THE PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY IS A TERRORIST ORGANIZATION

Dangerous ‘day after’ delusions

Far from being a neutral or moderating force, the Palestinian Authority has shown itself to be deeply entrenched in the terrorism it was created to fight. 

 

By Naomi Linder Kahn

 

JNS

Jan 28, 2025

 

 

  

The Palestinian Authority is a terrorist organization

 

Speaking at an Atlantic Council event on Jan. 14, outgoing U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken presented the Biden administration’s plan for post-war Gaza, describing it as “part of a pathway to an independent Palestinian state.” Blinken noted that this plan would be handed off to the Trump administration: “We believe that the Palestinian Authority should … establish and run an interim administration with responsibility for key civil sectors in Gaza like banking, water, energy, civil coordination with Israel.”

Blinken’s remarks reveal a worrying indifference to the lessons of recent history. It represents a shocking eagerness to reward bad actors for heinous crimes, as well as a stinging rejection of the right of the State of Israel and its people to safe and secure borders, as expressed in a decision rejecting Palestinian statehood passed in July by an overwhelming majority of Israel’s Knesset. The Trump administration would do well to abandon this wrongheaded approach.

A recent illustration of the absurdity of Blinken’s pipedream of Palestinian Authority moderation was provided by no less a Palestinian luminary than Jibril Rajoub, chairman of the Fatah Central Committee, in an interview on “Palestine TV” marking the 60th anniversary of the founding of Fatah, the central pillar of the P.A. Rajoub provided a clear and adamant statement of P.A. policy, explaining the different roles of its security forces and what he referred to as “the factions,” aka the myriad terrorist groups that continue to operate in areas under P.A. jurisdiction. It is not the job of the official P.A. forces to fire on Israelis, he explained. That is the job of the factions.

“Anyone who wants to direct weapons against Israel, we are ready for that, but only in coordination with us,” he stressed. The honor and pride of the Palestinian people must not be compromised by confusion of this division of labor; the factions are encouraged to murder Israelis only after coordinating their efforts with the P.A., the umbrella organization for all “resistance” and the body that must receive the “credit” in the name of the “Palestinian nation.”

Although Blinken portrayed the P.A. as a beacon of hope for peace and governance, this narrative is belied by cold, hard and undeniable reality. Far from being a neutral or moderating force, it has shown itself to be deeply entrenched in the very terrorism it was created to fight. In 2024 alone, 16 members of the P.A. security forces were killed while actively participating in attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers. This is not a new trend or an isolated phenomenon. It is one slice of an ongoing, systematic modus operandi.

More than 80 P.A. security forces personnel were involved in similar acts of violence between 2021 and 2023. Officers in the P.A. security forces began turning their weapons against Israelis virtually from the very first day the weapons were handed to them by the U.S. government in 1996.

The P.A. also has an uninterrupted history of “soft” terrorism: The infamous “pay for slay” program is only one of the ways terrorism is glorified and rewarded. Its leadership also provides military honors and funerals for terrorists who are not on its payroll. It names public spaces and educational projects after them, embedding the legacy of hatred and murder into the fabric of Palestinian society and raising the next generation of terrorists.

It comes as no surprise, then, that the recent “enforcement sweep” in Jenin, choreographed by Blinken, has already been declared officially over; the authority’s listless gestures against the terrorists of Jenin were mere theatrics, an attempt to project legitimacy while continuing to support terrorism. The anti-terror activity that Blinken instructed the P.A. to carry out was neither serious nor genuine and was very quickly abandoned in favor of “Palestinian unity” with bloodthirsty, genocidal jihadi terrorist groups.

Making matters even worse, the U.S.-brokered ceasefire and hostage-release agreement that is currently underway has been portrayed by both Hamas and the P.A. as a victory. This will no doubt bolster the already overwhelming support for Hamas among Palestinians in Gaza, as well as in the P.A.-controlled areas of Judea and Samaria. There is no reason to believe that the fate of P.A. governance in Gaza will be any different in 2025 than it was in 2017 when Hamas violently routed the authority from the strip. In fact, in light of Hamas’s claims of “victory,” we can expect the fate of the P.A. in Gaza to be even worse today.

Placing Gaza in the hands of the Palestinian Authority, again, will endorse its policy of terrorism and lead to a continuation of violence under a different banner but with the same devastating results.