Head of Israeli security agency reportedly held secret meeting with exiled former Gaza security chief, fueling rumors the former Palestinian Authority official could be enlisted in post-war governance of Gaza.

By World Israel News Staff

Shin Bet chief David Zini recently met in the United Arab Emirates with Mohammed Dahlan, the exiled former Fatah security strongman who has repeatedly been discussed as a possible player in postwar Gaza, Israeli media reported Tuesday.

The Kan public broadcaster, citing Israeli and regional sources, said the meeting took place during Zini’s recent visit to the UAE.

The Shin Bet declined to address the report directly, saying, “We do not comment on the chief’s schedule.”

The reported meeting points to continued behind-the-scenes contacts among Israel, the UAE and Palestinian figures outside Hamas as officials search for a workable formula for Gaza after the war.

Dahlan, a former Gaza security chief and once one of the most powerful men in Fatah, has lived in Abu Dhabi since his rupture with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

Abbas expelled him from Fatah in 2011 following a bitter political dispute, and Dahlan has since become close to UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed.

His name has resurfaced repeatedly in discussions over Gaza’s future because he is viewed by some Israeli, US and Arab officials as a Palestinian figure with security experience, Gulf connections and deep hostility toward Hamas.

The Wall Street Journal reported in 2024 that officials were considering Dahlan as a possible temporary postwar figure, including in a model under which he would help oversee a Palestinian security force vetted by the US, Israel and Egypt.

The idea remains highly sensitive. Dahlan is deeply distrusted by Abbas and many in the Palestinian Authority, while any public suggestion that he could return to Gaza with Israeli backing would likely undercut his standing among Palestinians.

Under the auspices of the US-backed Board of Peace, a separate technocratic committee has been chosen to administer Gaza.

The committee is currently led by Ali Shaath, a former Palestinian Authority deputy minister with experience in planning, transportation, housing and development bodies.

Kan had previously reported that Zini visited the UAE in recent weeks, describing the trip as a sign of tightening security coordination between Israel and the Gulf state during the war and amid tensions with Iran.

No details were released on what Zini and Dahlan discussed, and there was no public confirmation from either side.

The post Shin Bet director secretly met ex-Gaza security chief Dahlan in UAE – report appeared first on World Israel News.

Palestinianism has a terrible, blood record. But with the right leadership, and kept away from Palestinian Authority control, Gaza can be rehabilitated.

By Barry Shaw

Let’s be brutally honest. There is nothing honorable in being Palestinian.

From Day one they have proven themselves to be dishonest, hateful, dangerously violent, ambitiously aggressive, feverishly obsessive in what they don’t have rather than make a success of what they do. When they are not killing Jews, they are killing each other.

The fifty-year record of Palestinianism is awful, and reached a bloody crescendo on the 7th of October, 2023.

This was the day that the world should have come to its senses and said, “No more!”

The two-state experiment died that day as we saw the ultimate aim of the much- vaunted Palestinian movement.

This is where it leads. This is where it must die.

It must die is the ruins of Gaza, but in these ruins comes new hope. An experiment, a possibility of a new and better future not only for Gaza but for the Middle East. The creation of an independent state of Gaza and a three-state solution to the Palestinian problem.

Put aside, for heaven’s sake, the idea of bringing in the corrupt, failed, leadership of the Fatah-PLO in Ramallah. They don’t even have the support of their own people according to recent polls and actual elections.

And let’s be brutally honest and acknowledge that the half century experiment of a two-state non solution is dead in the water.

It should not be revived because this will condemn this area of a violent Middle East to another half century of conflict. Best to offer a better non-violent prosperous newer future to the people of Gaza and use that as an example to those suffering under the failed Ramallah regime.

Clearly, Gaza needs to be built from scratch. The rubble of its violent past has to be swept away with its ideology.

It must not be mismanaged by those whose principles led to its ruin. It must be led by people rejecting its violent past, totally dedicated to making Gaza a better place to live rather than looking obsessively at other territories they do not possess.

Without being overly ambitious, the location and size of Gaza makes it a place that can become the Cote D’Azur of the Middle East.

The sort of place that Beirut and Lebanon once were before the intrusion of dangerous and deadly forces such as radical Islam, Syria and, yes, Palestinianism under Yasser Arafat, a man awarded the Noble Peace Prize for making a promise he never intended to keep and who continued a deadly ambition that is alive and killing today.

