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Palestinian Securitization vs Liberation with Alaa Tartir
79 Plays3 years ago
Alaa Tartir joins host Yara Hawari to discuss the internationally-funded Palestinian security forces. Together, they assess the forces' authoritarian role in sustaining Israel's settler-colonial project and criminalizing Palestinian resistance, shedding light on the recent killing of critic and activist Nizar Banat.
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Transcript
Professionalization and Authoritarian Trends in Security Forces
00:00:00
Speaker
The final outcome after all these millions of dollars and euros spent on establishing that security forces resulted in what I call professionalization of authoritarianism, where security forces became more professional but in repressing and in following authoritarian trends. And this is what the international community did and still doing harm.
Focus on Palestinian Rights and Global Voices
00:00:31
Speaker
This is Rethinking Palestine, a podcast from Ashabaka, the Palestinian Policy Network, a virtual think tank that aims to foster public debate on Palestinian human rights and self-determination. We draw upon the vast knowledge and experience of the Palestinian people, whether in Palestine or in exile, to put forward strong and diverse Palestinian policy voices. In this podcast, we will be bringing these voices to you so that you can listen to Palestinians sharing their analysis wherever you are in the world.
Nazar Banat's Death and Public Outrage
00:01:05
Speaker
At the end of June 2021, activist and outspoken critic of the Palestinian Authority, Nazar Banat, was arrested and beaten to death by the Palestinian Authority security services. Many are dubbing this as a political assassination, and since then, Palestinians across the West Bank and beyond have hit the streets in protest. They are demanding justice for Nazar and his family, but the chants have also escalated into a larger call for the fall of the regime
00:01:34
Speaker
and for the end of PA President Mahmoud Abbas. The protests in the West Bank, particularly in Ramallah, have been met with extreme violence and repression at the hands of the security forces, including the use of tear gas, stun grenades, beatings and arrests. There has also been an increase in gendered violence and the targeting of female protesters and activists.
00:01:56
Speaker
Even though this is an escalation, none of this is particularly new.
Rights Abuses and Violence Escalation
00:02:01
Speaker
Rather, it follows a pattern of systematic abuse and violations of rights at the hands of the Palestinian security forces. To discuss all of this and more, I am joined once again by Dr. Alat Tartir, Program and Policy Advisor for Shabaka, Researcher and Academic Coordinator at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, and a Global Fellow at the Peace Research Institute, Oslo. Alat, thank you so much for joining us.
00:02:26
Speaker
Thank you so much for hosting me again. So Elat, perhaps we can begin with an explanation of the Palestinian Authority security forces and how they are a key pillar of the regime.
Role of PA Security Forces in Oslo Accords
00:02:37
Speaker
I think it's important when we talk about the Palestinian Authority security forces to think about the bigger picture, which is the Oslo Accords framework. Because these security forces are also the key pillars of that Oslo Accords framework, and that is important to keep in mind. The Palestinian Authority
00:02:57
Speaker
It's part of that picture but the security forces that being created with the also occurred were created in the first place to secure and to sustain that framework and this is largely why we see the security forces becoming even stronger and the also occurred is still dominant.
Evolution of Security Forces
00:03:16
Speaker
And a main element that they are doing that through is the security coordination and the security collaboration, which is one of the defining features of the Oslo Accords. So when we're talking about Palestinian Authority security forces, it's really important to keep in mind the original function of the security forces that relates to the Oslo Accords framework.
00:03:37
Speaker
But when we look more at the evolution of the security forces of the Palestinian Authority, we can talk about three different phases that goes from the first phase under Arafat time with the foundation of the Palestinian Authority, the second phase in the aftermath of the second Intifada, and the third phase that was accompanied with the state building project of the Palestinian Authority from 2007 until today.
00:04:05
Speaker
And this categorization mattered. And they mattered because they were largely based on issues that happened, on developments that took place. And it was not part of the original plan, if we may say so. So they were led by shifting donors' priorities, by different donors' conditionalities, by Israeli pressure, by regional changes, and by intra-Palestinian political dynamics. And it's important to keep in mind that
00:04:33
Speaker
these actors all shaped the Palestinian Authority security forces and the security establishment that we have in place today.
