Palestinian Authority shake-up faces widespread disdain in West Bank

Appointment of largely unpopular Abbas confidant Hussein Al Sheikh as PLO vice president has angered many Palestinians

An Israeli soldier taking part in a military raid on Al Ain camp for Palestinian refugees, near Nablus in the occupied West Bank. AFP

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Ahmad Shamma, an official at Al Ain refugee camp, spoke wearily about the difficulties his 10,000 residents are facing in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, after the Gaza war caused an economic crisis and unleashed unprecedented Israeli settler and military violence.

Only a few hours ago, the Israeli army barrelled through the wide streets of the city, bursting into the narrow alleys of Al Ain to launch an operation that locked down the camp. Troops searched house to house in a manner Mr Shamma said terrified residents, particularly children and the elderly.

“The army came to the camp with a special engineering unit. We could see forcers holding maps in their hands,” he said.

“The raid lasted about four hours. They were taking photos with cameras and comparing, and looking at maps and taking pictures. Some people started rumours that the army will come and destroy homes. We don’t know really what they’re aiming for, we only saw what they were doing.”

A mural depicting fallen fighters in the Old City of Nablus in the occupied West Bank. AFP

Sitting behind his manager’s desk, Mr Shamma was flanked by large pictures of Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas, the former and current chairmen of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), considered internationally as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. The two pictures are a common sight in official Palestinian buildings in the West Bank.

For six decades, the PLO has been the umbrella group for the Palestinian Authority, which has governed parts of the West Bank for three decades, a number of Palestinian political parties and diplomatic missions at the UN, and in the world’s most important capitals. Many in the international community view it as having a key role in the reconstruction of postwar Gaza.

People in Nablus share no such hope in its capabilities. The overwhelming sense across the West Bank is that the PA is barely clinging on to power in the areas it is supposed to control. Nablus is one of a dwindling few, crumpled by a crisis of legitimacy and confidence, and accusations of enabling Israel’s occupation.

Fanfare at meetings of the Palestinian Central Council last week in the capital Ramallah appears to not have helped. Most residents The National spoke to in Nablus this week either refused to comment on the proceedings, which should be one of the most important events in the Palestinian political calendar, or dismissed them entirely.

When asked what he thought of the event, Mr Shamma smiled wryly and said: “If we didn’t have hope, we would not be here. We remain convinced that one day we will get our rights.”

Speaking in a far grander office down the road, Nablus governor Ghassan Daghlas, appointed by Mr Abbas last year, offered clearer support for the PA leaders, saying they are making decisions vital to keeping Nablus stable in terms of security. While the city is in far worse shape than before the war, the situation is better than in neighbouring Palestinian cities.

Nearby Jenin, for example, is now in its 100th day of an unprecedented raid in which the city’s refugee camp has been systematically destroyed. Israel says the overall operation – in which tens of thousands have been displaced, entire streets destroyed and affected camps left inaccessible – aims to defeat militants in the area, a process it said was accelerated after unpopular PA security forces lost control of the city.

Israel began a major military operation in January that has destroyed much of Jenin refugee camp. Reuters

Mr Daghlas said preventing similar devastation in Nablus is a key priority and that authorities in Ramallah are taking unpleasant but necessary measures to achieve that, even if it means working with Israel’s military to suppress militants, who many Palestinians view as powerful symbols of their resistance.

“We tell our people that this current [Israeli] government has only destruction as its ideology,” he said. “That’s why I keep telling them that in order to prevent destruction we have to keep the governorate peaceful and stable. No militant should be able to drag our governorate into war."

Mr Daghlas welcomed the biggest outcome from the meeting, the creation of the position of vice president of the PLO, which was given to long-time Abbas confidant Hussein Al Sheikh.

“The creation of the vice president position was a Palestinian decision, in a Palestinian institution that is led by Palestinians,” Mr Daghlas said.

“Hussein Al Sheikh is a strong figure and understands the situation. He has his expertise. He will help Abbas and he will help Palestinian institutions."

Few Palestinians share this positive view of Mr Al Sheikh, who is widely perceived as a symbol of the worst excesses of PA complicity with the occupier, in particular through co-ordination between Palestinian security forces and Israel, which happens a great deal in Nablus.

Mr Al Sheikh is widely believed to be the Palestinian official with the highest level of contact with Israel’s security world and its US backers.

Hussein Al Sheikh is now vice president of the PLO. AFP

Commentator and former Israeli military international spokesman Jonathan Conricus told The National that, while Mr Al Sheikh is “perhaps the best-known senior who has the most face time with Israeli and American officials", his vast unpopularity among Palestinians is a major challenge for the PA.

“I think his personal brand is on the extreme in terms of how much he is loathed and despised by Palestinians for being corrupt or an Israeli collaborator. That probably isn’t going to be very useful for the PA,” he added.

“Hussein Al Sheikh is another nail in the casket of that corruption and poor governance.”

Back in Al Ain, as young boys scrambled through a graveyard below the office that Israeli troops stormed in an earlier raid, Mr Shamma, still cautious, eventually gave his most direct words on the matter. “The leadership always changes, but in the end what is really needed are only the rights of the people.”