His stain on history not only ruined Lebanon, it gave root to the dangerous and hateful radicalism preached and indoctrinated in Western academia and fed into the bloodstream of too many Westerns societies.

This Palestinianism is seen on the streets of major Western countries leaving docile governments that chanted the long dead two-state mantra without realizing that it had died way before 7 October 2023.

The Gaza project must be based on rejecting the intrusion of radical Islam and Palestinianism into the founding values of a new Gaza. These two ills would ultimately lead to a failed project.

Instead, the new experiment should be incorporated into the spirit and fabric of the Abraham Accords.

Let me make it clear. Not only should the PA have no role in governing a future Gaza. Neither should Israel.

Israel, though, must have a commanding presence in the creation of a new Gaza. Following the October events, it has a vested interest in insuring that the curse of Palestinianism will not strike again out of Gaza.

The reconstruction of a new Gaza should be established by a regional board led by Saudi Arabia, Israel, Egypt, and the United States, and incorporating both the UAE and Bahrain into its management.

The plans and the financing of a new Gaza will contribute to a new Middle East with Gaza as its showcase of positive cooperation.

The labor involved would give gainful employment for the local Gazan workforce.

Its potential should be based on Gaza being a demilitarized agricultural, light industry, and tourism economy with the potential of becoming a hi-tech data center to the Arab world.

The peace and independence of Gaza will be protected by its two neighbors, Israel and Egypt, who both have shared vested interests in maintaining a peaceful Gaza. Both have transit points for goods, services, and people to flow in and out of Gaza for work or business.

Israel once proposed a Gaza with an offshore airport, a marina and port, and certainly Gaza City should become a hotel and services-based economy.

These projects alone will assure gainful employment and prosperity for the people of Gaza.

The potential is there. It needs a combined will and successful management to make it happen.

And I have the right man to be the managing director until the people are ready to elect the initial Gazan government.

Mohammad Dahlan – whose origins began in Gaza.

Dahlan received a BA in Business Administration from the Islamic University of Gaza.

A young Dahlan was arrested eleven times by Israel for his involvement as the Gaza leader of the Fatah youth movement.

After the signing of the Oslo Accords, Dahlan was made head of the Preventive Security Forces in Gaza. He built up a force of 20,000 men and became one of the most powerful Palestinian leaders, dealing regularly with the CIA and Israeli intelligence officials.

Dahlan angered Arafat in November 2001 by expressing dissatisfaction over his lack of a coherent policy.  He was criticized by human rights groups for his methods during crackdowns on Islamic militants. This is precisely what Israel has been forced to do today.

Divorcing himself from the anti-Israel terrorism of Arafat, he attempted to gather support for an electoral challenge to Arafat, but stopped out of loyalty to Palestinians after the Bush administration demanded a change in PA leadership in July of the same year.

Prior to his resignation from the PA in June 2002, Dahlan was a member of negotiating teams for security issues in peace talks, even attending the Camp David Summit in 2000.

In 2006, Dahlan was elected to the Palestinian Legislative Council in the Palestinian legislative election as a representative for Khan Yunis in Gaza.

Dahlan took an increasingly tough stance against Hamas, calling their 2006 election victory a disaster and threatening to “haunt them from now till the end of their term.” 

On December 14, 2006, gunmen attempted to assassinate Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh, and Hamas accused Dahlan of orchestrating the attack.

On January 7, 2007, Dahlan held the biggest-ever rally of Fatah supporters in the Gaza Strip, where he denounced Hamas as “a bunch of murderers and thieves.”

In response Hamas accused Dahlan of bringing Palestinians to the brink of civil war.

In March 2007, despite objections from Hamas, Dahlan was appointed by Mahmoud Abbas to lead the newly re-established Palestinian National Security Council, overseeing all security forces in the Palestinian territories.

In April 2008, Vanity Fair revealed that, after the 2006 elections, Dahlan had been central in a U.S. plot to remove the democratically elected Hamas-led government from power.

According to the report, America provided money and arms to Dahlan, trained his men, and ordered him to carry out a military coup against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. However, the elected Hamas government forestalled the move and carried out their armed countercoup in a bloody civil war against the Fatah-PLO Palestinian Authority in Gaza which they have controlled ever since.

