by Yoav Limor
Coordinator for Government Activities in the Territories Maj. Gen. Kamil Abu Rukun talks to Israel Hayom prior to his upcoming retirement about the COVID situation in Gaza, the alienation the Palestinian public feels from the PA leadership, and the chances for substantive progress toward peace.
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| Maj. Gen. Kamil Abu Rukun: The Palestinians are like us, mostly good people | Photo: Jonathan Shaul |
In November 2020, many months after cutting off all ties with Israel and with the matter of Israeli sovereignty being declared in parts of Judea and Samaria off the table, the Palestinian Authority agreed to renew security and defense cooperation. The formal announcement came after lengthy behind-the-scenes contact. The person behind them, even during the time when ties were severed between Jerusalem and Ramallah, was the Coordinator for Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), Maj. Gen. Kamil Abu Rukun. At the time, he warned decision-makers in Israel that an Israeli declaration of sovereignty in Judea and Samaria would result in the cancellation of the Oslo Accords.
"I warned them that it would be a huge blow, that the Palestinian Authority would pull out. They were willing to go all the way. I remind you that for seven months, they received no money, and their debt to the banks piled up to almost 9 billion shekels ($2.7 billion), which is almost half the PA budget," he tells Israel Hayom.
Even when the Palestinians agreed to climb down and renew ties with Israel – primarily, security coordination – they demanded that Israel recommit to the accords.
"The situation [in the PA] was catastrophic. They had no money. They weren't paying salaries. Their system was collapsing, and this is what they cared about," Abu Rukun observes.
Q: What did you tell them?
"I told them that gently that they're a bunch of idiots. That they wouldn't find any Israeli diplomatic or political official who would sign off on something like that now."
But the Palestinians refused to drop their demand. Israel was worried that the PA would fall apart, so a creative solution was reached – that Abu Rukun would be the one to sign in Israel's name.
"It took the Palestinians an hour to say yes, and ties were renewed immediately," he says.
'Aid helps security'
At the beginning of April, Abu Rukun is slated to finish a stormy three-year term as head of COGAT. For 42 years he has been following every twist and turn of the Palestinian system, and it's doubtful that anyone else in Israel is as familiar with it as he is.
"I've been here since the attempt to transition to a civil administration following the Camp David accords, the attempt to find an alternative to the PLO through village organizations, and after that the First Intifada, the peace agreements, the Second Intifada, and everything after that. But the last few years have been more complicated and problematic than anything I remember from the past," he says.
Q: Why?
"Because matters have become more complicated. The separation between the Gaza Strip and Judea and Samaria; the PA cutting off ties with Israel and the US, and of course, COVID. All these only increased the distress and problems that already existed there."
The COVID crisis piggybacked on the constant crisis facing Abu Rukun from the Gaza Strip. Currently, there is 45% unemployment in Gaza, but the situation has gotten better by some parameters. Electricity is available an average of 12 hours a day, and 16 in some areas – a dramatic improvement compared to the past, when Gaza only had an average of four hours of electricity per day. Abu Rukun was a key partner in the process that led to this development, as the person who put together an agreement that stipulated that $8 million of the Qatari aid money sent to Gaza each month would go directly to pay Israeli energy companies that supply the diesel fuel to run the PA's power plant.
Q: Break down for us the money that comes from Qatar.
"The aid money is divided into three. $8 million goes to keep the power plant running; $10 million goes to help needy families, which get $100 each based on a list we approved; and the other $7 million goes to pay salaries of the civil servants who keep the public infrastructure in the Gaza Strip running."
This is only a partial solution to the troubles in Gaza, where Abu Rukun describes the situation as "a serious but stable humanitarian crisis."
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency, for example, feeds 1.3 million people in Gaza a day, supplies schools for 300,000 children and employs 20,000 adults. Abu Rukun says that after the US slashed funding for UNRWA, the organization was forced to "beg," as he put it, for an extension for its payments and other commitments.
Abu Rukun has been fighting to increase Gaza's fishing zone to allow the residents a way to make a living, and he is also battling to have Gazan laborers allowed into Israel.
"When I took over the role, 1,800 merchants would leave Gaza for Israel every day, and by the time COVID hit, that number was up to 7,000. I thought we should let more in. I said, 'Let me bring in 10,000 laborers a day, and I'll get you a deal with Gaza.' That didn't happen because of COVID, but also because the Shin Bet [security agency] objected to it out of concern that Israel allowing in workers would be exploited to carry out terrorist attacks from Gaza."
