Palestinian Authority

UN adopts resolutions to end Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories and Syria’s Golan Heights

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Original article by Aseel Saleh republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

UN General Assembly. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

The move came more than six decades after Israel occupied the concerned territories, and over two years after it started its all-out aggression across West Asia.

The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) adopted two resolutions on Tuesday, December 2, demanding Israel withdraw from Palestinian and Syrian territories that it occupied in 1967. These territories include the West Bank (including East Jerusalem), the besieged Gaza Strip, and Syria’s Golan Heights.

It is worth noting that the first resolution, which called for ending the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories passed with 151 votes in favor, 11 against, and 11 abstentions. Meanwhile, the second resolution on ending the occupation of the Syrian Golan Heights passed with 123 votes in favor, 7 against and 41 abstentions.

Annalena Baerbock: self-determination is “not a privilege to be earned, but a right to be upheld”

“For 78 years the Palestinian people have been denied their inalienable rights – in particular, their right to self-determination. Now, it is high time that we take decisive action to end this decades-long stalemate,” the President of the UNGA, Annalena Baerbock, stated at the 80th session, during which the resolutions were adopted.

Referring to Israel’s all-out multi-front war across West Asia, Baerbock pointed out that what happened during the last couple of years underscores the importance of the two-state solution to achieve “lasting peace”. A solution, which according to the UN senior official, should have been reached decades ago.

Baerbock emphasised that “self-determination, and the right to live in one’s own state in peace, security, and dignity, free from war, occupation and violence, is not a privilege to be earned, but a right to be upheld.”

UN considers Israel’s annexation of Syria’s Golan Heights as “null and void”

Regarding the Syrian Golan Heights, the resolution adopted by the UNGA considered the decision which Israel made on December 14, 1981 “to impose its laws, jurisdiction and administration on the occupied Syrian Golan” as “null and void”, calling for its withdrawal.

The resolution demanded Israel “withdraw from all the occupied Syrian Golan to the line of 4 June 1967 in implementation of the relevant Security Council resolutions.”

The UNGA further resolved that Israel’s continued occupation and de facto annexation of the Syrian Golan constitute “a stumbling block in the way of achieving a just, comprehensive and lasting peace in the region.”

The United Nations Security Council had already unanimously adopted resolution 497 on December 17, 1981, deciding that the Israeli Golan Heights Law, based on which Israel effectively annexed the Golan Heights, was “null and void and without international legal effect”. The resolution had also called on Israel to rescind its action.

UN resolutions are nominal when Israel is the aggressor

While the UNGA’s resolutions were welcomed by many states including the Palestinian Authority and Syria’s interim government, critics deemed the efforts as nominal, performative, and with a low likelihood of being implemented as long as the United States continues to support Israel unconditionally.

The multiple US vetoes of UN Security Council resolutions calling for a ceasefire during Israel’s genocidal aggression on Gaza, proves this particular argument.

Furthermore, many Palestinians still view the two-state solution as unfeasible and insufficient to address the inalienable Palestinian rights and demands, above all the right of return, and another way to recognize and cover the occupation.

This is reminiscent of late Palestinian writer and revolutionary leader Ghassan Kanafani when he said:

“They steal your bread, then give you a crumb of it. Then they demand you thank them for their generosity. O their audacity!”

Original article by Aseel Saleh republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

Continue ReadingUN adopts resolutions to end Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories and Syria’s Golan Heights

Israel seizes 17 acres of land in Nablus for military purposes

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Israeli soldiers patrol on street during a raid on Salam Neighborhood in Nablus, West Bank on May 29, 2025. [Nedal Eshtayah – Anadolu Agency]

The Palestinian Authority’s Colonisation and Wall Resistance Commission (CWRC) announced on Sunday that the Israeli army has seized approximately 17 acres (70 dunams) of land from several villages in the Nablus Governorate for “military and security purposes”.

In a statement published on its website, the Commission stated: “The Israeli occupation authorities have taken control of 17 acres and 147 square metres of land through a military order, affecting areas in the villages of Qaryut, Al-Lubban Al-Sharqiya and Al-Sawiya in Nablus Governorate.”

According to the Commission, the seizure aims to “establish a buffer zone around the Eli settlement”.

The military order permits objections within one week of issuance; however, the order is dated 21 September, 2025. The Commission highlighted that “the Israeli authorities published the military order after the objection period had already expired”.

READ: Palestine calls for international action to stop land confiscation in southern West Bank

The Commission further noted that “since the beginning of 2025, the occupation authorities have issued 53 military land seizure orders for various military purposes — marking a significant increase in the use of such orders to take control of Palestinian land”.