State Building vs National Liberation
00:04:41
Speaker
So if we look at the first phase when the Palestinian Authority security forces were established under Yasser Arafat, then we're talking about a clash that happened between two approaches, one of state building and one of national liberation. And that confused the identity of these security forces.
00:05:00
Speaker
Are they there to continue the liberation and revolution, or are they there to build these state-like institutions of security forces and security establishment? So that confusion and identity affected their work.
00:05:15
Speaker
At that time, the Palestinian Authority and the donor community and the leadership of the PA didn't care about the quality of the security establishment that they are building. They cared more about the quantity and how they are instrumentalizing that security establishment in order to gain hearts and minds to adopt the Oslo Accords framework. So to give you an example, it was supposed to be the case that around 9,000
00:05:43
Speaker
security personnel will be part of this Oslo Accords in its initial year and largely to be police forces. Five years after, around year 99, we had close to 50,000 security personnel.
00:05:59
Speaker
And that figure tells a lot about the quality of the security establishment that we have at the
International Influence on Security Forces
00:06:06
Speaker
time. Moving forward in the aftermath of the second Intifada and the involvement of the security forces, lots of infrastructure of the Palestinian security forces were destroyed by the Israeli occupying forces. And this was like the new project for the international community to rebuild these security forces.
00:06:26
Speaker
And that was the main entry point where we're witnessing the consequences of that process. So that process was featured by a new project for the international community, new funding going to the security establishment to build it, especially because at that time,
00:06:43
Speaker
There were many security gaps that they were filled by other non-state actors, if you want, or non-security forces, actors, and the international community was not happy, neither Israel. And this is when they started the process of reforming the Palestinian security forces through establishing European security and police missions and American military missions in order to supervise and dictate the reform process of the Palestinian Authority.
00:07:10
Speaker
And that was the
Security Sector Reform and International Aid
00:07:11
Speaker
second phase. And the third phase that we're witnessing from 2007 until the present day is related to the process of the state building, where the state building project of the PA became mainly about security sector reform and how to create a strong security establishment that is able to sustain the Palestinian Authority and the Oslo framework and the two-state solution.
00:07:34
Speaker
And this is where the final outcome after all these millions of dollars and euros spent on establishing that security forces resulted in what I call professionalization of authoritarianism where security forces became more professional but in
00:07:51
Speaker
repressing and in following authoritarian trends. And this is what the international community did and still doing harm. To end this with and to give you like a more tangible example about the magnitude of the security establishment that we're talking about, we're talking about nearly 83,000 security personnel and individuals working in the security and governance domain.
00:08:14
Speaker
divided between 65,000 security personnel who receive salaries from the Palestinian Authority and around 18,000 receiving salaries from Hamas in the de facto government in Gaza. These are big figures when we put them even in global context. If we want to translate it, what does it mean? It means that almost every 50 Palestinians have one security personnel, which is one of the highest figures in the world.
Impact of International Aid on Security Forces
00:08:42
Speaker
Their security is not there. This security sector receives around 30% of international aid, receives around 44% of all civil servants working there, and receives around $1 billion of Palestinian Authority budget. All these figures tell us that the security forces and the security establishment is so solid and part of the Palestinian Authority, and it's the key pillar of its regime.
00:09:11
Speaker
Thank you for that, Alla. You talked about how much the Palestine Authority security sector has grown exponentially, really, over the years. The fact that the security forces get more funding than the health, education, and agricultural sectors combined is quite mind-blowing, especially in the context of unoccupied people who face systematic health insecurities, who face unemployment, and dwindling agricultural production.
00:09:40
Speaker
You've explained a little bit about this extreme securitization, but perhaps you can delve a bit deeper into this mentality.
