Shameless in Ramallah

uruknet, June 3, 2008
Khalid Amayreh

In order to obtain a certificate of good conduct from Israel and her guardian-ally, the United States, the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority (PA) is betraying the very people it claims to represent and its enduring national cause in ways unprecedented in living memory.

This scandalous betrayal assumes many forms, including brazen “security coordination” with the occupation army, arresting and torturing political opponents on Israel’s behalf and tacitly encouraging Israel to close down or seize Islamic-oriented orphanages and boarding schools in Hebron.

It is also widely believed that there is a deep collusion between Israel and the PA in maintaining and even tightening the year-long hermetic blockade Israel is imposing on Gaza, which has killed hundreds of people and pushed the estimated 1.5 million inhabitants of the coastal enclave to the brink of famine.

Former President Jimmy Carter and Rev. Desmond Tutu recently used strong words to describe the outrageous situation in Gaza.

The former Archbishop of Cape Town denounced the international community for its “silence and complicity,” saying the situation in Gaza “shames us all.” And President Carter called the nefarious blockade ” a horrible crime.”

It is really lamentable that not only the international community, including, disgracefully enough, key Arab states, is silent in the face of the Gaza outrage.

The PA, too, is actively conspiring to keep up the Nazi-like siege on Gaza while at the same time making strident public statements denouncing the blockade. This proves, if proof were needed, that PA hatred of Hamas exceeds by far whatever alleged concern the PA may have for the survival and welfare of the people of Gaza.

But, in any case, it is not important what the PA says; what is important is what it does, and what its does amounts to a national betrayal of Palestine and the Palestinians.

Continued . . .