Samuel Williams, US Army, Retired
When it comes to Middle Eastern politics, such as what the Palestinian Authority can and cannot do, the United States Department of State seems to be clueless.
Matthew Miller, spokesman for the Department of State, had the following to say on 29 March 2024:
“We welcome the nomination of a new Palestinian Authority (PA) cabinet to serve the Palestinian people. The United States looks forward to working with the new cabinet to promote peace, security, and prosperity and will be engaging this new government to deliver on credible reforms. A revitalized PA is essential to delivering results for the Palestinian people in both the West Bank and Gaza and establishing the conditions for stability in the broader region.”
How can the United States look forward to working with the Palestinian Authority to promote peace when the PA does not hold even a shred of control over Gaza?
Let’s take a moment to look at Gaza and see who holds the authority to govern the people.
The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) represents Palestinians worldwide at international fora. At the same time, the Palestinian Authority (PA), a newer institution led by a PLO faction known as Fatah, is supposed to govern most of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The PA has overshadowed the PLO, and both are deeply troubled. Both are overshadowed by Hamas, which truly governs Gaza.
In 1990, Israel and the PLO signed the Oslo Accords and the Gaza-Jericho Agreement, with divided areas of control in Gaza and the West Bank (Excluding East Jerusalem) between Israel and then the newly created Palestinian Authority. The goal was for the territories to constitute a Palestinian state.
The PA, PLO, and most other groups vying for power violated the Accords, and the territories remained divided under different governmental control.
- Area A, which consists of most of Gaza and about 17 percent of the West Bank, is the most densely populated and urbanized. It is designated as entirely Palestinian-controlled under Oslo, including for civil affairs and internal security issues. However, Israel has waged an extensive military campaign in Gaza since October 2023 to eliminate Hamas, and it has therefore imposed more stringent movement controls in the territory.
- Area B covers nearly a quarter of the West Bank and mainly comprises villages and rural areas. Israelis and Palestinians cooperate on security here, but the PA manages all civil affairs. Israel also controls the movement of goods and people. Areas A and B have a combined Palestinian population of about 2.8 million.
- Area C comprises the remaining land and primarily consists of pastoral areas. It contains most of the West Bank’s natural resources and is under complete Israeli control, though the PA provides education and medical services to the area’s 150,000 Palestinians. The area is home to most of Israel’s settlers, who total some 700,000 people spread across the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Most live near the border with Israel, though international law dubs their settlements illegal.
In 2005, Israel forced all Jewish people to leave the Gaza Strip. Some protests and arguments abandoning Gaza would not lead to peace as it was felt the Palestinian Authority could not fully control the area.
Then, in 2006, Hamas came to power (Hamas is an acronym for “The Islamic Resistance Movement” in Arabic). Hamas was founded out of the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood to directly compete with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), a terror group whose aim is to destroy the state of Israel and create a Palestinian state government by Islamic law.
HOW SHOULD THE PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY GOVERN?
First, we must note that the Palestinian Authority is headquartered in the West Bank, in the city of Ramallah. Under the Palestinian National Authority’s banner, it comprises factions, such as Fatah and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). The PA excludes groups such as Hamas and PIJ.
The PA’s responsibilities are outlined in the 2002 Basic Law [embedded at the bottom of this article, or click to download/view here]. This document is also serving as an interim constitution.
According to Ghaith al-Omair, a former official with the Palestinian Authority, the PA has become synonymous with “corruption, nepotism, and inefficiency.” When Abbas became the chairman of the PLO in 2004 (he’s still in power, well past the four-year presidential term), he dissolved parliament, took control over the judiciary, and started enacting new laws by decree. He also orders political rivals to be eliminated.
In 2021, he blocked presidential and legislative elections, which would have been the Palestinians’ first election since 2006. Abbas decided to blame Israel for blocking the election based on non-existent restrictions on voting in East Jerusalem.
International rights watchdog Freedom House classifies the PA as “authoritarian” and the West Bank as “not free” due to poor Palestinian governance and Israel’s occupation.
Abbas also controls the security forces in the West Bank, which comprises police and other security officers. They work hand-in-hand with the Israeli military to eradicate Hamas and other armed groups.
Israeli and Palestinian observers alike blame the weakness of the PA and its security forces for the proliferation of new armed groups that increasingly targeted Israel starting in 2022.
Hamas is the government of the Gaza Strip, not the PA. In 2007, Hamas seized control of Gaza when it ousted the Palestinian Authority.
