Free Barghouti – or let PNA fall apart
Minister Ze’ev Elkin speaking at Bar-Ilan University, Monday February 29, 2016. Photo by Tomer Appelbaum
Israeli Minister: Palestinian Authority Will Collapse, the Only Question Is When
Elkin says he decided to go public with his warnings after trying to bring the subject up at cabinet meetings to no avail. ‘I’m not sure that the government has passed the diagnostic stage and realized the dramatic change we are facing.’
Barak Ravid, Haaretz
Feb 29, 2016
Israeli Minister of Immigrant Absorption and Minister of Jerusalem Affairs Ze’ev Elkin gave a speech at Bar-Ilan University Monday, in which he predicted the eventual collapse of the Palestinian Authority.
“The question is not if the PA collapses but when it is going to collapse,” Elkin said. “It can happen in a month or two or a year or two tops.” He went on to explain that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ “control on the ground is diminishing.”
Elkin says he decided to go public with his warnings after trying to bring the subject up at cabinet meetings to no avail. “I’m not sure that the government has passed the diagnostic stage and realized the dramatic change we are facing.”
According to Elkin, the PA has no mechanism in place to choose a successor once Abbas relinquishes power, which would likely mean that “the most probable scenario is a violent succession struggle in the PA.”
Elkin rejected the possibility of a democratic election in the PA, saying that if elections were to take place the Hamas would likely win. “Most of the Fatah candidates will never win an election against Hamas. The only one who will is in Israeli jail – Marwan Barghouti,” he said.
Mahmoud Abbas – Abu Mazen – will be 81 in March this year.
Photo January 2016 by AFP.
In his speech Elkin asserted that “If the PA collapses the world will blame Israel.” He also said that “the international community will stop donating money to the Palestinians.” This he said would be “the end of the Oslo peace process.”
“If we don’t prepare for the collapse of the PA the reality will force itself on us and the cost will be dear,” Elkin warned.
Elkin’s speech drew derision from Zionist Union MKs.
“For years the government’s excuse has been that there is no partner [for peace], and now Elkin says that the partner they said didn’t exist is about to disappear,” said MK Omer Bar-Lev. “How can someone who doesn’t exist disappear?”
Bar-Lev said that the ongoing wave of terrorism is a “just a promo for the one and only reality Netanyahu is directing – a binational state and the demise of the Zionist vision.
He said that “separation from the Palestinians is the only alternative to Netanyahu’s passivity. It’s inconceivable that it would depend on the existence or absence of a Palestinian partner.”
MK Hilik Bar said Elkin’s declarations revealed nothing new.
“When I said this at the Knesset last July, the Coalition yawned,” he said. “It’s too bad that the delayed start will come at our expense.”
Marwan Barghouti, the one man who might hold Palestinians together, is serving five life sentences in an Israeli prison. Photo by Marco Longari/AFP/Getty Images
Israeli minister: PA’s collapse imminent
By Ma’an news
February 29, 2016
BETHLEHEM — Israeli Minister of Jerusalem Affairs Zeev Elkin said the collapse of the Palestinian Authority was inevitable during a speech at Israel’s Bar-Ilan University on Monday, in comments the PA later alleged were “absurd.”
Israeli daily Haaretz quoted Elkin as saying: “The question is not if the PA collapses, but when it is going to collapse. It can happen in a month or two, or a year or two tops.”
He reportedly went on to say Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ “control on the ground is diminishing.”
Elkin said he tried to bring his concerns to the Israeli cabinet to no avail.
“I’m not sure that the [Israeli] government has passed the diagnostic stage and realized the dramatic change we are facing,” he was quoted as saying.
The minister also warned that because there was no official succession mechanism in place in the case of Abbas’ resignation, “the most probable scenario is a violent succession struggle in the PA.”
He alleged that the only Fatah frontman who could rally the support of the Palestinian people in Abbas’ absence would be Marwan Barghouti, who is currently serving five life sentences in Israeli prison.
The comment parallels poll results by the Palestinian Centre for Policy and Survey Research (PSR), which found in December that two-thirds of the Palestinian public demand Abbas’ resignation. The poll also found that when asked to choose between Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and Barghouti, 56 percent of people polled chose imprisoned Barghouti as Abbas’ successor.
PA spokesperson Osama al-Qawasmi later dismissed Elkin’s comments as “absurd,” saying: “The remarks made by this extremist Israeli minister are an obvious reflection of the evil will of his government.”
He said Israel had been seeking the PA’s collapse through its support for “settlement activities, its security procedures and economic restrictions.” Meanwhile, he said talk of a succession struggle was “absurd,” reflecting the “extent of racism and their attitude to the Palestinian people.”
He said the question of Abbas’ successor was “an internal Palestinian affair, and we do not intervene in their affairs.”
Qawasnu concluded that the PA was stable and would “continue to turn the PA institutions into state institutions.”
Elkin’s warnings over the PA follow months of concerns among a wide range of commentators, including in December last year US Secretary of State John Kerry, who blamed Israel for not offering enough support to the PA.
Around the same time, Muhammad Shtayyeh, a member of the PLO Central Council and Fatah Central Committee, warned that the PA would face “extreme difficulty” surviving if the prevailing conditions in the occupied Palestinian territory went on much longer.
Shtayyeh referred to the continuation of the PA as “unsustainable” amid the “political impasse” between Israel and the Palestinian leadership, as well as a lack of a political horizon within the Palestinian leadership itself.
“It is extremely difficult that the Palestinian Authority can survive this,” he said, referring to the popular unrest that swept the occupied Palestinian territory in October.
Since the unrest began, the PA has been struggling to rally support, as Palestinians have become more critical of the government’s action — particularly the security coordination between Israel and the PA, which has attempted to quell the ongoing violence.