Israel Bars PA Minister Because 'West Bank' Implies Palestinian Authority
The New Arab reports Israel has barred Palestinian Authority Jerusalem Affairs Minister Ashraf al-Awar from entering the West Bank. This unilateral move, ostensibly for 'security reasons,' effectively bars a Palestinian official from a territory supposedly under his own authority. It's a neat trick: deny the very existence of Palestinian sovereignty by preventing its representatives from accessing
any part of a fragmented, besieged whole. This isn't a new tactic. The Netanyahu government has consistently hollowed out the PA's authority, from freezing tax revenues to expanding settlements that carve up any semblance of a contiguous Palestinian state. Remember when then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced 'disengagement' from Gaza in 2005? Many hailed it as a step towards peace. Instead, it
became a laboratory for control, allowing Israel to unilaterally manage borders, airspace, and the lives of 2 million people, while cementing its grip on the West Bank. Barring a minister is just another brick in the wall of this systematic dismantling, a reminder that the 'Palestinian Authority' exists only at Israel's pleasure, in territories Israel still claims. Perhaps the 'security threat'
was simply the inconvenient fact that a Palestinian minister planned to be present in 'Palestine.'