Hamas, he says, agreed, but the Shin Bet didn't want it to happen.
Q: What is the COVID situation in Gaza like?
"To everyone's surprise, the situation there is fantastic. There are almost no fatalities, and there is very little spread."
Abu Rukun explains that this is the case because the authorities in Gaza enforced regulations stringently. The Rafah border crossing, which was closed for months, recently reopened, but anyone who came through was required to quarantine.
"Gaza isn't Judea and Samaria. In Judea and Samaria, the Palestinians behave like people do in Israel – they walk around, come and go, have parties. In Gaza, there is strict discipline, so they have a very low COVID rate."
Q: Still, isn't it possible to take advantage of the situation for a deal – let's say, vaccines in exchange for the return of Israel's dead soldiers and captive civilians?
"It's a very sensitive issue, and I'll only say that I think Hamas would agree to link the two things."
Abu Rukun does not think that Israel should make humanitarian aid to Gaza conditional upon a solution to the problem of its missing and captive citizens. He quotes former IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. (res.) Gadi Eizenkot, who said that Israel should help the Gazans on five basic matters: electricity, water, sewage, food, and healthcare.
"I think that this aid also helps our security. The protests at the border fence started because of the distress in Gaza, and our role is also to keep southern Israel calm."
In the meantime, the Gazans have started receiving vaccines from other sources, some of which come from the quota Israel delivered to the PA, and some from donations from the rest of the world. Mohammad Dahlan, a rival to PA President Mahmoud Abbas, sent them 25,000 vaccines, and the WHO intends to send then 40,000 more. Abu Rukun does not think that Israel needs to vaccinate everyone in Gaza, but does support a vaccine initiative for everyone in Judea and Samaria.
Q: Explain that.
"The Gaza Strip is closed off, but Israel and Judea and Samaria are one epidemiological unit. Therefore, we started vaccinating the Palestinians who work in Israel. By the way, we aren't paying for those vaccines, the money comes from part of the taxes their employers pay on their behalf. But we made it clear to the Palestinians that it was their responsibility to get vaccinated."
Q: Why?
"Because we don't need the world to come down on us. We don't control them. They're an independent entity."
An uprising in Gaza? No chance
Last week, Gaza held another round of Hamas party elections that resulted in Yahya Sinwar beating Nizar Awadallah in a close race.
"The old guard united against the existing system and put up a fight. I'm just reminding you that Awadallah was behind the Gilad Schalit incident," Abu Rukun says.
Q: Which of them would have been better for Israel?
"Neither. They're a terrorist organization, and that's how they should be treated. It's imprinted on their brains."
Q: Does Hamas want a long-term ceasefire deal with Israel?
"I don't think it's an option. First, the problem of the missing and captives has to be solved, then they need to acknowledge existing agreements, and say they reject terrorist. At the moment, they won't accept these terms, so they're a terrorist organization."
Q: It won't happen?
"In my opinion, no. They are motivated by hardline Islamist ideology. Their main goal right now is to take control of Judea and Samaria and establish an Islamist state there."
Q: In the meantime, they are screwing over their own citizens.
"There are quite a few projects that could move ahead. A gas pipeline to Gaza, industrial zones. We've made it clear to them and every possible player that these won't happen until the matter of our missing and captives is resolved."
Q: And what is their answer?
"They don't answer. They're stuck in their ideology. Why do they take money and dig attack tunnels rather than investing in hospitals?
Abu Rukun thinks there is no chance that the people of Gaza will rise up and revolt in an Arab Spring-like movement: "A year and a half ago, there was an attempt to challenge them [Hamas], and Hamas really gave it to them. Hamas is very powerful, and people don't dare stick their necks out. I don't think it will happen."
For now, the main challenge he foresees is the PA elections.
"Hamas really wants these elections, so they're going along with things that they could have insisted on having their own way, like legal oversight, because their goal is to get into Judea and Samaria. They'll cooperate with anything that can lead them there."
Abu Rukun says the current expectation is that Hamas will win some 40% of the vote, with 60% going to Fatah. He notes that the results of the 2006 election defied expectations and thinks that "there could be a surprise this time, too."
Such a surprise, he explains, would not occur because of popular support for Hamas, but because of the alienation the Palestinian public feels from the PA, as well as because of internal rifts in Fatah and Hamas' well-oiled party machine.
