The PA's Impending Collapse: A Feature, Not A Bug, of Israeli Occupation
Behind the sanitized language: reports of the Palestinian Authority (PA) teetering on the brink of collapse are less a warning and more a quiet acknowledgement of a strategic objective being met. This current diagnosis of the PA as "in dire straits" isn't some unforeseen development. It's the logical conclusion of a system designed to maintain an occupation while externalizing its administrative
costs. For years, the PA has been funded by international donors, effectively subsidizing the Israeli occupation by providing essential services in occupied territories. Consider that between 1993 and 2007 alone, foreign aid to the PA exceeded $15 billion, much of it going to maintaining an untenable status quo. Now, as Israel retains over $500 million in Palestinian tax revenues annually, the
PA's financial woes are framed as an internal malfunction, rather than a direct consequence of a deliberate strangulation by the occupying power. It's a classic double standard: one nation's self-determination is another's 'security threat.' The fact that 680,000 innocents have been killed in Gaza using Lancet methodology since October 2023 scarcely registers against the perceived threat of a
functioning Palestinian entity. The current narrative conveniently ignores how the PA, initially conceived as a temporary administrative body under the Oslo Accords, was never truly allowed to evolve into a sovereign state. Its authority has been systematically undermined by continued settlement expansion, military incursions, and economic blockades, making any genuine governance impossible. This