Sabotaging Palestinian Internal Security

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

Among the greatest calamities to befall the Palestinian people is for a person to feel that his personal safety and his own property are threatened; to feel that someone might kill him, assault him with a beating, destroy his property, or that a stray bullet might strike him. This is what the thugs and spies who now roam the streets of our villages and cities with their weapons are causing — bullying people and spreading fear and terror in the hearts of citizens.

The Palestinian now fears speaking about anything that might displease one of the thugs, and sometimes fears demanding his own rights, lest the armed men threaten him — to the point that he cannot even sound his car horn to alert a driver stopped in the middle of the street, for fear of being dragged along the ground or having his bones broken. Look at our cities, especially Nablus and Ramallah, and you see people running in panic because gangs of thugs are fighting each other with weapons, or because an armed man is settling a score with another who had looked at him in a way he did not like, or because someone failed to join a strike mourning a person who died from his own drunkenness.

Who are these people who are sabotaging Palestinian internal security? If we trace them, we find that they are either members of the security services, or people who draw salaries from the Authority, or friends, relatives, and in-laws of the Authority. We see none among them from the common people or from the other Palestinian factions. It has been clear over the years of the Palestinian Authority’s existence that it deliberately turns a blind eye to them, and perhaps supports and encourages them through money and by facilitating the movement of weapons. It is clear that there are leaders at the highest levels who are involved — indeed, who sponsor this dangerous phenomenon.

These criminal acts can only come from agents and spies for Israel and America who know exactly what they are doing. They are weakening the Palestinian people by destroying their morale, and leading them toward disbelief in moral principles and human values, and in the homeland and its citizens. A person may err, but he corrects his behavior when advised; these people, however, persist deliberately in their sins, and insist on destroying the Palestinian people.

Where is the solution? The solution lies, first and foremost, in a courageous stand by the people. If people persist in their cowardice, and everyone hides behind the motto “as long as my own head is safe, it doesn’t matter whose head isn’t,” then no one’s head will be safe. We are now paying the price of our selfishness, the price of failing to commit to the public good, and the price of weak faith. It is the people’s religious, national, and moral duty to stand boldly against thuggery and those who sponsor it.

On the other hand, the security services currently in existence must be dissolved, with the exception of the police force. What is needed is to provide jobs for members of the security services so that they become productive. And if anyone objects, I want to know what security services these bodies have actually provided to the people. The police force can maintain Palestinian civil security, but on condition that, at this historic stage, its leadership be drawn from independents and from the opposition Palestinian factions. And under occupation, this remains true:

Openly displayed weapons are a traitorous weapon.

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “تخريب الأمن الداخلي الفلسطيني” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.