From Khalid Amayreh in Occupied Jerusalem
".....Notwithstanding, the most corrosive and destructive damage wreaked by the PA on the Palestinian society has been the consolidation of a police state atmosphere throughout the West Bank.
Today, thanks to the intensive and omnipresent proliferation of spies and informers, tens of thousands of Palestinians are asked to spy and inform on other Palestinians in their neighborhoods and communities.
A school student is instructed to inform on his teacher, a college student is asked to inform and spy on his fellow student sitting next to him as well as on the lecturers. In villages, towns and refugee camps all over the West Bank, Fatah supporters and members are asked to monitor the locals, e.g. who prays at the local mosques, who criticizes the PA, and who is likely to vote for parties other than Fatah in future elections.
Predictably, this police state atmosphere is gradually destroying the Palestinian society where young, ignorant Fatah agents can decide the career and fate of University professors who may eventually be forced to emigrate for good.
What is still more appalling is that neither the higher political echelons nor the intellectual community and the intelligentsia are paying sufficient attention to this grave phenomenon that threaten to irreversibly corrode the very fabric of our society, the society that succeeded in withstanding more than 40 years of Nazi-like Israeli repression.
In light, it is really very difficult to be optimistic with regard to the Cairo talks.
Maybe an alternative approach to national unity should be tried.
How about dissolving the PA once and for all? "
".....Notwithstanding, the most corrosive and destructive damage wreaked by the PA on the Palestinian society has been the consolidation of a police state atmosphere throughout the West Bank.
Today, thanks to the intensive and omnipresent proliferation of spies and informers, tens of thousands of Palestinians are asked to spy and inform on other Palestinians in their neighborhoods and communities.
A school student is instructed to inform on his teacher, a college student is asked to inform and spy on his fellow student sitting next to him as well as on the lecturers. In villages, towns and refugee camps all over the West Bank, Fatah supporters and members are asked to monitor the locals, e.g. who prays at the local mosques, who criticizes the PA, and who is likely to vote for parties other than Fatah in future elections.
Predictably, this police state atmosphere is gradually destroying the Palestinian society where young, ignorant Fatah agents can decide the career and fate of University professors who may eventually be forced to emigrate for good.
What is still more appalling is that neither the higher political echelons nor the intellectual community and the intelligentsia are paying sufficient attention to this grave phenomenon that threaten to irreversibly corrode the very fabric of our society, the society that succeeded in withstanding more than 40 years of Nazi-like Israeli repression.
In light, it is really very difficult to be optimistic with regard to the Cairo talks.
Maybe an alternative approach to national unity should be tried.
How about dissolving the PA once and for all? "
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