Albawaba.com
Amman
Many observers and political analysts have recently said a lot about the possible collapse of the Palestinian National Authority due to Israel’s siege of the West Bank and Gaza. This yarn has even come from the PA senior officials, UN, and the United States who warn against the danger which would arise in the area if things lead to that situation.
These reports, described by some Palestinian officials as “exaggerated,” have been coupled with the search for alternative governmental institutions to lead the Palestinian community.
The officials blame the Arab countries for any negative developments that might arise in the future due to the delay in transferring the support funds to Palestinians promised the October Arab summit in Cairo.
In an interview with Albawaba.com, the Palestinian Minister of Justice, Fraih Abu Middein, ruled out that these reports are linked with an Israeli propaganda.
“The PA officials’ warnings drew attention to the Israeli attempts to paralyze the Authority and diminish its powers by imposing an all-inclusive siege,” he said.
The Palestinian minister described the situation as “very dangerous” since “the occupation army controls all the roads.”
The minister gave a personal experience as an example. He said he couldn’t transfer a prisoner from Gaza to Ramallah due to the blockade. Officials in Nablus cannot carry out their duties 50 meters away from the city center, he added.
Abu Middein charged that that there is conspiracy to prevent the PA from practicing its routine daily work by obstructing the Arab assistance approved by Cairo summit.
“The Islamic Bank in Riyadh claims that it has no instructions from some Arab leaders to transfer the funds. This means that the bank says that it wants to stop the building of hospitals and health centers, and the provision of food for Palestinian at a time when we are badly in need for all these essentials.”
The minister criticized some Arab states’ hints to corruption in the PA, and setting transparency as a condition for sending the donations.
“They can simply transfer the money to the banks where the civil servants receive their salaries. What is needed to cover the salaries is $55 million,” he said.
Abu Middein revealed to Albawaba.com that some Arab countries seek to return us to the seventies when each Arab country had its “own Palestinian organization and men.”
“This is over now, and we will never be another Afghanistan,” he stressed, requesting that this issue be discussed at the forthcoming Amman summit.
According to Palestinian sources, the PA needs 100 million dollars monthly to pay for the salaries of its employees. This comes amid reports of the possibility of the PLO coming back to replace the PA as leader of the Palestinians.
Abdul Rahim Mallouh, Politburo member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), asserted to Albawaba.com that the alleged collapse is the collapse of links between the PA and Israel and not the collapse within the PA, Palestinians and institutions. He called for the restoration of the Palestinian civil society institutions reiterating that the PA should prove its efficiency in fighting against corruption and ineffective administration in order to be able to gain the support of the Palestinian people.
The PFLP official said that the PLO has been, and will remain, the first reference framework for the Palestinians inside and in the Diaspora. “What happened at Oslo was a deliberate attempt to eliminate the PLO and its institutions, and so abolishing the decision of return to our homeland and self-determination,” he added.
The Palestinian official believes that the PA was just a transitional stage, which ended on May 4,1995.
He accused some of the Arab leaders of receiving instructions from the American Administration to prevent the Arab aid funds from reaching the Palestinians claiming corruption within the PA.
Meanwhile, Hamas asserted that the alleged possible collapse of the PA is exaggerated. Mahmoud Al Zahhar, the movement speaker, said that the lack of appropriations for one month or two does not mean the collapse of the Authority particularly in the absence of an opposition capable of replacing the PA.
Regarding the possibility of the PLO replacing the PA, Zahhar told Albawaba.com that this is a partial solution “but there is another complementary solution by forming a group comprising all national and Islamic powers based on integration and not replacement.”
