Palestinian Authority walks tightrope in West Bank crackdown

Bangkok Post Group

In the West Bank city of Tubas, the Palestinian Authority has been rounding up militants who are challenging its own rule, seeking to show it can help shape the future for Palestinians after the war in Gaza. - REUTER

Transcript

00:00This is the West Bank city of Tubas, where the Palestinian Authority has been rounding

00:05up militants fighting Israel's occupation, and who also challenge its own rule.

00:12Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas wants to show the PA can help shape the future for

00:16Palestinians after the Gaza war is over. It has poured forces into Tubas, saying it aims

00:23to end lawlessness and deny Israel pretexts to raid the city.

00:27But Abbas' militant opponents, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, say the PA is serving Israel's agenda.

00:34Residents of Tubas said clashes between the militants and the Authority this month involved

00:39heavy machine guns and bombs in some of the worst violence they can remember.

00:44Tubas' governor, Ahmad al-Assad, said the PA was maintaining law and order.

00:48AHMAD AL-ASSAD, Governor of Tubas, Palestine It is inevitable that outlaws will protest

00:52what the PA is doing, but we are doing things according to the Palestinian law and constitution

00:57and abiding by it.

00:59On Saturday, dozens of PA security men surrounded a building near Tubas, where two militants

01:04were holed up. Abdul Majid al-Masri's son, Obada, was one of them. He threatened to blow

01:10himself up. A source familiar with the incident said, Abdul Majid was called to the scene

01:15to convince Obada to surrender.

01:17ABDUL MAJID AL-MASRI, Son of Obada Why didn't he want to surrender? He was saying

01:20that Palestinians are not supposed to shed Palestinian blood.

01:24Al-Masri said his son agreed, after receiving guarantees he would be held in Tubas, rather

01:29than at another PA jail, where he'd suffered mistreatment in the past.

01:33ABDUL MAJID AL-MASRI, Son of Obada The families of the wanted people are under

01:37immense pressure. We want a solution with the PA to either ensure the safety of our

01:41children, find a solution for them, or to stop pursuing them and hunting them down,

01:47and let the occupation only pursue them. It is difficult for us to have two sides looking

01:52for our children.

01:54Islamic Jihad condemned the operation, saying the PA was trying to eliminate resistance

01:59to Israel, and its methods were no different.

02:03The United States has said it wants postwar Gaza and the West Bank unified, under a reformed

02:08and revitalized PA.

02:10But a September opinion poll showed 89 percent of Palestinians in the West Bank want Abbas

02:15to resign, and that Hamas has more support than his Fatah movement there.

02:20Ghaith Al-Omri of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy said Palestinian security

02:25forces are just really, really unpopular in the northern West Bank.

02:29GHAITH AL-OMRI, Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said Palestinian security forces

02:30are just really, really unpopular in the northern West Bank.

02:31The Palestinian Authority presents itself as the address for the day after in Gaza.

02:34However, many, not only Israelis, but I want to talk to American officials, Arab officials,

02:39they will say, if the PA cannot control the West Bank, how can we expect it to control

02:43Gaza, which is a much more complicated landscape?

02:47So the PA is trying to basically say, look, we are asserting ourselves.

02:51It highlights the precarious position of an authority formed in 1994 as a stepping stone

02:56to a state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital, a prospect

03:02that appears as far away as it ever did.

03:04As well as unpopular, critics view the PA as ineffective, a reputation that has overshadowed

03:10U.S.-led diplomatic contacts over any future role it might play.

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