Writer Maryam Barghouti:

INTERVIEW.. US and European funding for the Palestinian Authority is "security"

Palestinian writer Maryam Barghouti spoke about the repressive actions of the Palestinian Authority against its people, and said in an interview with the American website "Democracy Now", that the authority behaves like a police state, but without a state, and that most of the funding provided by donor countries goes to strengthening the security services In addition, the Palestinian Authority took advantage of the Corona pandemic to impose new laws to oppress the Palestinians.

Here is the text of the interview:

■ Tell us who is the Palestinian Authority and for whose benefit it works?

■■ The Palestinian Authority is a system formed in 1994 following the Oslo Peace Accords. It acts as an interim government to manage the civil affairs of the Palestinian people.

But it now operates as a police state, but without a state.

What is happening is a complete assault on the Palestinian people.

The only thing that is being protected is the security forces, the boycott system.

■ The authority says that its concerns are focused on the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas).. What do you think?

■■ The Palestinian Authority has abided by the security agreements with Israel in accordance with the Oslo Accords, whereby the Authority shall hand over any Palestinian who speaks out against the occupation to Israel.

At the same time, the authority imposes sanctions against the Gaza Strip, despite the siege and starvation it is subjected to.

The Authority cooperates with Israel against Gaza.

Although the authority says that it fears Hamas, it has killed the Palestinian activist, Nizar Banat, who is not from Hamas, and there are many Palestinians in its prisons who are not from Hamas.

■ Can you explain to us who funds the Palestinian Authority, and what you think should happen?

■■ The Palestinian Authority is funded by many parties, primarily the United States and the European Union.

What matters is not who finances the authority, but rather where this funding goes.

Although most of the funding, presumably, comes to improve the lives of Palestinians, it usually goes to the security forces.

And every year I see new security cars instead of new schools.

This is what Israel also wants.

■ Can you talk about how Nizar Banat was killed, and why it is important to talk about his role?

■■ When the house of the activist, girls, was stormed, he was severely beaten, and then he was taken to the security headquarters, and there he was brutally beaten to death, to the extent that the picture of his body was filled with blue tumors and bruises, so that I could not look at his body due to what I had been subjected to Hit.

All his accusations are that he criticized the Palestinian Authority, which is supposed to represent us Palestinians.

Nizar was a father, a husband, before he was an activist and a critic of the Palestinian Authority. He was a human being like us, but he rejected injustice.

■ Is this repression by the authority taking place in the midst of the "Corona" pandemic?

Can you talk about the status of vaccination against “Corona”, and how the authority deals with this pandemic?

■■ In the beginning, the authority's response to the pandemic was good, according to opinion polls.

After that, it gradually began to appear that the state of emergency was being exploited in order to impose new laws, aimed at oppressing the Palestinians, and it continued to suppress freedom of expression and our right to change.

What is happening now is not at the level of vaccination, as there is an agreement between Israel and the authority to exchange the “Pfizer” vaccine, as it turns out that some of the vaccines that Israel sends are expired, but rather at the level of the authority that used the pandemic to impose new laws to oppress the Palestinians.

The authority wants us to be imprisoned, as Israel does to those it arrests from the Palestinians.

■ I want to ask you about the new government in Israel, and the bombing of Gaza last week, which Israel said was revenge for the flaming balloons launched by the people of Gaza.

Is this a breach of the recent cease-fire agreements?

■■ It seems that the new government will not bring change.

This government is behaving like its predecessors, as even a change of form will not change the policy pursued against the Palestinian people.

• At first, the authority's response to the "pandemic" was good, according to opinion polls.

After that, it gradually began to appear that the state of emergency was being exploited in order to impose new laws, aimed at oppressing the Palestinians.

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