Palestinian Authority security forces are violently suppressing the resistance in Jenin, and those opposing Israel’s holocaust in Gaza. Most Canadians are unaware that our country assists them.
By Yves Engler
December 26, 2024
Palestinian security forces gather at the site of a protest against clashes between Palestinian security forces and militants in the northern occupied West Bank city of Jenin on December 21, 2024. (Photo: Mohammed Nasser/APA Images)
In recent days Palestinians in occupied Jenin have set up barricades and called a general strike to denounce PA repression. They were responding to PA security forces killing a child named Muhammad Imad al-Amer and 19-year-old Ribhi Muhammad al-Shalabi as part of an operation to dislodge resistance groups in Jenin. PA forces also killed Palestinian Islamic Jihad commander Yazid Jaaysah.
After funneling over $20 billion in arms to assist Israel’s holocaust in Gaza, the Biden administration is pressing the far-right Israeli government to approve a shipment of U.S. equipment to PA security forces so they can better repress resistance in Jenin and elsewhere.
Over the past 14 months of slaughter in Gaza PA forces have repeatedly suppressed opposition to Israel’s occupation. They’ve detained hundreds and killed at least 13 in their bid to maintain power and suppress resistance to Israel. The PA wants to demonstrate to the U.S. and Israel that it’s capable of ‘running’ its sliver of the West Bank so it can be granted the right to rule Gaza.
As Hezbollah in Lebanon, Ansarallah in Yemen, and some Iraqi groups have resisted Israel’s horrors in Gaza, the PA has repressed protests and militant activity in the West Bank. Though remarkable, it’s not new. Over the past two decades PA forces, which closely collaborate with Israeli intelligence, have repeatedly disrupted demonstrations in the West Bank, including protests against Israel’s brutality in Gaza. The PA’s policy of security coordination with Israel has earned it the name of “subcontractor of the Occupation.”
As Tamara Nassar recently explained:
“PA forces are Israel’s foot soldiers. The body’s raison d’être is to suppress Palestinian opposition and resistance to help Israel maintain its occupation in the West Bank while promoting the illusion of Palestinian autonomy and representation. In the areas where the PA has nominal control, Palestinian forces are only allowed to arrest other Palestinians. They cannot touch Israeli soldiers or settlers who attack Palestinians.”
Around two dozen Canadian troops and “up to 12” RCMP officers are currently part of Operation Proteus, which trains PA security forces as part of a mission led by the Office of the United States Security Coordinator. Initially in charge of organizing the PA force, US General Keith Dayton told the Associated Press in 2009, “We don’t provide anything to the Palestinians unless it has been thoroughly coordinated with the State of Israel and they agree to it.”
In Security Aid: Canada and the Development Regime of Security, Jeffrey Monaghan details Canada’s role in turning Palestinian security forces in the West Bank into an effective arm of Israel’s occupation. Monaghan describes a $1.5 million Canadian contribution to Joint Operating Centers whose “main focus … is to integrate elements of the Palestinian Authority Security Forces into Israeli command.”
Like all colonial authorities throughout history Israel looks to compliant locals to take up the occupation’s security burden. What is unique about the training and support for the PA security forces is the role of Canadian, British and US trainers. Adam Shatz wrote, “it is an extraordinary arrangement: the security forces of a country under occupation are being subcontracted by third parties outside the region to prevent resistance to the occupying power, even as that power continues to grab more land.”
Canada’s role in training, equipping and assisting the PA force began in earnest after Hamas won legislative elections in 2006. To sow division within Palestinian society, Ottawa cut off aid and refused to recognize a Palestinian unity government. When Hamas officials were ousted from the Palestinian unity government in June 2007, Ottawa devoted significant resources to creating a Palestinian security force “to ensure that the PA maintains control of the West Bank against Hamas,” as Canadian Ambassador to Israel Jon Allen was quoted as saying by the Canadian Jewish News. In 2010 deputy foreign minister Peter Kent said Operation Proteus received “most of the money” from a five-year $300 million Canadian “aid” program to the PA. Today, Operation Proteus receives $15 million per year directly and more funding indirectly.
Since it was established nearly twenty years ago Operation Proteus has received little attention (with the exception of stories in small town papers covering individual police or soldiers leaving for the mission). A month ago, the Globe and Mail devoted some attention to the mission with “Canadian soldiers in West Bank face a murkier mission as Gaza war clouds the future of a two-state solution”. But the reasonably good overview ignored the most explosive and compelling evidence.
A heavily censored 2012 note that Postmedia unearthed through an access to information request confirmed the goal of Canadian security aid to the PA was to protect a corrupt Mahmoud Abbas, whose electoral mandate expired in 2009, from popular backlash. Canadian International Development Agency president Margaret Biggs explained, “the emergence of popular protests on the Palestinian street against the Palestinian Authority is worrying and the Israelis have been imploring the international donor community to continue to support the Palestinian Authority.” Biggs further explained, “the Israelis have noted the importance of Canada’s contribution to the relative stability achieved through extensive security co-operation between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.”
As I detailed in A Propaganda System: How Canada’s Government, Corporations, Media and Academia Sell War and Exploitation, this damning information was sent down the memory hole. An article was published about it in some Postmedia papers in 2013, but there was no commentary in a major paper or follow-up stories about Biggs’ internal note or Operation PROTEUS. Remarkably, even the journalist who initially reported the information ignored it when he reported on Operation Proteus for the Canadian Press a decade later.
