Palestinian police officers march during training. (AP/Nasser Ishtayeh)
Palestinian Authority security officials say morale among officers low, fear that collapse of the PA will occur in the near future.
By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News
A senior Palestinian Authority security official described an atmosphere of low morale and a feeling of purposelessness which allows terror groups to flourish in PA-controlled areas, as the entity led by embattled octogenarian Mahmoud Abbas continues to lose its grip on power.
Speaking to Israel Hayom, the unnamed official expressed his concerns that the PA – which has essentially surrendered the northern Samaria city of Jenin to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group – will soon collapse.
People who work for the Palestinian security bodies “feel there is no point in anything they’re doing, and that the PA is slowly falling apart anyway,” the source told Israel Hayom.
Abbas, who was elected to a four-year presidential term in 2006 and has refused to hold national elections since then, is wildly unpopular among his constituents. Opinion polls have found that the majority of Palestinians would prefer to be governed by the Hamas terror group.
The statesman and other PA officials have been accused of extensive financial wrongdoing, including seizing international humanitarian funds to enrich themselves, general incompetence, and maintaining a repressive atmosphere which saw an Abbas critic killed by PA security forces.
A lack of progress towards a Palestinian state and easing the economic crisis in the territories have also frustrated Abbas’ constituents.
“Once, we were told we were doing something important for our homeland and we really believed that, but now we are waking up and realizing that it’s all one big fraud,” the source continued.
“There is a breakdown of morale within the security apparatus, and there is no motivation to fight Hamas or Islamic Jihad.”
Another member of the PA’s security forces told Israel Hayom that “there is a lack of trust in the leaders.”
“When you see that your leadership is tainted with corruption, and when there is a leader who speaks two languages, embraces the Israelis on the one hand and gives them what they want, and on the other hand they don’t let you free your homeland and fight the occupation, then you ask what am I getting out of [serving],” he added.
Should the PA collapse, Palestinian terror groups may be able to expand their operations, posing a serious security risk to Israel.
During a trip to Ramallah last week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken presented Abbas with a U.S.-backed plan which would see the PA regain control of swathes of its territory that have been surrendered to terror groups.
Abbas is believed to have rebuffed the offer, believing that he could not muster sufficient popular support for the plan.
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