To mark two years since what it termed “the war of extermination”, the Commission reported that Israeli authorities have seized 13590.796 (55,000 dunams) of land and established 25 buffer zones around settlements during that time.

Since the beginning of the Israeli military offensive on Gaza, the Commission stated that attacks in the occupied West Bank have also intensified. At least 1,056 Palestinians have been killed, around 10,000 injured, and over 20,000 arrested — including 1,600 children — since the start of the Gaza assault.

READ: New Shabak chief orders replacing the term West Bank with Judea and Samaria

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Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza's hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.
Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
Vote Labour for Genocide.
Vote Labour for Genocide.

Continue ReadingIsrael seizes 17 acres of land in Nablus for military purposes

What legitimacy is the PA talking about?

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https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20250116-what-legitimacy-is-the-pa-talking-about

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa speaks during the first meeting with the new cabinet at the Prime Minister’s Office in Ramallah, West Bank on April 02, 2024 [Issam Rimawi – Anadolu Agency]

“While we are waiting for the ceasefire, it is important to stress that it won’t be acceptable for any other entity to govern the Gaza Strip but the legitimate Palestinian leadership and the government of the state of Palestine,” the Palestinian Authority’s Prime Minister, Mohammad Mustafa, stated during a meeting of the Global Alliance for the Implementation of the Two-State Solution.

The PA is not a legitimate leadership. In 2006, Hamas won the Palestinian legislative elections, disturbing the Western world’s preferred outcome. Democracy, according to the West, can only conform with Western expectations; therefore Palestinians got a taste of what the US does when democracy crashes imperialist expectations. Instead of respecting the electoral result, the US and Fatah embarked upon a series of destabilisation and coercion tactics, aimed at marginalising Hamas further and ultimately destroying the legitimate representation of Palestinians according to the 2006 electoral result.

While Hamas was shunned and its diplomatic efforts rebuffed, even though it combined resistance and political pragmatism, the PA intensified its efforts at forcing Hamas to relinquish power, enforcing sanctions on an enclave repeatedly bombarded by Israel. When Palestinians in the Occupied West Bank protested against such authoritarianism and cruelty, the PA unleashed its security services on civilians, and continues to do so. As the US and the EU continued funnelling funds to enhance the PA’s brutality under the guise of state-building, and the PA continued harming Palestinians in the name of security, to the point of detaining, torturing and, at times, killing their critics.

READ: Palestinian Authority must run Gaza after war, Prime Minister says

All this was orchestrated because the international community sided with an illegitimate political representation under the auspices of democracy. Are we to assume that legitimacy and democracy change meaning according to colonial and imperialist interests? What of the importance of language, which is of equal importance in the anti-colonial struggle against Israel and the PA?

Back to the present. Since Israel started its genocide in Gaza, the PA has consistently sought to navigate the corridors of power by presenting itself as an alternative to Hamas. Yet, in doing so, it completely neglected the fact that its silence on the genocide is tantamount to tacit support. The PA merely reiterated the importance of the two-state paradigm as it has for decades, with no acknowledgement of the fact that not even the hypothesis can sustain itself, let alone implementation. Meanwhile, to garner favour with Israel and the international community, and possibly prove how relevant it is to post-genocide Gaza governance, the PA started its own attack against the Palestinian Resistance.

The question is, since legitimacy does not hold the same meaning for the PA and its accomplices, what does legitimacy mean in the context of its Prime Minister citing legitimacy as the reason why the PA should return to Gaza? There is no other acceptable entity, according to the PA – based on what parameters? Just as genocide became synonymous with human rights in the Israeli and international narrative, is the PA’s illegitimate rule becoming synonymous with democracy? Why hasn’t the PA suggested elections and why has the international community not voiced any concern over Ramallah wanting to extend its power to Gaza?

The PA’s attempts to prove itself purportedly worthy of governing Gaza are precisely the reason why it should not. The PA’s only foundations are foreign funding and Israeli colonialism. Having sold itself to the two highest bidders (not forgetting the tangible illegitimacy since 2006), what Palestinian leadership and legitimacy is the PA really talking about?

OPINION: What fate awaits Abbas and his Authority?

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

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Continue ReadingWhat legitimacy is the PA talking about?

As it fights Israel’s war in Jenin, can the Palestinian Authority be saved?

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https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20241231-as-it-fights-israels-war-in-jenin-can-the-palestinian-authority-be-saved

Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces use tear gas to disperse a protest against their security operation, in Jenin in the Israel-occupied West Bank, on December 16, 2024 [JAAFAR ASHTIYEH/AFP via Getty Images]

The latest news about the Palestinian Authority’s so-called “Protecting the Homeland” operation in the Jenin refugee camp paints a grim picture. Nine Palestinians have been killed in the ongoing crackdown which began on 5 December, including a young journalist, Shatha Al-Sabbagh.

