Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a recent closed hearing of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Security Committee that Israel is preparing for the day after the 87-year-old Palestinian Authority Chairman Abu Mazen passes away and also spoke about the need to curb the Palestinian aspiration for a state of their own.
According to the report, Netanyahu said in the committee: "We are preparing for the day after Abu Mazen. We need the Palestinian Authority. We cannot allow it to collapse. We also do not want it to collapse. We are ready to help it financially. We have an interest in the Authority continuing to work." He added that "where it manages to operate, it does the work for us. And we have no interest in seeing its failure."
PM Netanyahu in a recent closed committee meeting: "We are preparing for the day after (Chairman) Abbas. We need the PA. We cannot allow it to collapse." When asked about the #Palestinian goal for an independent state: "We need to eliminate their aspirations for a state." pic.twitter.com/cWNj0FQmY3
— Israel National News - Arutz Sheva (@ArutzSheva_En) June 26, 2023
When asked by members of the Knesset regarding the Palestinian Authority’s ambitions for an independent state, Netanyahu said one sentence and even repeated it emphatically: "Their ambition for statehood must be suppressed."
The reports, come weeks after the Arab world reported on a deterioration in Abu Mazen’s health. Sources in the Palestinian movement told the Lebanese newspaper “Al Akhbar” that "Abu Mazen had to come to the hospital in Ramallah in recent weeks to conduct medical tests, but he preferred to summon the doctors to him, to the hospital in Mukta. Doctors were summoned several times in the past to conduct tests on Abu Mazen, and before he left for the UN, he also secretly underwent urgent medical tests in Jordan."
PM Netanyahu, in a closed discussion of the Knesset, discussed the day after Mahmoud Abbas saying: "We need the Palestinian Authority and we have an interest in it continuing to work. The Palestinian aspiration for a state must be crushed." - @ZeevKam
— Heedo Abu Laban | عبد الŘŮ…ŮŠŘŻ | 𓂆 (@HeedoAbuLaban) June 26, 2023
https://t.co/BD1i08PAH9
Abu Mazen, who was elected in 2007 to a four-year term and refused to hold elections thereafter, has not named a successor, and according to all predictions, a tough battle is expected in the leadership of the movement after his death. Sources in Fatah said that "there is a tendency among the second line of the leadership and in the popular strongholds in the West Bank to support Marwan Barghouti as Abu Mazen's successor." However, the sources said that "this approach is rejected by the leadership of the Central Committee, most of whose members consider themselves entitled to succeed. According to the same sources, Israel wants to see the head of the Palestinian General Intelligence Mechanism, Majed Faraj, at the head of the leadership the day after Abu Mazen.
Netanyahu: Eliminar la aspiraciĂłn a un Estado palestino
— Noticias de Israel (@estadoisrael) June 26, 2023
Mahmoud Abbas, de 88 años, está actualmente en su decimonoveno año de un mandato presidencial de cuatro años en la Autoridad Palestina.https://t.co/5MjknVqoct
A report by the International Crisis Group (ICG) published in February claimed that the battle for the chair of the Palestinian Authority may lead to "popular protests, repression, violence and even the collapse of the Authority". The report also states that despite the fact that the best scenario is the existence of Elections in a democratic way, it remains the "least likely" option.
