Ali Sawafta
JENIN, West Bank (Reuters) – Roads in the Jenin refugee camp were destroyed by Israeli army bulldozers months ago but remain impassable because the Palestinian Authority is unable to repair them. Government employees are paid a fraction of their wages and health services are collapsing.
These are signs of a deep financial crisis that has weakened the government of President Mahmoud Abbas in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and raised questions about its future even as the United States and other countries are urging Revitalize the functioning of the Palestinian Authority after the fighting in Gaza ends.
The Palestinian Authority’s finances have been in disarray for years as donors cut funding that once accounted for nearly a third of its $6 billion annual budget and demanded reforms to tackle corruption and waste.
But Palestinian officials said the situation worsened sharply after the militant group Hamas attacked Israel from Gaza on October 7, leading Israel to withhold much of the tax revenue collected on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, which is now its main source of financing.
The tensions are particularly pronounced in Jenin, a restive city in the northern West Bank where Israel has long targeted Palestinian militants and stepped up operations since October.
The city’s mayor, Nidal Obeidi, said Israeli attacks since October have caused greater damage to critical infrastructure than in the past.
“Water and sewer pipes were hit. Electricity transformers were hit, even water storage tanks on the roof were hit,” Obeidi told Reuters.
He estimated the cost of repairs to the refugee camp alone would be $15 million. But he said resources were scarce as the Palestinian Authority was “under siege.”
Palestinian officials say the Palestinian Authority is facing one of its most serious crises since it was founded under an interim peace agreement with Israel 30 years ago.
At the time, Palestinians saw the Palestinian Authority as a stepping stone toward their goal of establishing an independent state in the West Bank and Gaza with east Jerusalem as its capital.
But as that goal remains elusive, the Palestinian Authority offers salaries and services that help Abbas and his Fatah faction face challenges posed by Israel’s expansion of settlements in the West Bank and militant rivals such as Hamas, which occupies Gaza. maintained political influence.
Ghassan Khatib, a lecturer at Birzeit University in the West Bank and a former Palestinian minister, said Israeli policies risk further marginalizing the Palestinian Authority “and at some point may lead to its collapse”.
“Their effect is to weaken the political influence of the faction that supports a peace settlement with Israel – namely Fatah – in favor of opposition groups, mainly Hamas,” he said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office and the Palestinian Authority did not comment on Khatib’s remarks.
However, senior Palestinian official Hussein Sheikh told Al-Arabiya television in June that funding shortfalls meant the Palestinian Authority was unable to “fulfill its responsibilities to the Palestinian people,” which could lead to “the collapse of the Palestinian Authority.”
Warning of another uprising
According to the United Nations, more than 3 million Palestinians live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, as well as about 700,000 Israeli settlers. Israeli forces control the West Bank, although the Palestinian Authority exercises limited governance over the area where most Palestinians live.
Under a long-standing arrangement between the two sides, Israel taxes goods entering the West Bank through Israel and transfers them to authorities in Ramallah on a monthly basis.
After the Oct. 7 attack, Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich began withholding a portion of income equal to the amount transferred by the Palestinian Authority to Gaza. Smotrich believes the funds will eventually end up in the hands of Hamas.
The amount withheld – about 300 million shekels ($80 million) per month – added to Israel’s previous deductions, amounts to the amount the Palestinian Authority pays to the families of militants and civilians imprisoned or killed by Israeli authorities.
In May, Smotrich suspended the handover entirely, accusing the Palestinian Authority of working against Israel after the International Criminal Court prosecutor issued arrest warrants for the Israeli prime minister and defense minister and three European countries recognized a Palestinian state.
Smotrich also accused the Palestinian Authority of backing the Oct. 7 attack in which Hamas-led gunmen killed 1,200 Israelis and took 250 hostages, according to Israeli statistics. Health authorities in Gaza say the Israeli offensive in response has killed more than 38,700 people.
“The Palestinian Authority, together with Hamas, seeks to harm Israel, Israel and the world, and we will fight against it,” Smotrich said at a cabinet meeting on June 27.
Abbas condemned violence against civilians and criticized Hamas’ attacks, saying they provided an excuse for Israel to attack Gaza.
