Examining three locales in the West Bank nominally under PA jurisdiction—the Hebron area, Nablus, and Ramallah—Pinhas Inbari finds that alternative sources of authority are challenging the rule of Mahmoud Abbas and the PA, with rival groups and villages moving in different political directions:
In Hebron . . . the large clans . . . have [joined forces], reestablished the Tribal Council of Mount Hebron [that existed in the pre-Oslo days], and sent a delegation to Amman to express loyalty to the king of Jordan under the Jordanian flag.
In Ramallah, the PA’s de-facto seat of government, Europe seeks to organize a phalanx of “non-governmental” organizations (NGOs) as a political force. This effort is opposed by the PA, which wants the NGOs to be under its control. . . . Nablus, for its part, has gone into a tailspin of total anarchy. It is under the rule of gangs, with exchanges of gunfire in the heart of the city and attempts at political assassinations. . . .
[There is also the case of] Sei’r, [in the vicinity of Hebron, which] is considered a “Fatah village.” It is [under the control] of Abbas Zaki, a member of the Fatah central committee and one of the more extreme Fatah figures; he calls for forging ties with Iran. Indeed, the highest number of knife attackers who met their deaths came from Sei’r.
However, . . . when the militant governor of Hebron, Kamel Hmeid, came to the village to praise it for its “sacrifice,” he was surprised to find that the village notables had summoned him to a discussion behind closed doors in which they demanded that he stop sending the youths of the village to their deaths. Indeed, since then, the village of Sei’r has ceased to dispatch knife attackers. . . .
Nevertheless, the Islamic parties set the tone in Hebron.
Read more on Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs: http://jcpa.org/the-fraying-palestinian-political-entity-in-the-west-bank/