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While Hamas horrifies the public worldwide with its atrocities, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas remains silent. A representative of the Palestinian Authority is now telling for the first time how she is experiencing the Middle East conflict.
Getting to the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank isn’t easy these days. The checkpoints outside Ramallah, where their headquarters are located, have been closed for days. So move to Jericho, the only gate to the outside world.
Before the checkpoint: a long traffic jam. It is unclear whether it is open or still closed. Recordings are prohibited. With the ID card from the Israeli government press office, you can get through in half an hour, then it’s only a few minutes’ drive to the administration building.
A delicate interview
Yusra Sueti, the governor of Jericho and a representative of the Palestinian Authority, agreed to an interview. Sueti expresses her dismay at the events of the past few days. “I don’t know if we’re at war now. We are all simply shocked by the events.” The governor of Jericho falters. She hasn’t been in office long: only since Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas fired and replaced almost all governors in the West Bank in August.
“The Palestinian Authority has been warning about something like this for a long time,” says Sueti. Only recently, at the UN General Assembly in New York, Abbas repeated this warning to the assembled global community.
Legend:
Yusra Sueti, the governor of Jericho, breaks the silence and tells how she experiences the Middle East conflict.
SRF
“The Europeans and Americans simply do not want to see how the Palestinians suffer under the Israeli occupation,” says the governor, referring to the expansion of settlements on Palestinian land and the violence of settlers against the civilian population. Then she points to her cell phone. Pictures of babies killed in Gaza. The West doesn’t want to see these images. In Jericho, almost everyone has relatives in Gaza. “We are not terrorists, we want to live in peace,” says the governor.
Then comes the question that she cannot or is not allowed to answer. And Hamas, are they the terrorists? An answer to this question would be political suicide for the governor, a member of the Palestinian Authority. Because: Hamas won the elections in 2006. Because it is seen as the party that stands up for the Palestinians.
However, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party remains in power in the West Bank. In the eyes of most Palestinians, this is seen as a puppet of Israel and corrupt. Many in the West Bank also publicly celebrated Hamas’ massacres of Israelis.
The fact that the Palestinian Authority does not distance itself clearly and clearly is incomprehensible to the Western world – especially since it finances it. The looming end of this funding on the one hand, the rise of admiration for Hamas on the other: this could mean the end of the Palestinian Authority.
And then what? “Even the Israelis don’t know that. “I don’t know if Netanyahu knows what he will do now or what will happen,” says Sueti.