of Gaza to the PA, terminating the Hamas administrative committee and holding legislative and parliamentary elections. Earlier this month, Hamas announced that it was ready to compromise on the administrative committee if the PA reversed its collective punishment of Gaza, yet PA President Mahmoud Abbas stated that financial support would continue to dwindle if Hamas would not acquiesce to all of his demands. In addition, Hamdallah insisted that “all Palestinians should remain united against Israeli violations against Palestinians and their holy sites.”

The language used by Hamdallah is intentionally misleading. Although not articulated, the PA’s belated decision to suspend security coordination with Israel is being used to allow Hamdallah a platform of purported legitimacy when speaking about Palestinian rights. He failed, however, to define the essence of Palestinians and what they stand for. In another pretentious show, Hamdallah associated the symbolism of Jerusalem with Palestinians by specifying what violations they should be united against. While Jerusalem and the holy sites are, without doubt, a heritage to protect, the specification is also a form of impunity for other violations which Hamdallah deemed unworthy of mentioning. Two examples would be Israel’s use of Gaza as a laboratory for testing new weapons on live targets, and the violations in the occupied West Bank facilitated by the PA itself.

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Perhaps the PA would do well to remember that in 2014 it urged Palestinians in Gaza to abandon resistance. The option offered was for the enclave to become subservient to the PA, which derives its power from being Israel’s prime collaborator. The oppression of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank is not to be envied as their lives are exploited and incarcerated under the pretext of security concerns, whether these stem from Israel or the PA. Seven Palestinian journalists working for media outlets blocked by the PA have stared a hunger strike after being detained by Palestinian security forces. For Palestinians in Gaza, there is no incentive to favour rule from Ramallah; the result of a PA-administered enclave would be a mirroring of the violations in the West Bank, exacerbated by a humanitarian catastrophe upon which the UN has placed a looming timeframe for when the enclave becomes “unliveable”.

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Politically, the PA is clearly developing a penchant for coercion and intimidation. As Hamdallah has portrayed, the reconciliation measures are not aimed at unity but at eliminating Hamas and, as a result, exerting full control over Gaza. Perhaps Abbas has grown accustomed to reaping failure among Palestinians, given the insistence upon measures which will always be deemed unacceptable and unworthy. In between punishing Palestinians and attempting to force Hamas into an agreement, the PA would do well to remember that the people have risen above the dirty politics approved by the international community.

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