In 2007, after resigning from his post as national security adviser, the Bush Administration exerted heavy pressure on Abbas to appoint Dahlan as his deputy.

In June 2011, Mahmoud Abbas, who saw Dahlan as a serious political rival, expelled him from the Fatah party based on claims that he had murdered Arafat. Dahlan moved to the United Arab Emirates, where he made his fortune.

It is reported that Dahlan played a crucial role in crafting the Israel-UAE peace agreement.

All this points to Mohammad Dahlan being the perfect candidate to be the Senior Executive to head the new Gaza Abraham Accords project and potentially the head of a future Gaza government.

A successful new Gaza can be an example to Palestinians living under their failed Ramallah leadership.

In that future, Gazans can and will decide on their own whether they want to remain independent, or join a confederation with either the PA, Israel, or both.

A three-state solution is a far better vision than a half century two-state failure.

A new Gaza heralds a new Middle East.

Barry Shaw is the International Public Diplomacy Director at the Israel Institute for Strategic Studies.

I want to suggest a triple strategy to solving the hostage crisis, ending the war without further bloodshed, and a three-state solution for a better Middle East.

In the time remaining before Israeli ground troops enter Gaza in order to eradicate Hamas, and in order to avoid harm to the hostages and our soldiers, we need to apply some original thinking and come up with a plan that can solve three problems, and I have that triple solution.

I have a strategy to solve the hostage crisis, ending the war in Gaza without bloodshed, and giving Gaza a better future without Hamas, Islamic Jihad, or even the corrupt, incompetent, and unpopular, Mahmoud Abbas.

The answer to all these dilemmas in one word – Qatar.

Qatar is the wealthy Arab country in which the leaders of Hamas luxuriate and supervise Hamas actions in Gaza.

Qatar is a rich Arab country that has a well-deserved bad reputation as being the generator of radical Islam.

Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the spiritual leader of violent jihad and Palestinian terrorism died in September 2022 in Doha.

Qatar is the Islamic state that has pumped billions of dollars into Gaza to aid the people.

Israel has a sort of relationship with Qatar over Gaza.   When Israel complained that Qatar money was being seized by Hamas and not going to Gazans, Qatar changed the rules and supervised the next distribution of money directly to the people.

The US rents military facilities in Qatar and the United States allows Qatar to sponsor US campuses where they spawn anti-American, anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian indoctrination in American universities.  But my theory is that Qatar could be the solution to the Hamas problem in Gaza.

Qatar hosted a summit between Iran and Hamas. This after the Iranian Foreign Minister had a summit in Beirut with Hezbollah. Ominous signs.

With Hamas increasingly on the backfoot and Gaza in ruin, it would greatly benefit Qatar to moderate its tarnished reputation by transitioning into a more pragmatic peace partner if it really cares for the people of Gaza and Hamas.

Qatar is already negotiating with Hamas for the release of the hostages, coordinating with the United States, but Israel does not trust a situation in which the American and non-Israel hostages will be released leaving the Israeli men, women, and children to their fate.

My solution to the crisis is unconventional but practical.

My plan would result in the Hamas terrorists being allowed to leave Gaza alive by relocating them to Qatar, subject to them first releasing all the hostages.

There is one additional condition. Every known member of Palestinian Islamic Jihad is also forced to leave Gaza. No residue of Islamic terror must remain in Gaza.

Their release would be supervised by the United Nations, Qatar, Egypt, and the United States.

This would achieve the primary aim aims of Israel’s operation in Gaza. Cleansing Gaza of every Hamas member and affiliate PIJ.

Instead of killing them, they get deported to Qatar, and Gaza is sanitized of the evil of murderous radical Islam making it the fulcrum of a new normalization agreement with Saudi Arabia playing a major role.

The additional condition would be that any Hamas member that leaves Qatar would be subject to immediate arrest and put on trial on terrorism and war crime charges, preferably in the International Criminal Court in the Hague.

The political vacuum of a destroyed Gaza would be the opportunity to rethink and rebuild Gaza into the paradise that Israel once expected it to be when Israel once invested there.

A new Gaza can become the new Arab Cote D’Azur on the Mediterranean as imagined by the Israelis who began to build and develop that paradise in Gaza.

They imagined Gaza to become an agricultural and tourism paradise for Arab-Israeli cooperation.