00:09:49
Speaker
What is important to acknowledge and to keep in mind that the security establishment received lots of aid over the years because it was the defining feature of the state building project of the Palestinian Authority. If we want to make it simple, but yet accurate in terms of reflecting realities on the ground, the Palestinian Authority State Building Project is pretty much equal to a large security sector reform process.
00:10:16
Speaker
And this is why we saw and why we're still seeing lots of aid internationally going to that security establishment, because that is what is a state like for international community. It is about the ability of the security establishment of the PA to govern and to rule over Palestinians, including with an iron fist.
00:10:38
Speaker
And that is really why we see all this international investment, if you want, in that security paradigm, because the most important element for them is to secure stability. And stability means having a strong
00:10:53
Speaker
security force, that does not mean that it's providing security for the Palestinian people, but that is irrelevant according to their calculations and priorities. What is important is to keep stability and to keep security to Israel and sustaining its occupation. And that's why the lots of money from the BA budget and from donor money are targeting and going to the security sector forum.
00:11:19
Speaker
And what is really important to keep in mind as well is the overall context in this case, because we're talking about absence of any culture of accountability or institutions that provide checks and balances, and the donors are aware of all of that. And there is absence of any kind of solid structures that sustain an inclusive, transparent, democratic political system.
Accountability and Authoritarianism
00:11:43
Speaker
And therefore, the Palestinian Authority security establishment was given this opportunity as well by the international community to run the efforts of the Palestinian life with an iron fist. And that's what made it really even stronger, especially that if we think about the status of emergency that's been declared almost since 2000.
00:12:03
Speaker
So all of these actors, plus the absence of the Palestinian Legislative Council since 2007, make it very clear that the evolution and the reform of the Palestinian security sector that was sponsored by the international community is happening within a highly securitized space that nourishes authoritarianism.
00:12:26
Speaker
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Activist Calls for Defunding Security Forces
00:12:41
Speaker
Now, Alla, all of this can't exist without international funding, and you've talked about that, that the PA's security forces are funded by international donors, namely the US, the EU, the UK and Canada. And this is something that activists and human rights workers have been keen to point out, and it's actually led to calls
00:13:02
Speaker
to defund the PA security forces. Can you explain what exactly it is that is funded and how likely is it that in the face of massive and systematic violations this funding would be cut?
00:13:15
Speaker
This is a very important question, especially in light of the assassination of Nizar Banat, because there was lots of pressure on the international community, particularly the EU, in relation to the sponsorship of Palestinian security forces. And the response was like, no, we're not doing that. We're not sponsoring these authoritarian structures and techniques. But that's a very clear lie. That's a very clear hypocrisy.
00:13:42
Speaker
because we're talking here about a long process. And I think donor community need to stop and take a moment to reflect and think about all the harm that they have caused over the past years, especially over the past 15 years. And in particular, since the roadmap was created, because the harm that the international community caused over the years is very clear, is very evident from
00:14:09
Speaker
They won in the aftermath of the second intrapata where the international community sponsored the rebuilding of all the security compounds, all the police stations, all the prisons. So they invested in building the infrastructure, the physical infrastructure for the Palestinian security forces. And that was the first thing they wanted. Then they invested in building the equipment and the equipment, stock of equipment and clothes and weapons and
00:14:36
Speaker
cars and vehicles and all these tools that they can use, all these equipments for the security forces. And later on, they invested in all the training and all the capacity building programs by bringing security experts or sending these groups to different places to get professional education. All of that happened mainly through the work of the U.S. security mission and the EU one.
00:15:02
Speaker
And they invested millions and billions of dollars in doing that. And yes, of course, during the time of crisis, you see more of that investment. So if we think about if this trend will end soon or not, it really depends on if we have a different Palestinian political will. Because from the international community point of view, this status quo is very convenient.
00:15:28
Speaker
And it's very good to keep because it is ensuring stability to the large extent. And they have zero incentive to change these dynamics of sponsoring these security forces. They are the guarantors for this element of stability. And only if the Palestinian leadership, obviously the existing Palestinian
Sophisticated Repression Tactics
00:15:46
Speaker
leadership, is not interested in this.