HOW HAS HAMAS GOVERNED THE GAZA STRIP?
After taking control of Gaza, Hamas established political, military, and legal institutions entirely separate from those in the West Bank. Most leadership in Gaza has chosen to live abroad full-time, including political chief Ismail Haniyeh and diaspora affairs leader Khaled Meshaal, who live in Qatar rather than among the people they are supposed to serve.
Before the current war shattered all semblance of day-to-day life in Gaza, Hamas had nominally followed the PA’s Basic Law but also implemented a restrictive interpretation of Islamic law that it used to repress the rights of women, the LGBTQ+ community, and other marginalized groups. In addition, the Hamas government had removed most checks on its power, having suppressed opposition from Gazan media outlets, politicians, civilian activists, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), often through violence and arbitrary arrest.
Hamas was founded in 1987 by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, a Palestinian living in Gaza. Yassin has always had an antisemitic inclination and even quoted the notorious antisemitic forgery, the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and warned of Israeli plans to conquer Arab and Muslim lands “from the Nile to the Euphrates.”
In the Hamas charter, Yassin also wrote, “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it.” And “Israel, Judaism, and Jews challenge Islam and the Moslem people. ‘May the cowards never sleep.’”
The most quoted line in the Hamas charter, the line the West tends to ignore when they protest in support of Hamas, “The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. Only the Gharkad tree (evidently a certain kind of tree) would not do that because it is one of the trees of the Jews.” (related by al-Bukhari and Moslem).”
You may read the Hamas charter below:
The Avalon Project : The Palestine Mandate
The Council of the League of Nations: Whereas the Principal Allied Powers have agreed, for the purpose of giving effect to the provisions of Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations, to entrust to a Mandatory selected by the said Powers the administration of the territory of
As you can see, since its founding, the group has vowed to annihilate Israel and the Jewish people. Hamas is responsible for many suicide bombings and other deadly attacks on civilians and Israeli soldiers.
In the United States, the State Department designated Hamas as a terrorist organization in 1997. The EU and other Western countries likewise consider them a terrorist organization and not a legitimate government.
Hamas has always used violence to liberate what they call the occupied Palestinian territories. Up until 7 October, Hamas had been more focused on running Gaza than attacking Israel. So why the attacks?
Depending upon the day, Hamas leadership has provided a mixed grab-bag of why they decided to attack Israel. What is clear is that Hamas has no intention of supporting the Palestinian people. Hamas does not want to protect citizens, build schools, hospitals, or even the most rudimentary form of infrastructure. The goal of Hamas is the destruction of the Jewish people, no matter when they are found.
How has Hamas governed the Gaza Strip? They have not. Hamas had done nothing for the people and seemingly never will. Even when Israel offers ceasefire deals, Hamas refuses.
WHAT SHOULD BE DONE?
As mentioned, Israel abandoned the Gaza Strip and gave it to the Palestinian Authority. This was to be the seed of a Palestinian State. The people of Gaza, however, under the PA, decided to destroy what the Jewish people left behind.
First, Hamas needs to be destroyed. After all the suffering the people of Gaza have visited upon them, even they want Hamas removed.
Next, after Hamas is removed, the people of Palestine must elect a government that will work for the people.
Lastly, after the elections, the international community should come together and help the Palestinians build infrastructure, schools, universities, agriculture, and all the things we tend to take for granted.
IN CLOSING
The Palestinian people, sadly, are a people without a government and support in the Gaza Strip. Hamas and its leadership seek only to enrich themselves and follow some perverted Hadith of Muhammad while seeking the destruction of Israel and the Jewish people.
Hamas, Hezbollah, and others like them, their end game is to destroy Israel and the West. The problem is not their being “Islamic,” but they’re being overly radicalized. They even refuse fundamental civil rights to those not of their particular sect or movement.
Israel and the IDF are on the right path in seeking the destruction of terrorists.
Do you have a news tip or a story you would like to share? Click here to contact us.
Follow the Jerusalem Press on Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Threads | TikTok
While you are here, please take a moment to consider supporting independent Jewish Media. We do not hide our articles behind paywalls or subscription fees. Click here to support us on Patreon.
2002 Basic Law
2002 Basic Law The Basic Law. Ramallah: 2002. Miftah, accessed 13 December 2007. This is the Basic Law that was passed by the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) in 1997, and ratified by President Yasser Arafat in 2002.