Twelve years ago, the head of the aid agency said Canada’s “aid” to the Palestinians helped suppress protests at the behest of the colonial ruler. Nothing has changed.
Palestinian security forces gather at the site of a protest against clashes between Palestinian security forces and militants in the northern occupied West Bank city of Jenin on December 21, 2024. (Photo: Mohammed Nasser/APA Images)In recent days Palestinians in occupied Jenin have set up barricades and called a general strike to denounce PA repression. They were responding to PA security forces killing a child named Muhammad Imad al-Amer and 19-year-old Ribhi Muhammad al-Shalabi as part of an operation to dislodge resistance groups in Jenin. PA forces also killed Palestinian Islamic Jihad commander Yazid Jaaysah.
After funneling over $20 billion in arms to assist Israel’s holocaust in Gaza, the Biden administration is pressing the far-right Israeli government to approve a shipment of U.S. equipment to PA security forces so they can better repress resistance in Jenin and elsewhere.
Over the past 14 months of slaughter in Gaza PA forces have repeatedly suppressed opposition to Israel’s occupation. They’ve detained hundreds and killed at least 13 in their bid to maintain power and suppress resistance to Israel. The PA wants to demonstrate to the U.S. and Israel that it’s capable of ‘running’ its sliver of the West Bank so it can be granted the right to rule Gaza.
As Hezbollah in Lebanon, Ansarallah in Yemen, and some Iraqi groups have resisted Israel’s horrors in Gaza, the PA has repressed protests and militant activity in the West Bank. Though remarkable, it’s not new. Over the past two decades PA forces, which closely collaborate with Israeli intelligence, have repeatedly disrupted demonstrations in the West Bank, including protests against Israel’s brutality in Gaza. The PA’s policy of security coordination with Israel has earned it the name of “subcontractor of the Occupation.”
As Tamara Nassar recently explained:
“PA forces are Israel’s foot soldiers. The body’s raison d’être is to suppress Palestinian opposition and resistance to help Israel maintain its occupation in the West Bank while promoting the illusion of Palestinian autonomy and representation. In the areas where the PA has nominal control, Palestinian forces are only allowed to arrest other Palestinians. They cannot touch Israeli soldiers or settlers who attack Palestinians.”
Around two dozen Canadian troops and “up to 12” RCMP officers are currently part of Operation Proteus, which trains PA security forces as part of a mission led by the Office of the United States Security Coordinator. Initially in charge of organizing the PA force, US General Keith Dayton told the Associated Press in 2009, “We don’t provide anything to the Palestinians unless it has been thoroughly coordinated with the State of Israel and they agree to it.”
In Security Aid: Canada and the Development Regime of Security, Jeffrey Monaghan details Canada’s role in turning Palestinian security forces in the West Bank into an effective arm of Israel’s occupation. Monaghan describes a $1.5 million Canadian contribution to Joint Operating Centers whose “main focus … is to integrate elements of the Palestinian Authority Security Forces into Israeli command.”
Like all colonial authorities throughout history Israel looks to compliant locals to take up the occupation’s security burden. What is unique about the training and support for the PA security forces is the role of Canadian, British and US trainers. Adam Shatz wrote, “it is an extraordinary arrangement: the security forces of a country under occupation are being subcontracted by third parties outside the region to prevent resistance to the occupying power, even as that power continues to grab more land.”
Canada’s role in training, equipping and assisting the PA force began in earnest after Hamas won legislative elections in 2006. To sow division within Palestinian society, Ottawa cut off aid and refused to recognize a Palestinian unity government. When Hamas officials were ousted from the Palestinian unity government in June 2007, Ottawa devoted significant resources to creating a Palestinian security force “to ensure that the PA maintains control of the West Bank against Hamas,” as Canadian Ambassador to Israel Jon Allen was quoted as saying by the Canadian Jewish News. In 2010 deputy foreign minister Peter Kent said Operation Proteus received “most of the money” from a five-year $300 million Canadian “aid” program to the PA. Today, Operation Proteus receives $15 million per year directly and more funding indirectly.
Since it was established nearly twenty years ago Operation Proteus has received little attention (with the exception of stories in small town papers covering individual police or soldiers leaving for the mission). A month ago, the Globe and Mail devoted some attention to the mission with “Canadian soldiers in West Bank face a murkier mission as Gaza war clouds the future of a two-state solution”. But the reasonably good overview ignored the most explosive and compelling evidence.
A heavily censored 2012 note that Postmedia unearthed through an access to information request confirmed the goal of Canadian security aid to the PA was to protect a corrupt Mahmoud Abbas, whose electoral mandate expired in 2009, from popular backlash. Canadian International Development Agency president Margaret Biggs explained, “the emergence of popular protests on the Palestinian street against the Palestinian Authority is worrying and the Israelis have been imploring the international donor community to continue to support the Palestinian Authority.” Biggs further explained, “the Israelis have noted the importance of Canada’s contribution to the relative stability achieved through extensive security co-operation between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.”
As I detailed in A Propaganda System: How Canada’s Government, Corporations, Media and Academia Sell War and Exploitation, this damning information was sent down the memory hole. An article was published about it in some Postmedia papers in 2013, but there was no commentary in a major paper or follow-up stories about Biggs’ internal note or Operation PROTEUS. Remarkably, even the journalist who initially reported the information ignored it when he reported on Operation Proteus for the Canadian Press a decade later.
Twelve years ago, the head of the aid agency said Canada’s “aid” to the Palestinians helped suppress protests at the behest of the colonial ruler. Nothing has changed.