Israel transferred 435 million shekels ($116 million) to the Palestinian Authority in early July, but Palestinian officials said Israel still holds 6 billion shekels in funds.
“The funds transferred are not enough to cover 60 percent of salaries, so the financial crisis continues,” Palestinian Authority spokesman Mohammad Abu al-Rub told Reuters. “Israel deducted about a third 2 in revenue, which has put all government programs on hold and increased public debt.”
Israel’s Finance Ministry said the transfer of funds to Gaza and “the flow into terrorism” are prohibited by law and cabinet decisions. It said the amount withheld was “nowhere near” the 6 billion shekel, adding in a statement to Reuters that “if the Palestinian Authority does not divert funds to finance terrorism, the economy will not be harmed”.
The United States says the funds belong to the Palestinian Authority and has urged Israel to release them, while also urging the Palestinian Authority to implement reforms to prepare for a postwar administration of Gaza – an idea Netanyahu has repeatedly rejected.
U.S. State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said at a press conference on July 2: “The viability of the Palestinian Authority is critical to the stability of the West Bank, which in turn is critical to Israel’s own security interests. important.
According to a confirmed report by public broadcaster Kan Radio in June, the Israeli military warned its government that cutting off funding to the Palestinian Authority could push the West Bank into another “intifada” – the first in 1987. The name given to the two Palestinian uprisings between 2005 and 2005.
The military referred Reuters to the Shin Bet security service at the time, but the service declined to comment.
Netanyahu’s office did not respond to questions for this article.
“No one helps”
The financial pressure on the Palestinian Authority comes as economic and security conditions in the West Bank have deteriorated sharply, further eroding support for Abbas’s government. Abbas’s government is corrupt.
A poll released in June by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research showed that more than 60% of Palestinians currently support the dissolution of the Palestinian Authority. The poll also found that support for armed struggle has increased.
The Palestinian Authority pays salaries or pensions to 150,000 people in the Palestinian territories. The last time their salaries were paid in full was in 2022. In May, they gained 60%.
Israel has exacerbated economic difficulties in the West Bank by exacerbating some 200,000 Palestinians who used to commute to Israel for work every day, citing security concerns.
Kathhem Harb, a 53-year-old father of four who works in the Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of National Economy, said he could only afford basic necessities such as rice, flour and cooking gas.
“We live on the bare minimum,” he said, adding that there was sometimes no money to pay water and electricity bills.
Pay cuts in public health facilities mean staff at government clinics will only work a few days a week, according to health workers unions. The World Health Organization said last month that about 45% of essential medicines were out of stock.
Hayat Hamdan, a woman in her 50s, traveled 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the town of Araba to a government clinic in Jenin hoping to find subsidies for her wheelchair-bound husband drug.
But many pharmacy shelves inside are empty.
“We had health insurance, but it was of no use,” Hamdan said. “From the beginning of the Gaza war to today, we have purchased most of our medicines at our own expense.”
Meanwhile, violence has surged in the West Bank. Since October, hundreds of Palestinians have been killed in clashes with Israeli security forces, including armed fighters, rock-throwing youths and civilian bystanders.
Attacks on Palestinian villages by Israeli settler groups have become commonplace, while Palestinian attacks in the West Bank and east Jerusalem have killed more than a dozen Israelis.
In the Jenin refugee camp, where some 14,000 people live in less than half a square kilometer, young men patrol the streets armed with assault rifles in flagrant defiance of the Palestinian Authority, underscoring the influence of militant groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad force, despite Israeli attacks.
Bullet scars on the facade of the nearby Palestinian Authority headquarters are reminiscent of past clashes between Palestinian Authority security forces and militants.
A man in his 20s, who asked not to be named for security reasons, said conditions at the camp were bad before October 7 due to Israeli attacks and had gotten worse since then.
“There are no roads; infrastructure is destroyed; houses are destroyed; shops are destroyed,” he said, expressing frustration that the Palestinian Authority has cracked down on militants but has done nothing for Palestinian civilians.
“There are no jobs; the authorities are not paying wages; prices are rising. No one is helping people in the camps.”
