The PA’s Risky West Bank Crackdown

The Palestinian Authority (PA) on Thursday completed a week-long crackdown on a refugee camp in the West Bank. The crackdown at Balata – a camp near Nablus that has long been a hotbed of unrest  – included scores of arrests and culminated in an hours-long firefight in which three were wounded.

The raid has two motives. First, the PA has said the camp was home to several criminals and drug dealers, and the raid was necessary for ensuring its own safety and that of Nablus. The PA has a history of similar raids in major Palestinian towns: in October, it conducted a wave of arrests in Hebron in which one person was killed. Then, as now, the PA described the suspects as ‘bandits’ and ‘outlaws.’

The second explanation is that this move is political. Among the targets of the raid this week were houses belonging to Jamal Tirawi, a Fatah-affiliated member of the defunct Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) and former intelligence official. Tirawi is a cousin of Tawfiq Tirawi, a senior official within President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party who is rumored to have aligned with Abbas’s arch-rival: Mohammad Dahlan.

That a raid would be conducted in a camp inhabited by potential supporters of an Abbas rival would not be surprising. Abbas has a history of lashing out at any and all potential challengers. From arresting the heads of labor unions to firing the head of the PLC to preempting potential Hamas coups in the West Bank, this week’s raid may fit that pattern.

Abbas, however, must tread carefully. Palestinian public opinion towards the PA is antipathetic: between the arrests of bloggers and journalists and the quashing of protests, his government is already suspect in the eyes of many Palestinians. With Israel withholding tax revenues and the U.S. threatening to cut aid, the PA is feeling the squeeze on all sides. A major shootout in the largest refugee camp in the West Bank could further destabilize an already shaky Palestinian Authority.

Grant Rumley is a research analyst at Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Find him on Twitter: @Grant_Rumley