Then they were evicted for the cause of peace. That peace became the nightmare of Hamas.

This must never happen again.

A Gaza, without the curse of Palestinian hatred and terrorism, opens up the opportunity of doing away with the failed two-state non solution that has caused a fifty-year trail of distrust, conflict, and death to too many Israelis.

Gaza opens the opportunity of doing away with this two-state failure, replacing it with a new three-state solution.

Israel has no desire to rule over Gaza.

The planners should be Israel’s wealthy Arab partners of the Abraham Accords, joined by Saudi Arabia and the United States as the initial investors in a new peaceful resort country of Gaza.

Israel can add its technological genius to this new future peace solution.

The new Gaza must not be handed over to the Palestinian Authority and its current corrupt leadership, a leadership that squandered the fortune thrown at them by myopic governments and organizations yet did little to improve the lot of their people. Sixty years later their people still live in refugee camps or poverty. Where did all that money go?

If these people govern the lives of Gazans and instill in them the ongoing resentment against Jews and Israel a brighter positive future will dissolved into the old resentful radicalism.

Gaza cannot be allowed to become a territory built on a hatred of Jews and a dangerous and lethal fantasy of a Palestine from the River to the Sea.

This is not acceptable by Israel. Giving peace a chance cannot, must not, be put on the shoulders of those who failed us in the past.

My plan for a better future in Gaza has to be supervised by a man that would be accepted by all the leading partners including Israel. At this time the Palestinian Authority is not, must not be, one of those leading partners.

That man is Mohammad Dahlan.

Dahlan received a BA in Business Administration from the Islamic University of Gaza.

A young Dahlan was arrested eleven times by Israel for his involvement as the Gaza leader of the Fatah youth movement.

After the signing of the Oslo Accords, Dahlan was made head of the Preventive Security Forces in Gaza. He built up a force of 20,000 men and became one of the most powerful Palestinian leaders, dealing regularly with the CIA and Israeli intelligence officials.

Dahlan angered Arafat in November 2001 by expressing dissatisfaction over his lack of a coherent policy.  He was criticized by human rights groups for his methods during crackdowns on Islamic militants.

Divorcing himself from the anti-Israel terrorism of Arafat, he attempted to gather support for an electoral challenge to Arafat, but stopped out of loyalty to Palestinians after the Bush administration demanded a change in PA leadership in July of the same year.

Before his resignation from the PA in June 2002, Dahlan was a frequent member on negotiating teams for security issues including at the Camp David Summit in 2000.

In 2006, Dahlan was elected to the Palestinian Legislative Council in the Palestinian legislative election as a representative for Khan Yunis in Gaza.

Dahlan took an increasingly tough stance against Hamas, calling their 2006 election victory a disaster and threatening to “haunt them from now till the end of their term.”

On December 14, 2006, gunmen attempted to assassinate Palestinian Hamas Prime Minister, Ismail Haniyeh and Hamas accused Dahlan of orchestrating the attack.

On January 7, 2007, Dahlan held the biggest-ever rally of Fatah supporters in the Gaza Strip, where he denounced Hamas as “a bunch of murderers and thieves.”

In response Hamas labeled Dahlan a “putschist” and accused him of bringing Palestinians to the brink of civil war.

In March 2007, despite objections from Hamas, Dahlan was appointed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to lead the newly re-established Palestinian National Security Council, overseeing all security forces in the Palestinian territories.

In the April 2008 edition of Vanity Fair, it was revealed that after the 2006 elections Dahlan had been central in a U.S. plot to remove the democratically elected Hamas-led government from power.

According to the report, America provided money and arms to Dahlan, trained his men, and ordered him to carry out a military coup against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. However, the elected Hamas government forestalled the move and carried out their armed countercoup in Gaza which they have controlled ever since.

In July 2007, Dahlan resigned from his post as national security adviser. Later that year, the Bush Administration exerted heavy pressure on Abbas to appoint Dahlan as his deputy.

In June 2011 Dahlan was expelled from Fatah because of repeated claims by Abbas that he had murdered Arafat. Dahlan moved to the United Arab Emirates, where he made his fortune.

It is reported that Dahlan played a crucial role in crafting the Israel-UAE peace agreement.