The campaign, as reported by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, has, not surpisingly, received a stamp of approval from the Israeli occupation army, which seems content with the PA’s performance. Meanwhile, Israel’s Channel 14 confirmed that the occupation regime has issued a clear deadline for the PA to finish the task of effectively eradicating what remains of legitimate resistance in Jenin, in the name of ending “lawlessness” and apprehending “outlaws”.

It is an irony that has become all too familiar: the Palestinian entity that was supposed to represent the will of the people and lead them towards freedom has become complicit in crushing resistance in one of the most marginalised and impoverished areas of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, all while serving the interests of the occupation state. This is the heart of the Palestinian paradox in the West Bank.

For years, the PA has demanded unflinching obedience from the Palestinian people in the name of preparing Palestine for sovereignty and statehood. Yet, as the years have passed, this pledge has slipped further and further away. In its place, the PA has become complicit in the expansion of Israel’s territorial control and the erosion of Palestinian rights. This might be a difficult conclusion to digest, but the killing of innocent Palestinians in Jenin at the hands of Palestinian security forces, while Israel and its settlers are cracking down on Palestinians elsewhere in the West Bank, should be all the proof needed to support such a conclusion.

READ: Rights groups urge Palestinian Authority to end campaign in Jenin

Moreover, the PA’s strategy of appeasing Israel through “security coordination” has done little to hinder Israel’s systematic land grab and the continued construction of illegal settlements. On the contrary, such “coordination” has emboldened Israel and its lawless settlers.

The PA has become a tool of the Israeli occupation

What is perhaps more damning is the fact that the PA has often become an active participant in the Israeli oppression of Palestinians, as is happening in Jenin today. In its role as an enforcer of Israeli policies, the PA has become a tool of the Israeli occupation, tasked with quelling political dissent and silencing critics.

The latest operation in Jenin is a clear manifestation of how Israel uses the PA to do its dirty work. The Jenin refugee camp, an area of less than half a square kilometre, has always been a symbol of Palestinian resistance. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, Israel has raided Jenin 80 times in the past year alone, killing at least 220 Palestinians and wounding hundreds more. Yet, Jenin remains unbowed. To now see the PA working in concert with the Israeli army to break the will of Jenin’s 23,000 inhabitants is a deeply painful reality for most Palestinians.

What complicates this crisis even further is the silence of many Palestinian intellectuals, both in the West Bank and the diaspora, who have failed to confront the PA with the same vigour with which they criticise the Israeli occupation. Why have so many prominent voices, intellectuals and political analysts remained mute on the issue of the PA’s betrayal of the Palestinian struggle?

The answer lies in a complex mixture of fear, political pragmatism and historical inertia. For decades, the PA has maintained a stranglehold on the political landscape of Palestinian life. It controls the levers of power, and anyone who dares to challenge its authority risks being silenced, through arrests, imprisonment, torture or worse. Palestinian intellectuals, particularly those in the West Bank, are all too aware of this reality.

OPINION: For the first time, Palestinians abroad publicly criticise the Palestinian Authority

Moreover, there is a deep sense of paralysis within the Palestinian intellectual community in the occupied West Bank, in part due to their leadership’s failure to confront Israel over the ongoing genocide in Gaza. But there is more to this ongoing paralysis.

For years, the PA has framed itself as the “sole legitimate representative” of the Palestinian people. Many intellectuals who would normally criticise Israel’s occupation are unwilling to take on the PA for fear of further fragmenting the Palestinians. There is a deep-seated belief among some that a public confrontation with the PA would lead to greater disunity, which could play into Israel’s hands.

This political pragmatism comes at a heavy cost. While many Palestinian intellectuals hesitate to criticise the PA, they are forced into a position of complicity with its actions. The PA’s betrayal of the Palestinian cause is no longer a matter of debate, it is a fact. Yet, by failing to confront this betrayal head-on, intellectuals and activists alike risk forfeiting their moral credibility.

The betrayal of the PA has been laid bare for all to see

In the face of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza and unprecedentedly-violent crackdowns on Palestinians in the West Bank, the betrayal of the PA has been laid bare for all to see. Its willingness to assist in the subjugation of Palestinians in the West Bank, while pretending to represent them, has exposed the institution like never before.

Can the PA be saved? The answer may not even matter. What matters is whether the Palestinian people, with their collective will and resistance, can liberate themselves from Israel’s settler colonialism and the moral corruption of their self-proclaimed leadership. The events of the coming weeks and months will be decisive.

OPINION: Palestine and the power of the boycott movement

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Continue ReadingAs it fights Israel’s war in Jenin, can the Palestinian Authority be saved?

