PA on brink as West Bank grip tightens

Marzoq Abu Naim says the PA does not give him the support which he needs

The Palestinian Authority is staring into the abyss as Israel tightens its grip on the West Bank — and villages like al-Mughayyir are feeling the heat. In this hilltop community north-east of Ramallah, Israeli settler violence is surging. Troops carry out regular incursions. Farmland has been seized. New settler outposts have sprung up.

Marzoq Abu Naim from the village council does not mince words. “This is annexation,” he says. “We can't reach our lands.”

Al-Mughayyir’s homes sit in an area where Israel controls security, but the Palestinian Authority (PA) is meant to provide basic services. Increasingly, it cannot.

“The Authority has no money!” Abu Naim says bluntly. The financial crisis exploded after the deadly 7 October Hamas-led attacks on Israel. Around 100,000 Palestinians lost permits to work in Israel.

At the same time, Israel is withholding tax transfers it collects for the PA amid a dispute over school textbooks and stipends paid to families of those jailed or killed by Israel, including attackers.

The PA says it is owed more than $4bn. It now pays most public sector workers — doctors, police, teachers — just 60% of their salaries.

Schools serving more than 600,000 children open only three days a week. Some shut entirely when settlers or soldiers are nearby.

“It’s truly hard,” says a mother-of-eight in al-Mughayyir. She says some children have reached fourth grade and still cannot read.

Driving out of the village, Israeli military gates block roads between Palestinian communities. Bulldozers widen routes linking settlements to Jerusalem.

Settlements, considered illegal under international law, are expanding at a record pace. Pressure on the PA is mounting fast.

The Authority was created more than 30 years ago after the Oslo Accords, with hopes it would become the government of a future Palestinian state. Talks collapsed over a decade ago.

Now critics say the PA has failed to halt Israeli expansion or deliver statehood. Corruption scandals, political stagnation and security coordination with Israel have eroded its popularity.

In Ramallah, the PA’s administrative capital, warnings of collapse are growing louder.

“It is a turning point in our lives,” says Sabri Saidam, a former PA minister. He says Palestinian statehood and even the PA’s existence are now “questionable.”

This month, Israel introduced new steps tightening control. A senior UN official warned of “gradual, de facto annexation.”

A new land registration process could allow Israel to claim large areas as state land. Enforcement of environmental and archaeological rules is expanding into areas under PA civil control.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has vowed “to kill” the idea of a Palestinian state. At a conference near Ramallah, he pledged to “officially and practically cancel the damn Oslo agreements” if he remains in government. He referred to Palestinians as “the enemy” and promised to promote their emigration.

More than 80 UN member states, along with the EU and Arab League, condemned the measures. The US reiterated opposition to West Bank annexation.

Professor Ghassan Khatib warns the world must act. “This should be a wake-up call,” he says, arguing new measures are aimed at killing the two-state solution.

The Gaza war has hastened the PA’s decline. It lost control of Gaza in 2007 after Hamas won elections and is now largely excluded from immediate post-war governance.

Israeli officials dismiss talk of collapse, calling the PA “corrupt and morally bankrupt.”

Back in al-Mughayyir, settlers have pushed Bedouin shepherds from nearby land. Soldiers patrol. Tear gas is fired.

A month ago, a 14-year-old Palestinian boy was shot dead here; the army says he threw a rock.

Locals warn unrest is rising. As the PA weakens, some fear Palestinians may turn to less moderate voices.

Key Takeaways

• The Palestinian Authority faces financial collapse as Israel withholds billions and settlements expand.

• Israeli ministers openly vow to dismantle the Oslo framework and block Palestinian statehood.

• Villages like al-Mughayyir sit on the frontline, with land seizures, school closures and rising unrest.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9wn8lw0kgjo