Our issue is not the financial situation of the authority, but rather where the authority is taking us!

The media and social media reported that the Palestinian Authority is studying the possibility of declaring bankruptcy. Although I could not track down the source of this news, which was denied by high-ranking Palestinian sources, I do not rule out that behind it are Israeli sources working within the framework of a systematic plan to morally assassinate the Authority and create a stereotype of it as helpless and unable to continue.

There is no doubt that there has been an intractable financial crisis for the Authority for several years as a result of Israel stealing the clearing funds that it collects on behalf of the Authority on Palestinian imports through Israeli ports, which it is supposed to transfer to the Authority on the one hand, and as a result of the decline in international financial support provided to the Authority, especially Arab support, as some countries stopped The Arab League has completely failed to fulfill its financial obligations to support the authority, in addition to rumors of financial mismanagement and the lack of a financial policy based on a non-negotiable scale of national priorities.

The situation when power was established and the situation today

In any case, it is strange that the financial situation of the Authority continues according to the current data and the continuation of the separation between the financial situation and the political situation, and between the conditions that prevailed at the time of the establishment of the Authority and what these conditions have become after three decades of the establishment of the Authority.

The Authority was established in 1995 as a transitional body whose term expires with the end of the final status negotiations and the end of the process of transferring West Bank areas from the temporary classification B and C to become most of the Authority's areas "A", with the exception of settlements and military sites.

In the atmosphere of astonishment that accompanied the start of the political process and the revival of hopes that the region is on the way to resolving the most complex regional and even international problems, and I mean the Palestinian cause, the international community, especially Europe, America and the Arab countries, took the initiative to provide financial, technical and logistical support to the Authority to enable it to build its institutions as a state on the road.

Despite the failure of the political process and the cessation of the transfer of land to the authority, the authority continued to practice its work as a rule and proved the correctness of the saying that "nothing is permanent more than the temporary."

Today, the picture of the existing reality on the ground differs from what it was when the Authority was established, as the intensive settlement activities left no place on the ground for the establishment of a Palestinian state, and the number of settlers and settlements has multiplied dozens of times, and the talk of establishing a Palestinian state alongside Israel on the armistice lines of 1949 has become the norm. On it in the name of the 1967 borders is impossible if this situation continues as it is.

Many believe that, in light of this fact, there is no longer any justification for the continued adherence to the survival of the Palestinian Authority, because its continued existence constitutes misleading to world public opinion, as it suggests to it that the Palestinian issue has been resolved and that what is left of it is more like a border dispute, and this is a common and natural matter in international relations. .

Those who hold this opinion believe that the authority’s powers have been eroded, and it is left with nothing but to bear the burdens of the daily life services of the population on behalf of the occupation, and that the material support provided to the authority from donor countries and the taxes that the authority collects from citizens constitute, in fact, material support for the occupation and bear burdens on his behalf. Therefore, it must announce its cessation of work and place these burdens on the occupation.

This point of view may seem logical at first sight, but we have to ask ourselves: What is the alternative to dissolving the PA?
An Israeli answer exists, and the plan to liquidate the Authority is put into actual implementation towards liquidating the Authority and uprooting the idea of ​​establishing a Palestinian state from its roots, as Netanyahu said a few days ago, continuing with the plan to build and expand settlements, and continuing to put pressure on the Palestinians to force them to leave. It can be said that everyone who calls for the dissolution of the PA without having an alternative plan that fulfills the aspirations and aspirations of the Palestinian people for liberation from the yoke of occupation is identifying with the Israeli plan and offering the service to facilitate its implementation, intentionally or unintentionally.

The crime of converting a national case into a financial one
At the same time, it is a crime against our people that its national cause, for which thousands of martyrs, wounded, and prisoners sacrificed itself, has turned into a material cause without a horizon and a political and militant action plan put into practice, and that the matter is limited to searching internally for a solution to the financial crisis, at the expense of our people, whether through By exhausting him with taxes and boasting about the high rate of internal collection, or neglecting his natural resources, which are his right and may not be shared with him by any other party.

As we discuss the humiliation and weakness of the organization and the authority, we must ask ourselves what we have contributed to achieving this.

The Liberation Organization was established as a national title for the Palestinian people, and the recognition of 138 countries in the world out of 193 member states of the United Nations, or about 71% of the international community, led to achieving international recognition of this national title, which constitutes recognition of the national national identity of the Palestinian people.

Despite this remarkable moral achievement of the Palestinian people, a process of marginalization of the organization and emptying it of its content has begun, and its status has reversed from being the umbrella under which the Palestinian Authority stands until the leadership of the authority becomes de facto the one that controls the organization. The fact that the Fatah movement dominates the authority and the organization together helped empty the organization and centralize all powers in the hands of one person, who is the head of the organization, who is at the same time the head of Fatah, the head of the PA, and the head of everything. Both the organization and the authority followed two parallel paths of weakening and emptying of content until they reached what the situation has become today.

Today we are at a historic crossroads, and we must decide in which direction to go. Either we will continue to cling to the authority that has become powerless, and we will cling to the ghost of the organization that we ourselves have weakened, dwarfed its role and turned it into a framework for occasions only, and we will continue to run after the mirage of a political solution and the alleged political horizon, and we will continue to provide free service to the occupation, whether on the security level or in terms of exempting it from His international duties are to bear the financial burdens required to achieve the well-being of the occupied people, or we confront the fierce attack by the occupation against our existence and our cause and adopt the slogan of rejecting the occupation in word and deed until it is defeated and recedes from our occupied land and we enjoy freedom, independence and sovereignty over our national soil.

We need a comprehensive national dialogue, from all platforms and away from security repression and silencing mouths, in order to open up to each other and reach a state of confidence that establishes unified national action, more like a single broad front that includes all the colors of our people's spectrum.