Mahmoud Al-Zahar to Al-Estiklal: The Palestinian Authority Was the First to Normalize With Israel

After a strict state of anger shown by the leadership of the Palestinian Authority headed by Mahmoud Abbas, against the UAE, Bahrain and Sudan normalization with the Israeli occupation, and describing what happened as “treason” and withdrawing its ambassadors as a protest measure, the authority returned its ambassadors to the countries again, announcing the return of security coordination with Israel.

The sudden steps of the Authority came after the announcement of the victory of the US Democratic Party candidate, Joe Biden, in the last presidential elections on November 3, 2020, against the current Republican President Donald Trump, which caused great harm to the Palestinian cause during the last four years.

It appears that the Palestinian Authority is relying heavily on Biden, which is why it presented initiatives of goodwill before his arrival at the White House.

Al-Estiklal interviewed a member of the political bureau of the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, Mahmoud Al-Zahar, to find out the reasons that had the Authority return its ambassadors to the UAE and Bahrain, and to return to security coordination with the Israeli occupation state.

Security Coordination

• How does Hamas see the return of the Authority to security coordination?

Dr. Al-Zahar: Security coordination is briefly defined as spying on the resistance for the benefit of the Israeli enemy, and returning to this espionage destroys anything related to the so-called joint national project, national unity, or anything else, because the resistance came as a result of the failure of the Authority project, which is the two-state solution and the recognition of “Israel.”

The resistance project expelled the occupation from Gaza, and security cooperation expanded settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, depriving people of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and by all standards it is a betrayal of the Palestinian cause, so how can we combine this with that?, How can we combine a call to fight the occupation with a call to cooperate with it to prevent war?

• Will the return of security coordination with the occupation increase the pressure and negative influence on the resistance fighters in the West Bank?

Dr. Al-Zahar: Security coordination certainly comes at the price of arrests of everyone who resists the Israeli occupation, and these arrests reach life imprisonment in prisons. Consequently, you are working against the people that you claim to represent.

Tactical Move

• In your opinion, what are the reasons that made the Authority back down and return to security coordination with Tel Aviv?

Dr. Al-Zahar: The call for national reconciliation and an end to the division by the leadership of the Authority was a tactical call only, and it was not based on convictions, when the security cooperation project with the Israeli occupation was stopped and came the threat to cut salaries, during the era of US President Donald Trump, the Authority threatened an alternative project, which is national unity to activate the so-called Palestinian resistance, they Authority will not and never have intended to participate in this project. The return of the Authority to its previous status was nothing more than a refrain to a tactical move and not convictions.

• Do the leadership of the Authority count on the administration of Joe Biden?

Dr. Al-Zahar: US President-elect Joe Biden and his group contacted the Authority to restore financial support to prevent the so-called annexation, of course there are signs from Biden’s Cabinet to the Authority, which will benefit from the return of the financial support program prior to Trump’s proposals.

In the sense that security cooperation with Israel has become an obligation on the Authority, for there would not be further formal annexation of the Palestinian lands, even if in reality the annexation continues in the occupied West Bank, and there are new settlements being built near important roads, meaning that all those parts that the roads have connected will become settlements that can be built directly on, and to which Palestinians are denied access.

• The Authority suddenly decided to return its ambassadors to the UAE and Bahrain. Do you think the Authority was subjected to pressure?

Dr. Al-Zahar: The Authority has only returned to who it really is. The Palestinian Authority was the first to normalize its relations with the Israeli occupation, and the UAE was the first in the Gulf states to normalize relations with the “Israel.”

Detainees in KSA

• Saudi Arabia and the UAE continue to arrest dozens of Palestinians, including Muhammad Al-Khudari, the representative of the Hamas movement in Riyadh. Are there any new mediations for their release?

Dr. Al-Zahar: There is nothing new in the file of Palestinian detainees in Saudi prisons, because there are no channels of communication with them, and the Gulf side does not have any international or human rights pressure to release them. There are more than 70 Palestinian detainees in Saudi Arabia, and there is no channel of communication. Therefore, if this does not come through international human rights institutions, this file will not be moved.

Fakhrizadeh

• How did Hamas follow up with the assassination of the Iranian nuclear scientist, Fakhrizadeh?

Dr. Al-Zahar: The assassination of the Iranian nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, is a crime against humanity, whether he is a nuclear scientist or a scientist in any field.

It is not your right as an enemy to target these people, because if you want to, you must know very well that there will be responses, but there is a clear and specific goal to make the region in which we live in, and which they call the Middle East falsely—when in fact it is part of the Islamic land—always backward militarily, security and politically in favor of the “Israel,” meaning weakening Israel’s enemy in the region by all means.

A nuclear scientist could develop a nuclear weapon one day, and the most damaged of that would be the Israeli side, and thus it is weakened through criminal operations.

Iran’s nuclear projects are not dependent on an individual, Iran is a great country and has its capabilities. The Islamic world in general represents a third of the world’s population, and it has human, material and geographical capabilities, its cultural heritage, and its beliefs that qualify it to be at the forefront of the world.