All this points to Mohammad Dahlan being the perfect candidate to be the Senior Executive to head the UAE, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Israel, United States, peace project anchored in reshaping Gaza, in their united image, of what a constructive peace will look like in the Middle East.

In the future, a peaceful and prosperous Gaza can decide on its own, whether it wants to remain independent, or join a confederation with either the PA, Israel, or both.

A three-state solution is a far better vision than a half century failed two-state non solution.

Barry Shaw,

International Public Diplomacy Director,

Israel Institute for Strategic Studies.

The post A new Gaza and a Three-State Solution – opinion appeared first on World Israel News.

The suggestion that the Palestinian Authority would return to Gaza has been met with fierce opposition from most of the senior ministers.

By Ariel Kahana, JNS

Israel has stepped up its preparations for “the day after” the toppling of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, despite officials’ view that there is still a way to go before that objective is achieved.

Two taskforces were established in the National Security Council and the Foreign Ministry to work separately to evaluate the pros and cons of various options for governance of the coastal enclave after the war. The underlying principle for all these alternatives is that Hamas will no longer control Gaza.

This increased activity on the diplomatic aspects of what would emerge in the aftermath of the fighting follows explicit statements by U.S. President Joe Biden and Arab leaders that they expect the establishment of a Palestinian state in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza after the war.

However, in Israel, there is still a desire to avoid dealing with the diplomatic component of the situation that would emerge after the war. A senior Israeli official said: “There is complete agreement in the War Cabinet and Security Cabinet regarding the political goal of the operation, which is the removal of Hamas.

“However, dealing in the post-war political framework may lead to internal disputes within Israel and with international actors, which could hinder the achievement of war objectives. Therefore, we seek to avoid confronting this combustible matter as much as possible. We need to handle this wisely.”

Nonetheless, there is an understanding that ignoring the political aspects of the post-war reality could have Israel face a fait accompli on various matters down the road. That is why the two task forces have started preparing.

In the frequent calls with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, U.S. President Joe Biden dedicated much of the conversation to the post-war political solutions. To make sure this remains at a low profile, the planning is conducted separately in each ministry, and for now, there is no interagency process.

Cabinet ministers have come up with various ideas, some of which are creative, regarding who will control Gaza after Hamas. One option is an international administration in various formats, another is a joint Egyptian-Israeli mechanism, and so on. One proposal was to have former Fatah strongman Mohammed Dahlan rule Gaza, but he has rebuffed that option in various media outlets.

The suggestion that the Palestinian Authority would return to Gaza has been met with fierce opposition from most of the senior ministers. However, it appears that this option has created some disagreement, as Ministers Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot do believe in strengthening the P.A. Nevertheless, at this stage, there is a consensus in the Cabinet on the need to maintain unity, so members have not been discussing concrete plans.

The senior Israeli official added that despite the increased focus on the political sphere and Monday’s rescue mission that freed Pvt. Ori Megidish, “the road ahead is still long.”

According to the official, “Perhaps we’ve covered about 10% of the distance required to achieve the goal of toppling Hamas. Patience, unity, and stamina are needed to reach our objectives.”

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Moscow’s reception of Abbas’s greatest foe, Mohammed Dahlan may point to the end of PA chief’s political career.

By Pinhas Inbari, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs via JNS.org

In a surprising development, Mohammed Dahlan, the leader of the Palestinian “Democratic Reform Movement,” met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow on Nov. 2, 2021. Dahlan, a former Fatah official who now resides in the United Arab Emirates, is a bitter foe of Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas; there are some in the P.A. who accuse Dahlan of facilitating the Abraham Accords.

In a statement released on the Dahlan website Fatah Voice, the meeting focused on building a Palestinian national partnership. Dahlan told the Russians, “We are ready for reconciliation, and we have no demands and no conditions that go beyond the wishes of all patriots … Fatah continues to say that it is the vanguard and the supposed leader, and this is true historically, but today it is a broken vanguard.”

Another report by Fatah Voice stated that the two delegations discussed the latest Palestinian developments and the possibilities of “inviting the International Quartet [the United Nations, the European Union, the United States and Russia] to reestablish its role and revive the peace process.”

The two sides, the report continued, stressed the importance of achieving Palestinian reconciliation and mobilizing Arab and regional support as an essential step in “advancing the negotiations under the auspices of the International Quartet to reach a just agreement that will grant the Palestinian people their hopes and aspirations for an independent state.”

