Is There Any Point in the Continued Existence of the Palestinian Authority?!

It is no longer a secret to say that the Palestinian Authority has become incapable and almost paralyzed in facing the accelerated Israeli measures against land, stone, and people throughout the occupied Palestinian territories:

A Trump Peace Council for the Gaza Strip without any official and effective presence of the Palestinian Authority after a continuous campaign of genocide that has lasted for more than two and a half years, attempts to impose control over the sector, divide it, displace its residents, and separate it from the West Bank; reports have emerged about a similar council that U.S. President Donald Trump intends to establish for the West Bank, which is witnessing a campaign of isolation for its cities and villages through yellow and orange iron gates and humiliating military checkpoints, annexing vast lands for settlement projects, expanding settlements, paving new roads, demolishing homes, or the armed settlers' attacks supported by political and security levels in the Zionist state, or through the economic siege imposed on the Authority, by holding back revenues, shortage of external resources, and accumulation of shekel currency in Palestinian banks, regulating the entry of basic materials like gas and fuel, and the inability to control markets and manage the rising prices that are burdensome for citizens, especially as we approach the blessed month of Ramadan, and the increasing unemployment among the Palestinian people, or targeting refugee camps and closing the UNRWA headquarters in Sheikh Jarrah and lowering the UN flag in favor of the flag of the occupying state, not to mention the suffering that residents of the West Bank endure at the crossings, especially the so-called Al-Karamah Crossing (King Hussein Bridge), and the list goes on.

As for Jerusalem, the core of the eternal conflict, that is a more dangerous tale, as it struggles alone in the face of accelerated Judaization that has affected all aspects of life, religious and Islamic and Christian holy places, educational and economic, raising taxes, and recently security campaigns reinforced by elements from the Israeli municipality, under the pretext of unlicensed construction in the areas of Hizma, Al-Eizariya, Qalandiya, and Kafr Akab, all aimed at finalizing the borders of the holy city and its settlement, by exhausting the citizen and pushing them toward voluntary emigration, thus 'clearing the Palestinian field for the Israelis' !!

Arbitrary occupation measures with multiple implications have put the Palestinian Authority in a real existential test, bringing to mind the definition of its function for which it was established, from a building block for the independent state to a mechanism for managing a multifaceted crisis, but it has so far shown an incapacity even to meet the basic needs of citizens, who are the biggest losers, caught between the jaws of arbitrary Israeli measures and the impotence of the Palestinian Authority.

This has raised several questions that surface, which may be legitimate. For example: Is there any point in what the Authority claims to be reform measures that the ordinary citizen has not yet felt any effects boosting their steadfastness? Is there any benefit from the recent appointments, especially in the diplomatic corps, which have not brought us any prospects for breaking the arbitrary Israeli measures? And perhaps some have begun to question: What is the point of the continued existence of the Palestinian Authority, which has become incapable of paying its employees' salaries and providing basic needs for its citizens?

The Palestinian leadership, as the guardian of this oppressed people, in a step meant to appease Arabs and non-Arabs, has taken moves - which it claims are reformative - such as initiating the reform of educational curricula, calling for local municipal elections and elections for the National Council before the end of this year, and forming a committee to rewrite the Palestinian constitution – regardless of the objections from some national forces regarding the conditions included in the presidential decree – that were not taken into account or dealt with, and other presidential decrees for specific appointments in the diplomatic corps that some view as out of place, and tailored to fit the neck bones, in any case, what is the point of such steps while the occupation pays no attention to them, and even its allies from non-Arabs and Arabs show more interest in the fading of the Palestinian Authority and keeping it only in name without any action on the ground, while the occupation proceeds with its measures of annexation and appropriation, to the point that voices from within the Israeli establishment openly call for the end of the Authority and the occupation of all Palestinian lands and the displacement of its inhabitants, while what the Prime Minister of the occupation government recently stated about his absolute rejection of any form of the Palestinian state makes it impossible to establish a geographically and demographically connected Palestinian entity on the ground.

So, is there really any point in the continued existence of the Palestinian Authority in its current chaotic state, or are there still cards that the Authority can play to assert its existence? Or has the Authority become a burden on the Palestinian people, especially after the dissolution of the Palestine Liberation Organization, as the legitimate and only representative of the Palestinian Arab people, has become its cage instead of being the opposite, which is the original case?

Undoubtedly, the Israeli measures, which receive both public and secret welcome from the allies of the Zionist state, both non-Arabs and Arabs, aim to liquidate the Palestinian cause and dry up its roots, which calls upon the Palestinian leadership - if it still sees itself as the guardian of this people and the trustee of its legitimate rights - to rise up and dust off its aspects and remove most of the current tools that have shown their inability to achieve legitimate rights, as they have not moved beyond statements of condemnation, denunciation, indignation, and even pleas, in an attempt to save themselves from the predicament into which they’ve drifted, and find a place for themselves at the international game table no matter the cost, and refocus on reviving the Palestine Liberation Organization and its national factions from their slumber, stop engaging in internal power struggles, and start - before heading towards any general elections, which, if conducted under the circumstances gripping the Palestinian cause, will be catastrophic for the Palestinian people - a comprehensive and responsible national dialogue, leading to a comprehensive national liberation reform program that aligns with the facts and circumstances of the current stage, and invest in international popular campaigns rejecting the measures and practices of the occupation and supporting Palestinian legitimate rights, as well as effectively investing in the recognition of Western countries of the Palestinian state, which would free the leadership from obligations imposed by agreements that the occupation had initiated circumventing and minimizing as it wishes, and otherwise, there is no reason for the continued existence of a Palestinian Authority without power, which the occupation and its allies use as a conduit to pass their schemes aimed at liquidating the Palestinian cause and eliminating the Palestinian presence in the land of the ancestors.