Palestinian Authority security forces kill female journalist in Jenin

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Original article republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

Shatha al-Sabbagh. Photo: Social media

Shatha al-Sabbagh was shot in the head by a sniper a day after interviewing victims of the Palestinian Authority’s security campaign in the Jenin refugee camp.

A sniper from the Palestinian Authority’s security forces killed female journalist Shatha al-Sabbagh in Jenin refugee camp on Saturday, December 28. Shatha (22) was on her way to a grocery shop close to her house along with her two little nephews, her mother, and a sister-in-law, when the sniper shot her in the head, according to Shatha’s mother, who witnessed the incident.

The bereaved mother held the Palestinian Authority’s security forces fully accountable for murdering her daughter. She also considered the incident a targeted assassination as a barrage of bullets was fired by the security forces at people in the street, who tried to rescue Shatha, including her mother.

Shatha’s mother believes that her daughter was killed deliberately because the day before her death, she had interviewed families in Jenin refugee camp as part of a report. Among the people she interviewed was the family of a child who was killed by the PA’s security forces, and a family whose house was set on fire by the forces during its ongoing campaign against the camp.

Shatha’s father also said during an interview with the local news platform Falasteen Post that the street where they live and where Shatha was killed, has been under full control of the PA’s security forces for over 26 days, and that no resistance fighters have been present there during that entire period. Her father’s testimony refuted the claims of the PA’s security forces, who claimed that Shatha was killed by one of the fighters affiliated with Jenin Brigade.

Shatha’s brother-in-law, Suhaib Merei, whose two little children, his sister, and his mother-in-law (Shatha’s mother) were with Shatha when she was shot, reiterated the same circumstances about the killing incident. Merei added that the sniper was only 20 meters away from where Shatha and the rest of family were standing.

He added that unlike the rest of the camp, where the electricity has been cut off by the PA for around one month, the street lights were working because the street has remained under the control of the PA’s security forces since the campaign began. Therefore, the sniper was able to distinguish that those walking were three women with two babies.

For his part, the spokesperson of the PA security forces, Anwar Rajab, condemned the killing of Shatha and accused “outlaws” of being responsible for the crime, a claim which has been refuted by Shatha’s family.

On Monday, December 30, Rajab refused to have a discussion with Shatha’s mother on Al Jazeera Mubasher. Once he saw her on the air, he withdrew from the interview. Rajab justified his withdrawal and refusal to confront Shatha’s mother by saying that he was not informed that she would be part of the interview. The Palestinian security official accused Al Jazeera of being unprofessional, and further explained that he was unwilling to discuss anything about the incident with Shatha’s mother considering her current emotional condition.

PA’s siege of Jenin refugee camp

The PA began a large-scale security campaign in Jenin refugee camp in early December, which explicitly aims at prosecuting what the PA calls “outlaws”. Though, according to analysts and Palestinian grassroots, the campaign seeks to crush resistance groups within the camp in collaboration with the United States and Israel.

Residents of Jenin refugee camp have accused the PA’s security forces of killing six Palestinian citizens in the camp since the beginning of their campaign. The murdered citizens include Mohammad al-Amer (12), Majd Zeidan (16), Ribhi Shalabi (19), Shatha Sbaagh (22), Mohammad Abu Libdeh (25), and Yazeed Jaysah (28).

Residents have also reported that as part of their campaign PA’s security forces have shut off water and electricity in several areas. Some have reported that houses have been targeted by rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) and set on fire by the forces. People in the camp labeled the stifling siege imposed on them as a “collective punishment”.

It is worth mentioning that the PA has reportedly prohibited foreign media outlets from entering the camp and that all reports coming out from there are being posted online by activists, journalists, and residents, including the families of the victims, or via local media outlets.

Meanwhile, the PA mourned five personnel of its security forces stating that they were killed in clashes with “outlaws” during the campaign carried out in Jenin refugee camp.

In an attempt to cover up the crimes committed in the camp, the PA’s government institutions have allegedly called their staff to participate in demonstrations to show support for the security campaign against Jenin refugee camp. In addition, videos attributed to some Palestinian security personnel were posted online, showing them bragging about verbally and physically abusing Palestinian citizens, who reportedly criticized the PA’s campaign in Jenin on social media networks.

Despite the fact that Israel has violated all peace treaties signed with the PA, including the Oslo Accords for decades, the PA has continued to submit to Israel’s endeavors in the West Bank. The ongoing campaign in the Jenin camp, seemingly on behalf of the Israeli Occupation Forces which are simultaneously carrying out the genocide in Gaza, has further eroded the PA’s legitimacy among the Palestinian people as a body advocating for the Palestinian people and their liberation.

Original article republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

Continue ReadingPalestinian Authority security forces kill female journalist in Jenin