Abbas and the Russians

This development should not be taken lightly, since a strong relationship with Russia is one of the cornerstones of Abbas’s policy.

Dr. Isabella Ginor and Gideon Remez, two researchers at the Truman Institute, even uncovered Soviet documents showing that when Abbas was in Damascus for a time [around 1983], he served as a “loyal, cooperative, and informative” Russian agent.

Today, one of the stumbling blocks to resume talks with Israel is Abbas’s steadfast denial of the United States’ leading role in the peace talks. Instead, he seeks to give the Quartet this role. As a result, Russia would have equal status to the United States, and the Quartet would convene an international conference with parties closer to Russia’s views than the United States.

In Abbas’s eyes, Dahlan is a red flag. He ousted him from Fatah, nearly arrested him in Ramallah [Dahlan fled for his life], accused him of corruption and asked Interpol to arrest him.

If Russia is moving toward Dahlan, a consensus must have emerged among world powers and leading Arab countries pointing to the end of Abbas’s political career. It may also indicate why Abbas, too, is now seeking Russia’s aid to reinvigorate the Quartet.

Pinhas Inbari is a veteran Arab affairs correspondent who formerly reported for Israel Radio and Al Hamishmar newspaper. He currently serves as an analyst for the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.

The post Is Russia about to finish off Mahmoud Abbas? – analysis appeared first on World Israel News.

Mohammed Dahlan called the vaccine shipment a “generous grant” from the UAE, which appeared to be aimed at embarrassing Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

By Associated Press

The United Arab Emirates is sending 20,000 doses of the Russian coronavirus vaccine to the Gaza Strip, a rival to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced Thursday, in a decision that could have repercussions for upcoming elections.

The announcement by Mohammed Dahlan came a day after Abbas’ government managed to deliver 2,000 vaccines to Gaza and appeared to be aimed in part at embarrassing the Palestinian president.

Dahlan called the shipment a “generous grant” from the UAE “at a sensitive time where the pandemic is targeting all our beloved.” An aide to Dahlan said the Sputnik V vaccines will be delivered to Gaza through Egypt on Sunday.

Dahlan, a former senior member of Abbas’ Fatah party, has lived in exile in Abu Dhabi since falling out with the Palestinian president in 2011. Dahlan was subsequently sentenced in absentia to three years in prison over alleged embezzlement.

May’s parliamentary elections are to pit Fatah against Gaza’s ruling Hamas terror group. Abbas has blocked Dahlan from running in the election, which would be the first Palestinian vote in 15 years. But Dahlan’s allies, running as a Fatah splinter group called the Democratic Reform Bloc, are planning on contesting the race and could emerge as kingmakers.

Dahlan was once a bitter foe of Hamas when he served as the Palestinian security chief in Gaza. But after the terror group seized control of Gaza in a bloody 2007 coup and forced him to flee the territory, the sides later found common ground in their animosity toward Abbas.

Hamas has allowed Dahlan’s supporters to run humanitarian and relief projects in Gaza, which has spiraled into poverty as rival terror groups in the coastal enclave waste precious resources targeting Israeli civilians with rocket strikes and cross-border attack tunnels, in addition to blowing millions of dollars on salaries for terrorists who commit violent crimes.

The expected delivery of vaccines could further boost Dahlan’s standing in the territory as Abbas continues to struggle to procure vaccines for his people.

Gaza’s Health Ministry has reported more than 53,000 cases and at least 538 deaths since the start of the pandemic, and authorities have been reluctant to impose widespread lockdowns because the territory is already mired in poverty due to Hamas’ policies and gross mismanagement of resources.

With Emirati money, Dahlan’s group has delivered tons of medical aid, including an oxygen generator, to support Gaza’s weak health care system dealing with COVID-19 patients.

The post Abbas rival woos Gazans with corona vaccines appeared first on World Israel News.

Palestinian security personnel borrowed a page from Israeli plainclothes security forces as depicted in the hit Netflix series Fauda.

The post WATCH: Palestinian plainclothes security forces arrest Arab journalist on Israeli territory appeared first on World Israel News.

Palestinian officials accuse Mohammed Dahlan of funding opposition to Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.

By World Israel News Staff

A Palestinian Authority official says deposed Palestinian strongman Mohammed Dahlan is funding opposition to Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, the Jerusalem Post reported Monday.

