Security coordination is a synonym for collusion

Coordination usually occurs between equal or comparative parties, or parties that are similar in strength, weight and competency. Coordination also takes place between parties that share common interests in order to have mutual benefit, as is the case usually with political, economic, military and security coordination between countries and communities.

Mankind has known many types of coordination and has produced various forms of exchange and cooperation based on the interests of various parties. As for the coordination occurring in our case, i.e. the security coordination between the PA and Israeli occupation, it is a different type of coordination and is unlike any other coordination.

The security coordination in the West Bank between the PA security agencies and the Israeli intelligence is occurring between parities that differ in strength and contrast in their possession of power, influence and the ability to move and act.

The Palestinian security agencies are controlled by foreign parties by means of officers and command centres managed by the Americans and Israelis. The Palestinian intelligence’s function in this equation is to gather information and immediately deliver it to the occupation. It must also execute the orders given to them by the various command centres distributed across the West Bank and occupied Palestinian territories.

The Palestinian security agencies receive their salaries, budgets and equipment from American and European external parties, while the occupation manages the centres recruiting officers and soldiers. Furthermore, Israeli and American parties oversee the training of these agencies and employ them in accordance with their programmes and objectives.

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These agencies do not have a national security doctrine based on the Palestinian interests. There is also no Palestinian judicial, legal, or political supervision and the Palestinian people do not have any real information regarding their work, which must be through civil society organisation as well as supervisory, media and human rights agencies.

In addition to this, there seems to be no Palestinian national interest in any of the security work carried out by the PA agencies, which are mainly busy with monitoring the resistance, following resistance members and prosecuting mosques, universities and forums. These agencies have put themselves in a position parallel to the occupation, as they carry out its orders and pledge to thwart anyone acting against it. The security officers and members act at their own expense in the context of coordination and association with the occupation, which is a historical precedent.

Mahmoud Abbas has said, on several occasions, that he is under the occupation’s control, that he has established security coordination with it, and that he will thwart any attempts to resist the occupation. Therefore, the situation in the Palestinian arena, known as security coordination, is not actually coordination and does not resemble any form of coordination known in the world today. What we are actually experiencing is a blind mobilisation for the occupation. This is a case of collusion, nothing more.

We are reminded every day – especially after the martyrdom of the resistance fighter Omar Abu Laila after a shootout with the occupation occurred after the PA security agencies supplied the occupation with information on him – that the PA security agencies are an Israeli special force working within the Palestinian community.

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They are also the ones who gave the occupation information on the martyrs Ahmed Jarrar, Ashraf Na’alwa, Saleh Barghouthi and many more. These agencies became one with the occupation and merged into its project, carrying blind hatred for our people and resistance.

They are exactly like the occupation: they consider resistance to be terrorism and that operations against the occupation are consider violence and crimes. They fight the resistance in an uglier manner than the occupation, even outdoing the occupation in its brutality.

However, the light of the resistance will continue to shine bright every now and then. The PA and occupation security agencies will not be able to break the will of the Palestinians, as modelled by the martyr Abu Laila and the thousands before him.

We are witnessing a great example and model of martyrdom, sacrifice and heroism, and Abu Laila’s model will be repeated, just as the models of Yahya Ayyash, Hassan Salameh and thousands of others were repeated.

This article first appeared in Arabic in Palestinian Information Centre on 20 March 2019

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