Palestinian official: Israel and Hamas both hoping for chaos in West Bank

Spokesman for the PA security forces in the West Bank rejects Likud Minister Elkin's claims that it is a matter of time until the PA collapses.

By YASSER OKBI/ MAARIV HASHAVUA
Updated: FEBRUARY 29, 2016 20:39
A Palestinian protester uses a sling to throw stones towards Israeli troops during clashes, near the Jewish settlement of Bet El, near the West Bank city of Ramallah November 29, 2015 (photo credit: REUTERS)
A Palestinian protester uses a sling to throw stones towards Israeli troops during clashes, near the Jewish settlement of Bet El, near the West Bank city of Ramallah November 29, 2015
(photo credit: REUTERS)
A senior Palestinian official said Monday that Israel and Hamas have a common hope to cause chaos and anarchy in the Palestinian Authority.
"Israel's goal is Hamas's goal," claimed Gen. Adnan Damiri, spokesman for the Fatah-dominated PA security forces in the West Bank.
Damiri's comments, in an interview with The Jerusalem Post's sister paper Maariv Hashavua, came in response to Immigrant and Absorption Minister Ze'ev Elkin's speech Monday at Bar Ilan University in which he stated that the Palestinian Authority will collapse with the end of PA President Mahmoud Abbas's tenure.
Damiri told Maariv Hashavua that "Elkin spoke of his hopes and dreams and not of the reality on the ground, he's forgotten that the occupation is the cause of all of the problems in the area. The Palestinians are at peace with themselves and can solve their own problems on the condition that Elkin and the occupation will leave. We don't want them on our land."
Damiri said that both Israel and Hamas are trying to sow the seeds of anarchy in the West Bank. "We hear the same song from the leaders of Hamas," he said. "Elkin and the leadership of the occupation, first and foremost [Prime Minister Benjamin ] Netanyahu are speaking of their hopes and dreams to create anarchy, and they share this assumption with Hamas. The goal is clear, to create an inner-Palestinian struggle in the West Bank. This will cause chaos in the West Bank, which is the next stage of the occupation."
According to Damiri, the comments from senior Israeli officials are an attempt to stave off international attacks from the BDS movement and are a response to Palestinians' success in the international arena.
"The occupation wishes to defend itself and is doing everything it can to bring about the collapse of the PA, so that then they can tell the world 'The Palestinians are the problem, not us.'"
Damiri vowed that neither Israel nor Hamas would succeed in toppling the PA.