Palestinian Police Forces Accused of Encouraging Terror Under Guise of Oslo Accords

The Palestinian Authority is said to be the largest recipient in the world of foreign aid per capita, and its security force is the biggest in the world in per capita terms.

Kena Betancur/Getty Images
The head of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, at the United Nations on September 21, 2023. Kena Betancur/Getty Images

President Biden will soon be confronted with damning evidence of terrorism within the Palestinian Authority Security Forces in a report that challenges his advocacy for a two-state solution and could pave the way for a new diplomatic approach for the Jewish State.  

An Israeli non-governmental organization, Regavim, plans to bring to Washington’s doorstep a report that Palestinian security forces have glorified dozens of staff members who carried out terrorist attacks against Israelis. Evidence of that “pay-for-slay” program could be a wake-up call to scrap the political framework of the Oslo Accords of 1993 and 1995, which formed the security forces in the name of protecting peace and security with Israel.

“We fault the Israeli government for failing to demand a halt to the ‘peace process’ that doesn’t bring peace and is only a requirement on one side of the equation,” the director of the international division at Regavim, Naomi Kahn, tells the Sun. “The Palestinian side has never been expected to live up to its obligations. And that is costing lives on both sides.”

According to Regavim’s report, titled “Officers by Day, Terrorists by Night,” dozens of security force officers were declared “martyrs of the Palestinian Authority Security Forces” after they were killed in the course of terror attacks they carried out against Israeli citizens and soldiers in the Israeli Defense Forces in the past three years. A spokesman for the security forces, Colonel Tala Dweikat, boasted in a television interview in late October that “over the past 30 years, the PASF has sacrificed more than 2,000 martyrs.”

Other “martyrdom proclamations” by the security forces include “ostentatious” military funerals, official condolence visits, and public memorials in the form of naming streets, buildings, and other projects after security forces staff, the report asserts. Regavim says there is a possibility, though unlikely, that the Palestinian Authority could at some point in the future turn its guns against Israel in what could be another October 7-style attack. 

Yet Regavim suggests this evidence could just be the tip of the iceberg, as the report does not include the Palestinian security staffers who have not been apprehended or killed in action, or those whose personal details are unknown. 

Prime Minister Netanyahu opposes the Palestinian Authority’s presence at Gaza and says Israel should control all territory west of the Jordan River. Yet America and the European Union are top donors to the PA, funding the salaries, weapons, and military training of its security forces. The Palestinian Authority is reportedly the largest recipient in the world of foreign aid per capita and its security force is the biggest in the world in per capita terms.

“Where’s all that money going?” Ms. Kahn says. “It’s either in tunnels underground in Gaza or it’s in weapons that are being turned on Israelis not only in Judea and Samaria, but everywhere. It’s going to pay salaries for people who either succeed in killing us or try to kill us.” 

The possibility of misappropriated foreign aid in the absence of a good government is causing Congress to stall support to Haiti. Some members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee say that American aid and ammunition could land into the wrong hands when the capital is overtaken by gangs. 

Despite similar concerns over misdirected aid to Gaza, President Biden has insisted that the key to ending Israel’s war with Hamas is a reunited Gaza Strip and West Bank governed by a “a revitalized Palestinian Authority.” As the Wall Street Journal editorial board argued on Saturday, that is a fool’s errand when the Palestinian security forces allegedly aid and abet terrorism.

Regavim’s report will be presented on Tuesday to Israel’s legislative body, Knesset. The next goal is for the report to be brought to the American government, and then to the United Nations, the European Union, and embassies in Israel, Ms. Kahn says. Those stakeholders have clung to the promise of Oslo that “by giving Western sounding democratic names to processes, you’ve created a foundation for Western values and for democratic co-existence,” she says. Many right-wing Knesset members argue that the promise has failed.

Prime Minister Netanyahu opposes the Palestinian Authority’s presence at Gaza and says Israel should control all territory west of the Jordan River. The Knesset voted overwhelmingly last month to back Mr. Netanyahu’s declaration. Supporters of the Oslo agreement say that though some Palestinian security officials are involved in terrorism, there is extensive cooperation between Israeli forces and some members of the Palestinian Authority security officials.

International pressure should be placed on the Palestinian leaders to demand transparency and reciprocity, Ms. Kahn says. She points to the fact that in the nearly 30 years since the accords, Palestinian leadership has failed to implement any of the proposed changes, like revising their charter that calls for the eradication of the Jewish state. “The facts speak for themselves and the people speak for themselves,” she says. “What they say is what they mean.”


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