Palestinian intelligence man Faraj as governor of Gaza? Why, when and how?

As soon as the Hebrew media announced that Major General Majed Faraj, the head of intelligence in the Palestinian Authority, was working to establish an armed force in southern Gaza, questions began to arise about the role of the PA and its intelligence director and what they intend to do in the enclave.

According to conventional data, Majed Faraj, 61, is the most senior security figure in the PA, and is close to President Mahmoud Abbas. He also has close relations with senior Israeli security officials, and is considered the godfather of the PA’s “sacred” security coordination with the Zionist authorities.

Faraj has played an important role in many of the PA’s strategic files, most notably reconciliation with the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas; Israeli-Palestinian negotiations; and security coordination with the occupation state, in addition to many private files entrusted to him by Abbas. Having been arrested at least 15 times since his teenage years, and spending six years in an Israeli prison, he nevertheless wields a lot of influence.

As one of the Palestinian leaders in the occupied territories, and a founder of the Youth Committees, the union and popular arm of the Fatah movement, which was banned in 1987, Faraj was appointed to the movement’s political committees prior to the Oslo Accords.

With the creation of the PA, he joined the Preventive Security Service as director of a number of governorates, including Dura and Bethlehem. This was followed by his appointment as director of the Military Intelligence Service in 2006, when he was one of the main individuals managing and controlling the security chaos after the Palestinian election won by Hamas. He was also part of the tripartite committee of the Fatah movement in the dialogue with Hamas in Cairo.

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Muhammad Mansour was acting head of the intelligence service from 2008 to 2009, and was succeeded by Faraj. This is regarded as the security arm of President Abbas. In fact, the intelligence chief is seen by many as the PA’s Number Two.

The PA’s General Intelligence Service is but one of the security services that oppress and persecute Palestinian citizens.

Things are so bad that they prompted the UK-based Arab Organisation for Human Rights to refer the matter to the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. The complaint against Majed Faraj alleged arbitrary arrests and systematic torture, accompanied by evidence of the involvement of the intelligence service in subjecting detainees to forced disappearance and torture. The documents submitted include the names of detainees and the places where they were held in violation of the law.

Faraj is said to be the “general” nominated to be the post-war governor of Gaza. He was, apparently, nominated for the role by the occupation state’s Defence Minister, Yoav Galant, with US approval. No doubt this is because he is probably the PA’s strongest and most senior security figure. More importantly, he has close relations with senior security officials in Israel due to his role in security coordination with the occupiers. He has also cooperated with US intelligence agents on a number of issues, and supported the US proposal to establish a Palestinian security force to be trained and sent to confront the nationalist groups in the northern West Bank.

It is obvious that Galant and his associates have planned carefully to use the head of Palestinian intelligence as an alternative to the Hamas administration in Gaza “the day after the war”. He will be aided by figures in the enclave, none of whom will be linked to the resistance movement.

Although Faraj is not the only person that Israel plans to name for this role, we have to ask why him specifically? The answer lies in the fact that Israel want him in Gaza to shuffle the cards and anticipate events to the advantage of the apartheid state, at a time when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is seeking to get the Ramallah-based PA back into the coastal territory using Faraj as the conduit.

It seems, therefore, that Israel needs Major General Majed Faraj in order to maintain its presence in the Gaza Strip, and to create an administration that cares little about Palestinian affairs. This is Netanyahu’s plan to remain in Gaza for 10 years and transform it into another “besieged canton” alongside that of the West Bank. Israel will find no one to do this on its behalf except the Number Two in the Palestinian Authority who just happens to be Israel’s go-to-security-man within the authority.

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