Mahmoud Abbas’s collapse

It was not a slip up, but rather a national and moral slip by Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) in his recent statements. He launched a sharp attack on the Palestinian Resistance in Gaza, led by the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, sparking a wave of anger and widespread controversy among the public and social media users.

This came during his opening of the 32nd session of the Palestinian Central Council (PCC), in which he demanded that the Israeli captives held by the Resistance be handed over. He used derogatory and inappropriate language against the Resistance when doing so, instead of directing his accusations at the Zionist entity and demanding that it stop committing massacres and repeated attacks against the Palestinian people.

In a statement that sparked widespread controversy, the Fatah Central Committee called on the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, to “stop leading the fate of the Palestinian people according to foreign agendas”. The Central Committee held Hamas responsible for obstructing the Palestinian national process, demanding that it comply with what it called Mahmoud Abbas’s efforts and adheres to the policies pursued by the Palestine Liberation Organisation.

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According to observers and analysts, these statements, which coincide with the escalation of brutal Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip and the worsening national crisis, reflect a shift in the Palestinian Authority’s political priorities and are a dangerous attempt to shift responsibility for the crisis to the Resistance rather than confronting the Occupation.

The statements by the Fatah Central Committee cannot be separated from the path the Palestinian Authority has been following for years, in the form of security coordination with the Israeli Occupation, the persecution of Resistance fighters in the West Bank and distorting the image of armed resistance in all its forms, under the pretext of “national interests” and “international legitimacy”.  At a time when Palestinians are being killed daily in the Gaza Strip and their homes are being demolished in the West Bank, the Palestinian Authority is choosing to direct its criticism at Hamas rather than holding the Occupation responsible for the current events.

After Mahmoud Abbas’s absence from the field and political scenes at this critical and difficult stage that the Palestinian cause has been experiencing since the 1948 Nakba, Abbas now emerges after more than 18 months of silence and complicity to insult his people, justify the Occupation’s crimes and to defend Netanyahu to his victims, who are mainly children and women. Even in the final moments of his political career, Abbas insisted on being an opponent of the martyrs and their families, as he suspended salaries to the families of martyrs, the wounded and the prisoners, strengthened security coordination with the Occupation despite its massacres, refused to join a unified national position, and disrupted all forms of resistance. His political team continues to promote a rhetoric that holds the Resistance responsible for the current deterioration. Observers see this as an attempt to justify the PA’s complete ineffectiveness and paralysis, and its fear of losing its remaining relevance, given the growing role of Resistance factions in Gaza and the Occupied West Bank.

While the Resistance brigades in Gaza confront the Israeli killing machine, the PA’s security services continue to pursue activists in Jenin, Nablus and Tulkarm, arresting anyone who raises their voice in support of the Resistance or criticises the PA’s performance. Numerous reports have revealed the complicity of Palestinian Authority’s agencies of providing information about wanted activists to the Occupation forces and obstructing operations carried out by Resistance factions before they occur. This coordination has been described by some analysts as a form of “functional treason”, since the PA has become a security service serving the Occupation in exchange for preserving the PA’s existence and the interests of its ruling elite.

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Considering these practices, the statements of the Fatah Central Committee appear to provide a political cover for this security function and establish a dangerous equation: the priority is not confronting the Occupation but, rather, controlling the Palestinian street and dismantling its internal front, even if this comes at the expense of Palestinian bloodshed.

While the Resistance in Gaza is proposing a plan for liberation and confronting the Occupation under extremely complex humanitarian and political circumstances, the Palestinian Authority insists on holding on to the project of a state under Occupation, a project that has proven its failure over more than two decades. Despite the passage of more than thirty years since the establishment of the PA, the Oslo negotiations have not led to the establishment of a Palestinian State. Instead, they have led to more settlements, displacement, division and the entrenchment of the Occupation. The paradox is clear: while Palestinian blood is shed daily in Gaza, lands are being bulldozed in the West Bank and holy sites are being desecrated, the Palestinian Authority insists on its inflexible stance toward the Resistance, accusing it of implementing foreign agendas. In reality, it is implementing the agenda of security coordination and a false legitimacy that now serves the interests of the Occupation more than the aspirations of the Palestinian people.

Amid the grave challenges facing the Palestinian people, including the genocidal war and forced displacement in Gaza and repression in the West Bank, the Fatah Central Committee’s talk of foreign agendas and Palestinian legitimacy is no longer convincing to a nation that is witnessing, first-hand, who fights, who remains silent, who conspires, who is martyred and who signs security coordination agreements. In this context, an important fact emerges: the Resistance, with all its factions, has become the voice of the Palestinian street, while the Palestinian Authority continues its path toward marginalisation, decline and collapse, until history turns its page like other failed experiences.

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This article appeared in Arabic in Arabi21 on 24 April, 2025.

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