Palestinian Authority beats up Palestinians

You may hear from time to time about demands from Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen to stop US funds from going to the Palestinian Authority. Her latest effort to do so was ignored by the U.S. State Department.

While this might seem like a positive thing, keeping money going to a downtrodden group, the PA is far from representative of the Palestinians and, in fact, is mainly a police force tasked with keeping down Palestinian dissent - holding a lid on any demonstrations that might displease the Israelis and the Americans who provide money. Currently, the PA is cracking down on those many Palestinians who realize the so-called Peace Process is dead and wish everyone to stop pretending that it isn't.

Here is an excerpt from an article on the mistreatment of Palestinians by the PA, written by Eoin O'Ceallaigh, who participated in the demonstrations described...

On Saturday, 30 June, approximately 1,000 people gathered in al-Manara square in Ramallah to protest the Palestinian Authority’s invitation to Shaul Mofaz, Israel’s deputy prime minister and an indicted war criminal, and demanding an end to negotiations with Israel.

The protest was swiftly and violently repressed by plain-clothed mukhabarat (secret police) thugs, with PA police coordination. The repression took the form of mukhabarat and police beating people with batons and metal chains, sexually assaulting and spitting in the face of female protestors, kidnapping and beating several people, including journalists, in police stations. Many were treated in the hospital for their injuries.
The following day there was another large protest in al-Manara Square. This time the target of anger was not only the PA’s commitment to “negotiations” with Israel, which have benefited nobody other than the colonizing power, but now the PA “security” forces who had violently beaten and humiliated people the day before.

As the march arrived outside the taxi station on al-Irsal street, the police again attacked the demonstration, this time with far more violence than the previous day. There were scenes of chaos as police thugs tore into the crowd, lashing out at anyone within range, beating people on the heads with EU-supplied batons. Mukhabarat again dragged protesters from the crowd, where at least one person was taken to a police station and beaten, before being released for treatment at the hospital...

the natives are restless

After the release of the Wikileaks "Palestinan Papers", the following had to come...

copied from Ali Abunimah

NOTICE

We the Palestinian People

Find you have failed to keep your oath to represent the Palestinians


PA…YOU’RE FIRED!

*
Suspend and terminate the Oslo Accords
*
Dissolve the Palestinian Authority – Abbas must resign
*
End the Blockade of Gaza
*
End all security arrangements with Israel
*
Release all Palestinian political prisoners from Palestinian jails
*
Unify the resistance – Build a national platform upon which to coalesce Palestinian political parties and formations in their resistance to apartheid, colonialism and ethnic cleansing



Notice of termination served on February 28, 2011 4:00-6:00 p.m.

at the General Delegation of the PLO Mission to the U.S.

1320 18th Street, NW - Washington, D.C.

Issued by the United States Palestinian Community Network-DC

Obama abases himself for Israel

I'm sorry to say that one of my senators in Congress is Mark Kirk, the man more heavily financed by the Israel lobby than any other Congressman when he was a representative from Illinois and still their poster-boy as a senator.

He considers himself a champion for Israel and has lately been spouting the kind of nonsense one could expect - that Israel is America's strongest ally, that it is the only democracy in the Middle East etc.

Things are changing in the world around him, however. Events have occurred that make him look even more foolish and out-of-touch than before.

The uprisings of Arabs in many countries in attempts to throw off their autocrats have upset the carefully arranged applecart that provided a tight lid preventing democracy for millions. With the ouster of Mubarak, Israel is worried that the U.S. payoff that provided Egyptian compliance with the oppression of the Palestinians may fail to work. At the same time, the U.S. was put in the awkward position of having to support the ouster of the man it had happily supported for three decades.

The release of the Wikileaks "Palestine Papers" provided proof, if any were needed, that the Palestinian Authority was quite willing to sell out the Palestinian people in negotiations with Israel. The Palestinian Authority, by the way, is paid with U.S. funds to (here's that same phrase again) keep a lid on Palestinian unrest by way of a U.S. trained police force (remember that Palestinians may not otherwise be armed and that Israeli settlers in the occupied territories are armed).

The revelations were also significant because they showed not only that the PA is a puppet but that Israel had no interest in the puppet giving away the Palestinian store. The reason is that Israel wants all of the Palestinian land and always has, making the charade of the so-called Peace Process clear to all...except Mark Kirk.

Finally, and most significant, the President of the United States, after desperately talking to Palestinian President (though his term has expired) Mahmoud Abbas on the phone for the better part of an hour, failed to persuade him to withdraw a request for a UN Security Council vote on a resolution condemning Israeli settlements.

Obama's desperation was understandable because the resolution was essentially a statement of what is official U.S. policy, put forward by the Palestinians in a clear attempt to force the U.S. to show its dedication to Israel rather than its own policy. It was the little boy shouting that the emperor (the "honest broker for peace") had no clothes (was actually in Israel's pocket).

It worked. The result was the incredible veto two weeks ago of U.S. policy by the U.S. at the United Nations. In effect, the U.S. slapped itself in the face publicly for Israel and defied the world by alone opposing (1-14) the rest of the Security Council. To make it even more absurd, the U.S. representative to the U.N., Susan Rice, then said the U.S. still does oppose the Israeli settlements but the solution to the problem lay in the (now thoroughly discredited) peace process!

So Mark Kirk's pronouncements about Israel are now clearly seen to be what they have always been - meaningless statements that serve only to cover for the power of the Israel lobby in America, that power now confirmed by the President kneeling before it in the U.N.

Palestinians sold out by their own leadership

Say what you will about HAMAS, everyone agrees that they stand opposed to Israel.

The Palestinian Authority has been posing as a moderate and reasonable leadership for the Palestinians. In fact, the PA is supported financially by the EU and the United States, complete with training by the U.S. military for the PA police forces. It's another attempt to deliver to Israel a compliant prostrate Palestinian people held down by their own.

This was clearly shown in the PA effort to suppress Palestinian demonstrations in support of the Egyptian revolution.

Wikileaks has revealed the sell-out to Israel reality of the PA, leaving Abbas with not even a fig leaf to hide behind. New elections have been announced (in which HAMAS is refusing to participate to date).

It's the same old story of the U.S. finding people to pay off to do its bidding. The breakdown of this system in Egypt is what has the PA scurrying to hold elections.

Here is an excellent account of the situation of the PA in regard to the Palestinian people.

By the way, as I have mentioned before, the managing editor, Maureen Murphy, of the Electronic Intifada, where the above mentioned article appears, is one of the 23 people subpoenaed by the FBI, all of whom have courageously refused to appear.