00:15:48
Speaker
But any future Palestinian leadership needs to redefine that process and have the different political will that is able to force the international community to put the funds in sectors that matter to the Palestinian people most and not to sectors that violate their security and protect the security of the occupied.
00:16:11
Speaker
That is very sombering analysis, Hala, but I don't think it should dissuade activists and analysts and others from making that demand to defund the PA or the PA security forces. I think that that remains a vital policy ask. I want to turn a little to the tactics of the PA security forces apart from
00:16:34
Speaker
the obvious, the so-called crowd control weapons, which are more often than not manufactured in Israel. But there are also tactics that are less well known, like the use of security forces and civilian clothing, the use of fatah loyalist thugs, also known in Arabic as the Shabihah, to do the dirty work really, to do beatings, to carry out very gender tactics aimed at women. Could you tell us a little bit more about this?
00:17:00
Speaker
Yes, the techniques that the Palestinian security forces uses, as you said, they vary according to the time and depending on the severity of the crisis that they are facing. But what is important to keep in mind is that
00:17:16
Speaker
Policing is indeed the key element on all of that and policing or controlling with an iron fist is the most defining feature, whatever it takes. So they use different kinds of security forces in uniforms, but importantly not in uniforms.
00:17:33
Speaker
And that is also not something that is happening today. This happened years ago when the Palestinian Authority was established. Just a quick reminder when the Palestinian Authority was established, Edward Said at the time mentioned that Arafat has established several security forces, five of which were intelligence services tasked with spying on each other.
00:17:54
Speaker
That is relevant to the realities of today. The mushrooming of all these security forces meant that the activists protesting in the grounds don't know who's controlling them, who's attacking them. And that is not happening by incident. That is by design. That is by structure. And this is what authoritarian regimes are good at.
00:18:13
Speaker
to confuse the protesters by who's attacking them by whom. And we need to keep very clear fact in our mind is that the security establishment of the Palestinian Authority is also one of the further establishments and vice versa. So these actors or the security personnel are also factional. They are led by the factional politics that they can easily be instrumentalized
00:18:37
Speaker
And these techniques that are used in the streets are the visible ones, the repressing the protesters, the violence, the excessive use of violence are the ones that we see. They are the visible ones that can be documented in the media and all of that, and they can be exposed. But what is also
00:18:56
Speaker
More dangerous, maybe, arguably, are the invisible ones, the techniques, the tactics that are used mainly in the PA prisons that we don't see on cameras, that we don't see visible. There are, over the years, there are rather scary accounts of all these torturing techniques that the Palestinian Authority Security Forces used against Palestinian protesters and Palestinian critics of the Palestinian Authority.
00:19:22
Speaker
Many of these techniques are very similar to the ones that Israel used in the Israeli jails.
Torture and Inhumane Techniques
00:19:30
Speaker
And they are kind of a replica, but it comes even harder when it is practiced by Palestinian national security forces.
00:19:40
Speaker
And there are enough reports out there of human rights organizations, local and internationals from different researchers that documented all these techniques of torturing. And that is unacceptable. But in reality, unfortunately, it happened. But linking also your question about these techniques and the action of the Palestinian Authority with the with this iron fist of security establishment with what's happening now, it is obvious
00:20:09
Speaker
that the political and the security leadership of the Palestinian Authority will push back, will push back against any effort that aims to challenge or shake the fundamental pillars of the status quo. And this is exactly what is happening now, because that status quo, although it is damaging to the Palestinian people, and this is why they are revolting against it, but it is convenient and conducive to the Palestinian leadership and its security establishment.
00:20:39
Speaker
And they push back using these different techniques that you presented and we talked about. They are they push back by using excessive force and violence against civilians, peaceful protesters, and using all these strategies and techniques of repression that we see from across the world, including from our region. But also they can use or this pushback can be
00:21:04
Speaker
instrumentalize, if you want, of the ongoing protests and their uprising to become a political maneuvers with the ultimate objectives of going back to the negotiation table. These are the hints that we're seeing now where the security establishment clearly hinted to the political leadership of the PA. Let's try to maneuver, let's try to instrumentalize these uprisings into political
00:21:29
Speaker
maneuvers by going back to the negotiation table. That's really key to keep in mind, that these approaches have been used by the Palestinian Authority over decades by now. So they are not just the derivative of today's reality.
