For some time, the major refugee camps under the Palestinians Authority’s jurisdiction have been considered “no-go” zones by its security forces. The reason: the presence within them of armed activists incensed at and hostile to Mahmoud Abbas. Noting recent incidents of violence between these groups and PA officials and police, Khaled Abu Toameh warns of the growing disintegration of the PA’s control of the territory it rules:
A quick chat with young Palestinians, including Fatah members, in any refugee camp in the West Bank will reveal a driving sense of betrayal. . . . In these camps, the PA seems as much the enemy as Israel. . . . More importantly, many of the camp activists believe that it is only a matter of time before Palestinians launch an intifada against the PA. . . .
[H]ostility toward the Palestinian Authority seems to have reached unprecedented heights among refugee camp residents. The feeling is that the PA leadership has done virtually nothing to improve their living conditions and that the real money is going to big cities such as Ramallah, Nablus, Bethlehem, and Hebron.
The PA, like most Arab countries, has spent years upon years lying to the camp residents, telling them that they should remain in their misery because one day they will return to their families’ former homes inside Israel. Adding to this extraordinarily extended effort of deceit, the Palestinian Authority has marginalized the refugee camp residents, cutting them out of any process of state-building. It appears that the residents have had enough.
Abbas’s talk of establishing an independent Palestinian state is hard to reconcile with the “security chaos” in the territories under his control. Hamas, of course, is cheering on the sidelines as it watches the PA-controlled territories going to hell.
Read more on Gatestone: http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/8273/west-bank-anarchy