The Palestinian Authority needs fixing if it is to run Gaza
So Canada’s prime minister Mark Carney says his country’s planned recognition of a Palestinian state is contingent on successful reforms by the Palestinian Authority. Good luck with that.
Mr Carney says he accepts new promises by the PA’s 89 year old president, Mahmoud Abbas, that his administration will hold elections next year, excluding Hamas, and will fundamentally reform its governance of the West Bank.
When it comes to wishful thinking in international affairs, it doesn’t come more wishful than this.
The second greatest tragedy for the Palestinian people after their misplaced faith in the terror group Hamas, has been the endless rule of Mr Abbas and his deeply corrupt, anti-democratic and anti-Semitic PA in the West Bank.
Mr Abbas is an autocrat who has not held an election for more than two decades, after being elected for a four-year term in 2004.
He is deeply unpopular among Palestinians who see him and his administration as corrupt and unaccountable, introducing laws only by decree and purging political rivals.
And yet, with Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza, the west is looking to the PA, as the only other governing Palestinian body, to step up and eventually assume control of Gaza once the war ends.
Israel’s leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, says Israel will never allow the PA to assume control over Gaza because of its many failings, not least its deeply anti-Semitic education system.
But Mr Netanyahu has refused to canvas which entity might eventually replace Hamas in Gaza and many western nations, including Canada, still see the PA, despite its flaws, as the most obvious and logical successor to Hamas is Gaza.
So when Mr Abbas made a raft of promises last month to hold elections in 2026, reform his governance, demilitarise the Palestinian state and lock out Hamas, Western nations, including France and Canada took notice.
A reformed, improved, democratically elected and accountable PA would be the dream ticket to rule over all of Palestine, including Gaza. But can the PA be saved from the broken down, corrupt and nepotistic organisation which now exists? Can the PA, which no longer has any tradition, knowledge or respect for democracy, actually represent the 5.5 million Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank?
Mr Abbas has recognised that this is the PA’s chance to reclaim Gaza, which it lost to Hamas in 2007. As part of his rebranding of the PA Mr Abbas wrote to French president Emanuel Macron in June calling for remaining hostages to be freed, Hamas to be dismantled, elections held, and saying he accepted “the principle of a demilitarised Palestinian state”. He also promised to “rejuvenate the Palestinian governance.” The letter impressed Mr Macron who pledged this week that France will recognise the state of Palestine as well as Canada’s Mr Carney who says “We intend to (recognise Palestine) because the Palestinian Authority has committed to lead much needed reform.”
But those who have followed the troubled history of the PA would rightly be sceptical of the promises now being made by Mr Abbas.
Given his age, Mr Abbas would presumably step aside if he holds parliamentary and presidential elections next year as he says he will.
But creating a democratic PA out of the ashes of the current autocratic institution would be a challenge for a vibrant leader, much less a geriatric one. Mr Abbas has concentrated power during his reign by dissolving parliament, cancelling elections and entrenching control over the judiciary. The judiciary is so corrupt that court rulings are often ignored by the PA and its security forces.
It issues payments to families of ‘martyrs’ killed or imprisoned by Israel, which Israel says serve to ‘incentivise’ terrorism against it.
The PA’s education system issues textbooks in primary school which are openly antisemitic and continue to encourage violence, jihad and martyrdom. The fish rots from the head on anti-Semitism given that in September 2023, a month before the October 7 massacre of Jews by Hamas, Mr Abbas said Adolf Hitler ordered the mass murder of Jews because of their “social role” as moneylenders, rather than out of animosity to Judaism.
To be fair, any promise of reform and improvement by Abbas and the PA is to be welcomed. But can the PA be repaired when it is currently so broken? Canada, France and Britain are hoping against hope that the PA is fixable, not least because a functioning PA will give greater legitimacy to their premature recognition of a Palestinian state. But it’s a leap of faith which many will rightly be sceptical of.
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