If the Palestinians are lukewarm about Israel’s plan for municipal elections in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, it is because they believe the return of Arab mayors and town councils will change very little in the way the territories are presently administered.
Under the present setup, the territories are governed jointly by the military and the Civil Administration. In theory, the military, meaning the Israel Defense Force, is responsible for security and maintaining order, while the Civil Administration, established by the IDF in 1980, manages daily civilian affairs.
But the Civil Administration is civil in name only. It is headed by officers of the rank of brigadier general commanders in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, both major generals.
Cooperation between the IDF and the Civil Administration is a one-way street, since the Civil Administration cannot operate independent of military considerations. The Civil Administration is, in fact, an extension of Israel’s Defense Ministry and the IDF, a fact that the local population understands clearly.
In practice, the creation of a civilian body has changed little in the way the territories are governed. At best, the local population has benefited from improved services.
Israel’s difficulties stem in great measure from the existence of two rival forces that also govern large parts of the territories, often by violence and intimidation.
One is made up of the various factions of the Palestine Liberation Organization. the other is the Islamic fundamentalist Hamas, an organization spawned by the intifada and growing stronger day by day.
The Civil Administration provides such services as health and education and operates the bridges over the Jordan River. the army tries to control the main traffic arteries and attempts to enforce law and order in the cities and towns.
Much of the Civil Administration is staffed by Arabs. That is especially true of the school system, but other branches as well.
The Arab employees exercise little power. They depend on the Israeli authorities for their paychecks. They live in danger because the local population considers them to be collaborators.
Only last week, unidentified gunmen brutally stabbed the Arab head of health services in Jenin, an employee of the Civil Administration who was targeted as a collaborator.
More Palestinians have been assassinated by their brethren this past year than killed in clashes with the IDF.
MAYORS HAVE LITTLE POWER
Off the main roads, in the dozens of villages tucked among the rugged hills of the West Bank, the Palestinian organizations prevail.
Their chief weapon is terror. Suspected collaborators are “excommunicated” if lucky; often they are executed.
The local terrorist groups are guided by village leaders, who may or may not obey orders issued by their respective parent organizations.
Many such orders are issued by the so-called Unified Command of the intifada. But in fact, that organization exists only on paper.
Each local group does pretty much as it pleases, and Palestinian communities are often caught in their everlasting revelries. Day-to-day events are influenced more by local village gangs than either the PLO or the Israeli authorities.
The Israeli plan presented at the peace talks in Washington calls for electing mayors. But in practice, Arab mayors have very little power.
Their budgets are subject to approval by the Civil Administration. They cannot undertake such projects as paving new roads or laying new sewer pipes without the OK of army officers.
More ominous is their lack of power to end Hamas and pro-PLO gangs’ rule of the streets.
When seven years ago the Israelis appointed Zafer al-Masri mayor of Nablus, he lasted in office exactly one month. He was assassinated entering the City Hall.
If local mayors are elected as a result of the Israeli proposal, they may enjoy greater support from within the Palestinian camp.
But they will need discretionary power and budgets to run their own affairs. otherwise they will be become as useless as the appointed mayors, torn between the Israeli authorities and the gangs in the streets.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
