this post was submitted on 14 Apr 2025
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MeanwhileOnGrad

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Headlines through .ml-tinted glasses (media.kbin.earth)
submitted 2 days ago by Skua@kbin.earth to c/meanwhileongrad@sh.itjust.works
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[–] Keeponstalin@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago (2 children)

The PA creates the appearance of Palestinian autonomy, but in fact, much like the governments of the Bantustans of apartheid South Africa, it is simply an extension of the colonial state, a tool of counterinsurgency that is highly effective for the repression of local rebellions, because it makes the native population police itself. Fatah, which was a revolutionary movement in the early days of the armed struggle, is now mostly contained by the PA.

The Palestinian Authority: A Tool of Israeli Counterinsurgency - Adi Callai

Israel’s stabilization strategy, inspired by modern counterinsurgency doctrine, has rested on two pillars: the employment of pacification measures to co-opt Palestinians and reliance on the Palestinian Authority (PA) to police its population on Israel’s behalf. However, many Palestinians are now fighting back against this approach, while the PA’s eroding legitimacy has only hardened the population’s refusal to accept its restrictive methods.

It is presented here as it has been perceived by the Israeli policymakers and bureaucrats down the years. For them the PA was an integral and crucial component in the open-air prison model suggested in the 1990s, and one which the pragmatic elite of Israel still hopes to instate in the West Bank, at least in the near future.

  • Ilan Pappe - The Biggest Prison on Earth

In appearance, the PA has all the trappings of a state, with ministries and a civil service, but Israel wields the real power, turning the tap on tax revenue, and controlling access to the shrinking territories – a status quo often compared with the Bantustans of apartheid-era South Africa.

The PA has actively helped Israel to keep tight control over the Palestinian population. Many perceive the body as a tool of the Israeli security apparatus, its US-trained forces not only targeting those suspected of planning attacks on Israelis, but also arresting union figures, journalists and critics on social media.

Israel relies on this division of the West Bank to foster the fiction that the Palestinian Authority is the entity primarily responsible for administering the life of the majority of Palestinians in the West Bank. In practice, however, Israel still retains control over the entire West Bank and all its residents.

[–] Skua@kbin.earth 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

There's a lot of space between "the PA are ineffective and won't bring about the necessary change" and "Israeli mercenaries", especially in the context of Israel currently waging war against a population that can't meaningfully defend itself. When someone reads "Israeli mercenaries" devoid of other context, the PA is absolutely not the first thing that comes to mind.

Additionally, for so long as the PA is de facto responsible for providing services to the people of the West Bank, this:

Israel wields the real power, turning the tap on tax revenue

...is a great reason to give the PA some funding that is not dependent on Israel. The people of the West Bank will not be helped by their schools not having any funding

[–] Keeponstalin@lemmy.world 2 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago)

I agree framing it as 'israeli mercenaries' is disingenuous, although the PA police do work under the Israeli military. I also agree that funding for humanitarian aid and social services is critical, although this system is designed to utilize that aid at the expense of Palestinian emancipation.

The largest part of the PA's budget goes towards the police force (that work directly under the Israeli military), which is responsible not for protecting Palestinians from Israeli settler violence, but instead to violently repress any Palestinian resistance against Israeli settler colonialist violence.

Additionally, control over tax revenue (which is the vast majority of the PA revenue) is not the only way Israel controls the economy of the West Bank. They also keep part of the revenue from VATs and income tax, taken out before the tax revenue they also withhold. As Israel controls all aspects of imports, exports, land, and resources in the West Bank (including Area A); they restrict many critical supplies for development, demolish Palestinian buildings and restrict their land use, and implement closures of exports at will. All this leads to a deficit for the PA even after international aid. Much of which is also conditional and focused on increasing security, at the expense of public development, as the rest goes to immediate aid. Of which, is still dramatically below what's needed.

The situation of the West Bank has been created in such a way that Israel is able to continue it's settler Colonialism unabated by local resistance, which is cracked down on by the PA. While international aid to the PA is utilized primarily to continue the suppression of resistance, while providing less aid than what's needed due to the occupation and stifling public development. It's made the West Bank entirely dependent on international aid and Israel for survival, while also propping up the continued repression of resistance and erosion of 3 two-state solution. For all intents and purposes, the PA is an extension of Israeli occupation. Israel is in complete control, they have military domination over the entirety of the West Bank.

They vast majority of the major suppliers of aid to the PA are in collaboration and support of Israel and the US. Many of the western countries providing aid support Israel and don't even recognize Palestine. Many of the Middle Eastern countries have a long history of collaborating with Israel's and the US' interests for their own financial gain.

Sources

I tried to cross reference those aspects discussed above, both with Western and Middle Eastern sources, so it's difficult to link to each point as most articles discuss a multitude of them

[–] AntiBullyRanger@ani.social 8 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

This. But I semi agree w/OP. The OP of lemmy.ml should have used “[] & ¹” to cite why the “Palestine Authority” is a mercenary front for the IDF.

It's really not hard to denote you changed the title to remove the propaganda, in the body.

I personal do it all the time.

[–] Keeponstalin@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Definitely, I agree with that. I'm also not supportive of changing article titles, at least when it comes to politics, additional context should be provided in the post or comments as needed.

It looks like that rule doesn't apply to that .ml community, which I personally don't agree with. I think it's more transparent to show how it's reported and point out, with sources, if anything is being reported disingenuously

[–] AntiBullyRanger@ani.social 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

It honestly depends how egregious the article’s headline is. And in lemmy, your title can & should be different than MSM's headlines. But the confusion was extremely wild even for MLists.

But 100% agreed with the context assertion. People should contextualize as much as possible to audiences, even to veterans.