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Abbas Understands His People Have No Appetite for Another Intifada

(Times of Israel) Avi Issacharoff - With the PA's decision to cut ties with Israel, Palestinians no longer have their authorities' help in securing permits to enter Israel. Workers, students, businessmen, medical patients, and others must now apply directly to Israel's Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT). This is bad news for Hussein al-Sheikh, head of the General Authority of Civil Affairs of the Palestinian Authority, which had handled such affairs. Al-Sheikh's office used to get a commission on each permit handled. Now, his revenues have evaporated. The office also provided one of the best ways for PA leadership to settle scores with rivals in Hamas or Fatah - delaying or rejecting permits as a pressure tactic. Dr. Michael Milstein, head of the Palestinian Studies Forum at the Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies at Tel Aviv University, said, "Abbas has initiated processes that were supposed to jump-start something. But the public has not pitched in, and the international community is not there yet either. The threat of dissolving the Palestinian Authority is a gun with an empty chamber." "Last Friday, only 5,000 people attended an anti-annexation protest in Az-Zubaidat in the Jordan Valley. When Abbas looks at the public, he realizes he has failed."
2020-06-19 00:00:00
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