"They [Hamas] don't' have a majority among the population, but they are very well-organized and they have a goal," he says.
Q: And Abbas doesn't understand that?
"Abbas is 86, and he doesn't want to be remembered as the one who split the Palestinians and lost the Gaza Strip. He is busy with his legacy. He also wants to keep all the factions in the Palestinian political system, and apparently curry favor with the new US administration, which supports democratic processes. Other than that, he's a little detached. It reminds me of what happened to [former Egyptian President Hosni] Mubarak before the Arab Spring."
Q: Explain.
"The people who bring things to him and issue things in his name don't understand the alienation between them and the Palestinian population."
Q: But the population in Judea and Samaria wants to live in freedom, not under a radical Islamist regime like in Gaza.
"That's true, but most people are busy with their day-to-day lives. I assume that most of them don't really believe that Hamas would take over. They're busy with themselves."
Q: If Hamas wins the elections, what should Israel do?
"We're preparing for every scenario, including the possibility of a rise in terrorism. I remind you that even when the PA cut ties with us last year, we continued to function and provided solutions."
Abu Rukun says that Israel is not intervening in the internal Palestinian matter, but he does not envision a situation in which Israel would continue to abide by agreements made with the PA if it were under the leadership of Hamas.
"If that happens, automatically there would be no … security coordination, so we would have to ask ourselves what the agreements were still worth."
Q: Whom do you expect will succeed Abbas as PA leader?
"I am betting on Nasser al-Kidwa [Yasser Arafat's nephew, who represented the Palestinians in the UN and was the PA's former foreign minister]."
Q: Not Mohammad Dahlan?
"I don't see any chance of that. Hamas is letting him bring people into Gaza and toss money around there, but they aren't suckers, and he has almost no traction in Judea and Samaria."
'The Palestinians are like us'
Abu Rukun, 62, lives in Ussafiya. He has three children and three grandchildren ("one of them named Kamil, after me.") April will be the third time he leaves the IDF, and he hasn't yet decided what he will do next.
"At the moment, I don't think I'll hold another public position," he says.
He enjoys very good relations with the top PA brass. "When Naftali Bennett was defense minister, he told me they loved me. I said that was right, and that I used it for the sake of Israel's security interests." He tells his staff that their job is to prevent a humanitarian crisis among the Palestinians, "Because it would reach us."
According to Abu Rukun, the Palestinians – after an initial angry response – accepted the Abraham Accords and are now expecting them to result in aid for themselves. But anyone who thinks that they will demonstrate flexibility and become willing to make political concessions, he says, is wrong.
"Unfortunately, they are losing time. Soon it won't be possible to do anything," he says.
Q: Is it solvable? Is there willingness?
"Where, with us or with them?"
Q: You handle them.
"Yes. I think that they really want to make progress."
Q: Their actions don't indicate that. Look at how they went to The Hague.
"They did that because of the impasse, and because they wanted to shake up the system and exert some influence. I have no doubt that our military is the most moral in the world, and if The Hague has any questions about it, they should look into what [Syrian President Bashar] Assad did or what they're doing in Iran, and then get back to us."
Q: Do they take an interest in our election? Are they involved in our elections?
"At every meeting, they take care to say that Israel's elections are an Israeli matter. There is Muhammad al-Madani, Abbas' advisor on Israeli society. In my opinion, he is in touch with the Israeli side, but I don't think they're really involved."
Q: What does the average Israeli reading this interview not know about the Palestinians?
"They are an educated people similar to us. It's not Jordan or Egypt. We live close to one another, work with each other. The Palestinians aren't the devil. Most of them are good people, who just want to live. The young generation wants to be left along. They want rights. They want to live like any other young people in the west. They want economic security. I was in Hebron two weeks ago. Everything there is broken – the markets, the shopping malls. All the display windows. It's like Istanbul."
Q: You're basically saying that what the accords didn't do, economics will.
"If I were a Palestinians, I probably wouldn't say that because they have national aspirations, but the economy is definitely the major thing. In 2030, 3 million people will be living in the Gaza Strip. We need to think two steps ahead. The economy leads to stable security, and our job is to give the political echelon the flexibility and the freedom to work. I think that there is an opportunity right now to move toward bigger things with the Palestinians."
Yoav Limor
Source: https://www.israelhayom.com/2021/03/15/hamas-wants-an-islamist-state-in-the-west-bank-and-might-win-the-pa-elections/
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