As part of the Gaza ceasefire, Israel has released 90 Palestinian hostages from prison, including 21 children. But the apartheid state tried to stop family members and others from celebrating their freedom. And the Palestinian Authority reportedly helped.
Attempted repression of celebrations
Despite Israeli warnings, thousands of relatives, friends, and members of the public took to the streets of the occupied West Bank to celebrate the first prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas. Israeli occupation forces, meanwhile, wounded a number of gatherers with rubber bullets and tear gas outside Israel’s notorious Ofer prison, which is in the Palestinian territory. As Middle East Eye reported:
the Israeli army has imposed strict security measures to prevent public gatherings outside the prison.
The occupation’s police had also “stormed the homes of several Palestinian female prisoners in Jerusalem” who were due for release, while warning “their families against celebrating or raising Palestinian flags”, threatening cancellation of their release if they did. Israel reportedly delayed the release of hostages until the middle of the night too.
The West Bank’s governing Palestinian Authority, meanwhile, helped with the repression outside Ofer prison. There were reports of Palestinian Authority police arresting prominent Al Jazeera reporter Givara Budeiri, along with her cameraperson, just after they’d done a live report outside the prison. A Palestinian journalists’ union condemned their arrest, saying:
This behavior is completely unacceptable, especially in light of a major national event represented by the release of female prisoners from Israeli occupation prisons.
Police reportedly released them later on.
Palestinian Authority: collaboration with Israel’s occupation
The Palestinian Authority has governed over parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank since the Oslo Accords in the 1990s. It was supposed to be an ‘interim’ body that would eventually lead to a Palestinian state “on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital”, as Al Jazeera explains. That plan didn’t work, and illegal Israeli land grabs have made it a distant, unrealistic dream. Al Jazeera adds that:
Many now view [President Mahmoud] Abbas’s government as authoritarian, propped up by the likes of the EU and other deeply invested donors who have thrown billions of dollars into keeping his sinking ship afloat. The administration is viewed as irredeemably corrupt – PA bigwigs enjoy VIP status and lifestyles, with travel privileges not afforded to the rest of the population.
Since Abbas’s election in 2005, there have been no elections, except the parliamentary elections in 2006. Also:
Israel wields the real power, turning the tap on tax revenue, and controlling access to the shrinking territories – a status quo often compared with the Bantustans of apartheid-era South Africa.
Al Jazeera points out that “Israel frequently bypasses the Palestinian Authority, invading areas that are supposed to be under its control”, and the occupation forces “impose an impossible web of restrictions over all aspects of Palestinian lives, including where they can travel, live and build”. For this reason:
Many perceive the body as a tool of the Israeli security apparatus, its US-trained forces not only targeting those suspected of planning attacks on Israelis, but also arresting union figures, journalists and critics on social media.
Palestinian political groups signed a reconciliation deal in 2022 to prepare for parliamentary elections before the end of 2023, but the genocide in Gaza has pushed such plans further away. As of January 2025, Prof Mohamad Elmasry wrote in Middle East Eye:
The PA may perceive Hamas as so degraded that it can assert control over Gaza without the Islamist group.
Palestinian Authority pushing for a role in Gaza after Israel’s withdrawal
Elmasry spoke about the Palestinian Authority’s crackdown on dissidents in recent months as an attempt to “demonstrate its reliability as a key player in the administration of post-war Gaza”, particularly with the US and Israel in mind. He said it had long done “much of the dirty work” and has become “the main “subcontractor and collaborator” for the Israeli occupation”. He added that:
this coordination has involved the stifling of dissent, including journalism, on Israel’s behalf.
Indeed, at the start of January, the Palestinian Authority suspended Al Jazeera‘s broadcasting in parts of the West Bank. This followed on from Israel itself banning the media outlet. And analysts claim the Palestinian Authority’s step was an attempt to “silence criticism” of its recent crackdown.
The Palestinian Authority’s crackdown, in turn, seems to be about it positioning itself for a role in Gaza. According to a statement last week:
The Palestinian government, under president Abbas’ directives, has completed all preparations to assume full responsibility in Gaza
Some Israeli figures still treat the Palestinian Authority to be “as much a terror group as Hamas”, despite its longstanding collaboration. But both the US and a number of states in the region believe the Palestinian Authority should govern Gaza or at least oversee its post-genocide recovery.
Featured image via the Canary