00:21:44
Speaker
built in. There are structural issues that they use that this empowered and failed the Palestinian people, but sustained and empowered the Palestinian Authority leadership and security establishment. And this is part of the gap that we obviously see. And with all of that, all of that happened under the supervision and the sponsorship of key international actors who were so instrumental in creating these necessary tools
00:22:13
Speaker
of strong repressive security establishment that is able to rule and the political paradigm that does not deviate from the holiness of the Oslo-Ackerts framework. And both tools are fundamental to the sustainability of the status quo and neither the PA nor security establishment are interested or willing on compromise on either.
00:22:35
Speaker
This is why we see all these tactics of repressive regimes being used and deployed in the streets of Palestine as of today. As you said, Allah, Palestinian and international human rights organizations have documented these
00:22:50
Speaker
techniques of oppression, including Al-Hak, Human Rights Watch, just to name a few, if people do want to read more about this. I think many who stand in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle are really unaware of this extra layer of oppression and
00:23:06
Speaker
are quite surprised by the situation unfolding on
Future of Security Forces and Political Leadership
00:23:10
Speaker
the ground. So I think this analysis is incredibly important. So I wanted to ask you a final question with what has been happening over the last few weeks. What do you think is the future of the Palestinian security forces?
00:23:24
Speaker
The future of the Palestinian security forces and the security establishment is very much linked with the future of the political leadership because both political leadership and security establishments are so synchronized at all levels. So whatever happens with the political leadership will definitely impact the security establishment.
00:23:46
Speaker
But my fear is that what we're seeing now in terms of repressive practices and paradigms on the protesters in the streets of Palestine, my fear is that what we're seeing now is a rehearsal of what will come. My fear is that the security establishment will fill any kind of gap that will be created sooner or later because they are the most dominant, the most powerful establishment as of now.
00:24:16
Speaker
And that is problematic, dangerous, and will take the struggle for rights many steps back, because now we would have security establishment filling these gaps. And the rehearsal that we're seeing now on the ground is really not voting well for what is coming.
00:24:35
Speaker
later on. So this is what is really important to keep in mind. If we want to change the structures of security establishments, then we need to have a different security paradigm, different what we call the Aku, the Amiya.
Redefining Security Roles
00:24:51
Speaker
And that is coming, requires a different kind of leadership.
00:24:55
Speaker
the reconfiguration of the Palestinian Authority duties will be reflected on the security establishment. And that needs to be part of a larger conversation, national dialogue that we will have to situate what is the role of the security establishment of the PA as of now and in the future in the political structure, but also in the future options that the Palestinians will
00:25:19
Speaker
So, a new leadership will be tasked to redefine the role of these security establishments and to minimize the role of the international community that's been largely damaging when it came to Palestinian rights for security.
00:25:36
Speaker
So judging by what we're seeing now, the evidence on the ground is not giving us particularly good news about the role of security forces where we will witness some similar aspects to what we see in other oppressive regimes. But this is also the moment to join forces to challenge these depressive structures and institutions to expose them
00:26:00
Speaker
and to have the very short-term clear corrective operational measures in a way to reinvent this security paradigm of the Palestinian Authority as part of the project of reconfiguring the PA duties.
National Dialogue for Palestinian Future
00:26:16
Speaker
And that is a big task that is ahead of us. And the only way to engage with this is really to have a comprehensive
00:26:24
Speaker
national dialogue that we define and redefine the duties of the Palestinian Authority and where security establishment fit in this struggle for Palestinian guides. Ala, thank you so much for joining me on Rethinking Palestine and for that comprehensive and nuanced analysis as usual. Thank you very much, Yara.
00:26:52
Speaker
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