Is the Palestinian Authority protecting the ‘Homeland’ or Zionist Bantustans?

Israel has invaded Jenin refugee camp numerous times since the 1993 Oslo Accords. The city of Jenin and the nearby camp are in what is considered as Area A of the Accords. This area is made up of approximately 18 per cent of the West Bank, or 18 per cent of just 22 per cent of Palestine, and is supposed to be under the full control of the Palestinian Authority (PA). This means that the PA runs both civil affairs and security within this area.

In the Jenin refugee camp, Israel has conducted repeated raids since the infamous massacre of April 2002. Most recently, at the end of May, the Israeli army raided the camp and murdered several Palestinians before bringing in US-made and funded bulldozers to dig up roads, destroy infrastructure and demolish homes.

Dismissing the PA responsibility for Area A under the Oslo Accords, the Israeli army operates freely, invading and arresting Palestinians in any city, town or refugee camp across the West Bank. In August, the occupation army launched large-scale incursions in cities and towns within Area A, killing dozens of Palestinians. In Jenin camp, the Israeli military completely cut off the area from the outside world, blocking communications, barring outside journalists and restricting access to food and water. After at least a week of raids, over 30 Palestinians had been murdered and dozens were arrested without charge. According to a UN report, in the past year alone, at least 630 Palestinians were murdered by Israel in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

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Furthermore, attacks by Israeli Jewish colonists in the West Bank and East Jerusalem have surged significantly since the election of Israel’s most racist government ever. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), at least 1,423 settler attacks were documented last year, averaging four per day. During the peak of the olive harvest season in October, Zionist colonists’ terrorism spiked to a record 32 attacks. Emboldened by government officials and a pervasive sense of impunity, these Jewish colonists went on a rampage, vandalising homes, torching vehicles and poisoning livestock, and olive groves — an enduring symbol of Palestinian resilience and a critical source of livelihood — were deliberately set ablaze or uprooted.

What makes these terrorist acts particularly egregious is the blatant complicity of the Israeli military.

Israeli forces have a track record of enabling colonial violence, standing by or joining in these brutal attacks. It should be understood that the systematic and racially motivated violence by Israeli Jewish zealots is part of a calculated Zionist strategy to instil fear and achieve the “voluntary” ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians.

Meanwhile, Palestinian villagers who attempt to defend their properties, face arrest or are met with live fire by soldiers. This stark dual legal system — where settlers act with impunity while Palestinians endure harsh military rule — epitomises the apartheid conditions documented by leading human rights organisations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, as well as the occupation state’s own B’Tselem.

Last week, the Israeli army waged a wide-ranging military campaign in the Balata refugee camp in Nablus, Tubas, towns outside Ramallah and Qalqilya in the West Bank. In Hebron, Israeli forces started to bulldoze a new colonial road south of the city, uprooting trees, razing and confiscating Palestinian land for the benefit of new Jew-only colonies.

Now juxtapose this with the PA-initiated security operation, “Protect the Homeland”, aimed at disarming Palestinian fighters inside Jenin refugee camp. It is difficult not to view the PA’s activities in the camp as an extension of the same Israeli efforts, which have failed to crush the resistance since 2002.

Protecting the homeland for the PA should mean defending Palestinian towns from the invading occupying army, safeguarding Palestinian farmers from settler attacks, and resisting the construction of colonial roads and the expropriation of Palestinian land, not disarming the only forces challenging the Israeli occupation and its racist policies.

The PA’s malleable collaboration with Israel poses a fundamental question about the future of the current Palestinian leadership.

As frustration with the status quo grows, demands for a new strategy that prioritises resistance and self-determination over accommodation are destined to gain traction. Grassroots movements reflect a desire for leadership that is more accountable to the Palestinian people and less beholden to Israel and international donors.

Ultimately, the PA’s collaboration with Israel highlights the profound challenges facing Palestinian governance under occupation. Breaking free from this dynamic will require not only internal reform but also a reinvigorated national movement capable of uniting Palestinians, in the homeland and the diaspora, around a shared vision of justice, freedom and self-determination.

By acting as a subcontractor for Israel’s suppression of Palestinian resistance against the occupation and settler violence, the PA’s current trajectory not only undermines Palestinian aspirations for statehood, but also risks transforming the “Homeland” it purports to protect into Zionist-run Bantustans.

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The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.