Former Knesset member says Palestinian Authority acts as 'proxy' for Israel

A former Arab lawmaker of the Israeli parliament – the Knesset – says the Palestinian Authority, based in the occupied West Bank, is acting as a “proxy” for the Israeli regime by trying to put a cap on popular uprising against the regime.

Hanin Zoabi, who served as a member of the Knesset for the Balad party between 2009 and 2019, launched the scathing attack against the Ramallah-based Authority, led by President Mahmoud Abbas, on Monday.

“Our revolutionary people will not be able to develop their struggle under proxy occupation called the Ramallah Authority,” Zoabi said in Facebook remarks, the Palestinian Information Center reported.

“The Palestinian Authority acts as an agent for Israel, fighting the popular uprising through detention, torture, persecution, and intimidation,” the former Knesset lawmaker added.

The Palestinian leadership has been divided between the Fatah party, which leads the Palestinian Authority, and the Palestinian resistance movement, Hamas, since 2006, when the latter scored a landslide victory in parliamentary elections in the besieged Gaza Strip.

Hamas has ever since been running the densely-populated coastal enclave, while Fatah has been based in the autonomous parts of the occupied West Bank.

The resistance movement has for years defended the besieged Gaza Strip from frequent Israeli incursions, notably during the three wars the regime imposed on the impoverished enclave since 2008.

“The Ramallah Authority persists in escalating its repressive practices with the aim of undermining the Palestinian struggle and any potential for the popular resistance to thrive,” Zoabi further said.

Israel’s war machine breathed raging fire on the besieged Gaza Strip recently, killing hundreds of people.

Throughout the 11-day onslaught, from May 10 to 21, Israeli bombardment killed at least 254 Palestinians, including 66 children.

The latest escalation was triggered by the Israeli regime that forced Palestinian families to abandon their homes in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in the occupied East Jerusalem al-Quds, followed by a violent onslaught on worshipers at the sacred al-Aqsa Mosque.

After the Gaza-based resistance groups, most notably the Hamas, retaliated in defense of Palestinians in the West Bank and the al-Quds, the regime started conducting strikes against civilian areas in Gaza, targeting high-rise residential buildings and media offices.

Hamas urges Palestinian Authority to release members jailed in West Bank

The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has urged Fatah-led Palestinian Authority (PA) to release all of its members jailed in the West Bank.

While the Palestinian Authority almost practically did nothing to defend the Gazans, Hamas and other resistance groups fired more than 4,000 rockets into the occupied territories, some reaching as far as Tel Aviv and even Haifa and Nazareth to the north, in response to the Israeli bloodshed.

The Israeli regime was eventually forced to announce a ceasefire, brokered by Egypt, which came into force in the early hours of May 21.

“The [Palestinian] Authority supports Israel in making arrests and persecuting and weakening the Palestinian people, so it would be impossible to fight Israel without getting rid of the Authority,” Zoabi added.

The coastal sliver, home to some two million people, has been under an Israeli-imposed crippling siege since June 2007, which has caused a decline in the living standards as well as unprecedented levels of unemployment and unrelenting poverty there.

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