How the Palestinian Authority is part of the Israeli occupation

And how British military and intel infiltrate the PA.

ASA WINSTANLEY

30 AUG. 2023

On my most recent appearance on Chris Williamson and David Miller’s excellent show Palestine Declassified, I discussed two of my recent articles about the Palestinian Authority.

In the show, we started off talking about my report about how Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently told his private security cabinet that they intend to financially prop up the Palestinian Authority should it ever seriously threaten to collapse.

“We need the Palestinian Authority,” he said. “We cannot allow it to collapse.”

According to Israeli media sources, Netanyahu said that everywhere the Palestinian Authority is “successfully operating, it does our job for us.”

While this might sound surprising to anyone with a naive understanding of the situation who expects the “Palestinian” Authority to actually represent Palestinian interests, in fact, it is entirely expected and part of a long running history.

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As Joseph Massad explained in an important episode of The Electronic Intifada Podcast back in 2021, the Palestinian Authority, since the start of its existence, has always aided Israel’s occupation. That was the entire purpose of its existence in the first place. It is part of a long ignoble history of collaborationist, comprador forces — native agents who help prop up Israeli settler-colonialism against the interests of their own people.

We also discussed the investigative feature I wrote with Kit Klarenberg back in May, revealing how British spies and military officers infiltrate, train and influence the Palestinian Authority, helping to ensure that it does not deviate from the road of “security coordination” with Israel.

Watch the whole episode of the show in the video above (a partial transcript is also available).

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