A Fatah activist told Post reporter Khaled Abu Toameh that over the past few weeks Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces loyal to Abbas arrested several Palestinian activists suspected of having contacts with Dahlan, the former head of Palestinian security in Gaza who fled to the United Arab Emirates after the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah accused him of murdering Yasser Arafat in 2011.

Palestinian sources this week accused Dahlan of providing funding for dozens of disgruntled Fatah members as part of his effort to undermine Abbas.

“The money coming from the UAE is being used to purchase weapons,” the sources told Abu Toameh. “Dahlan wants to replace Abbas and that’s why he’s recruiting many Fatah activists.”

“Dahlan has become very active, especially after the signing of the peace agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates,” a Palestinian official added.

In October clashes broke out in Ramallah and several other locations after Palestinian police broke up a rally in support of Dahlan and arrested several of his followers.

Over the weekend Palestinian police arrested Hani Salloum, a Fatah activist suspected of supporting Dahlan, who was also arrested five years ago for the crime of naming his newborn son after Dahlan.

Last week, a lawyer representing 165 Palestinian Authority employees asked the European Union to help resolve a pay dispute after Abbas reportedly cut their salaries because they are Dahlan supporters.

While in the UAE, Dahlan became close to Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Zayed. When the UAE normalized relations with Israel in September, Dahlan was one of those condemned by the PA for having had a hand behind the scenes in making the deal that they called a “stab in the back” of their cause.

Despite the concern from the PA, a Palestinian public opinion poll published two weeks ago showed that at best Dahlan has the support of only 10% of Palestinians if elections were held now to replace Abbas.

On Monday, the Al Kofiya Arabic television channel reportedly owned by Dahlan will broadcast the first part of a documentary series claiming that Abbas waged a “dirty war” to “liquidate Dahlan,” accusing unnamed Palestinian officials of letting Gaza fall to the Hamas terror group in a bloody 2007 military coup in order to get rid of him.

The post PA says loyalists of deposed Fatah strongman undermining Abbas appeared first on World Israel News.

Palestinian Authority employees who support Abbas rival Mohammed Dahlan say the EU shouldn’t help the PA when it isn’t obeying its own laws.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

A lawyer representing 165 employees of the Palestinian Authority (PA) has asked the EU to resolve a pay dispute within the entity after PA President Mahmoud Abbas cut salaries to those supporting a rival, Mohammed Dahlan.

The employees want the EU to step in and pressure Abbas to resume the paychecks. If he doesn’t, the employees threaten to ask the EU to cut all financial aid to the PA, the Jerusalem Post reported on Wednesday.

The threat, which Post reporter and Arab affairs expert Khaled Abu Toameh called “unprecedented,” was made through a letter that attorney Sevag Torossian sent Monday to the head of the EU Police and Rule of Law Mission for the Palestinian Territory (EUPOL COPPS), whose purpose is to help the PA form a proper policing and criminal justice system.

Torossian wrote that he has been “mandated to refer and submit the issue of the employees to all European and international institutions empowered to stop the financial aid to the Palestinian authorities if the issue is not solved by the end of the year.”

He charged that the PA is violating judgements handed down by its own High Court of Justice by withholding his clients’ pay for political reasons.

The issue “could be interpreted as the failure of the European assistance process to Palestinian authorities,” he wrote. “European financial aid to the Palestinian Authority to build a ‘state of law’ could be called into question.”

Dahlan was the leader of the PA in the Gaza Strip before Hamas violently took power there in 2007. With a strong power base, he was seen as a potent rival to President Mahmoud Abbas, and nine years ago Abbas expelled him from the Fatah movement on claims that he had helped murder PLO founder Yasser Arafat in 2004.

He fled to the United Arab Emirates, where he became close to Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Zayed. When the UAE normalized relations with Israel in September, Dahlan was one of those condemned by the PA for having had a hand behind the scenes in making the deal.

In 2017 and again in 2019, the PA asked Interpol to issue an arrest warrant for Dahlan on corruption charges, saying that his net worth of over $100 million was siphoned off its government. The international police body declined, saying that the basis of the charge was political in nature. Most recently, in August, Ankara asked Interpol to arrest Dahlan for running a spy network in Turkey and for allegedly being involved in a failed coup attempt there in 2016.

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