Meet Israel's "man in Ramallah"

A man in military uniform shakes hands with a man in a suit — Hussein al-Sheikh (right) shaking hands with the Israeli occupaton. (COGAT)

The Palestinian Authority, Israel’s collaborationist entity in the West Bank, last month appointed a vice president for the first time.

A former colonel in a brutal PA “security” agency, Hussein al-Sheikh is now widely seen as heir apparent to the crumbling regime of Mahmoud Abbas – who is 89 years old.

Abbas’ elected term as president of the PA expired more than 16 years ago and he has since then repeatedly canceled elections – which polls indicate he would lose to Hamas.

Israel and its backers in the US and Europe have long feared that, without a clear successor, the death of Abbas could lead to the collapse of the PA.

Speaking in private in 2023, Benjamin Netanyahu explicitly said that “we need the Palestinian Authority … we cannot allow it to collapse.” The Israeli prime minister explained that wherever the Palestinian Authority is successfully operating in an area, “it does our job for us” there.

In a mostly sympathetic profile of al-Sheikh published by Foreign Policy in 2023, the commitment of the new “vice president” to helping Israel continue occupying Palestinian land is clear.

Referencing the PA’s de facto capital in the West Bank, a senior Israeli spy speaking to the US publication spelled out al-Sheikh’s role explicitly: “He’s our man in Ramallah.”

The unnamed intelligence officer is retired but still active as a reservist.

Abbas has long been an open collaborator with Israeli occupation. He once notoriously described the “security cooperation” of armed PA forces with Israeli occupation troops as a “sacred” principle.

Al-Sheikh has long been seen by US planners as their preferred successor to Abbas. Or, as the leftist Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar recently put it: “Al-Sheikh’s rise is not merely a reshuffle of positions but a calculated move by some external Arab and Western forces to engineer a succession process tailored to their interests.”

The Foreign Policy profile was a puff piece seemingly intended to boost al-Sheikh in the eyes of the publication’s readers – mostly US imperial planners and their lackeys. It also contains insights into his history and character.

Prior to his appointment as unelected “vice president,” al-Sheikh was already the PA’s “main go-between with Israel in the occupied West Bank,” the publication explained.

“He speaks fluent Hebrew, wears finely tailored suits, and urges cooperating, not clashing, with Israel,” Foreign Policy gushed. “The Rolex-sporting, globe-trotting official now works behind the scenes to prevent the collapse of the PA.”

Comprador bourgeoisie

The article opened with a description of how, in February 2022, al-Sheikh “strode into a fortified conference room in the towering Tel Aviv headquarters of Israel’s defense ministry.”

It explained how “few Palestinians enter the inner sanctum of Israel’s military, but, as al-Sheikh recalled, he was greeted by the top army brass and the leadership of the secretive Shin Bet intelligence apparatus.”

The Foreign Policy reporters admit that most Palestinians in the West Bank view the Palestinian Authority as existing “to do the dirty work of Israel’s occupation” and that “for many, al-Sheikh is the man doing that dirty work.”

The article continues: “He is the face of the PA’s elite, who experience what one former Palestinian official living in the West Bank labeled a ‘VIP occupation.’ Senior Palestinian officials are waved through Israeli roadblocks and rake in hefty salaries.”

Referencing the brutal monarch who ruled Iran until the Islamic revolution in 1979, an official working for the administration of US President Joe Biden admitted to the Foreign Policy reporters that al-Sheikh “is about as popular with the Palestinian people as the Shah was.”

Al-Sheikh is a true representative of the Palestinian comprador class – that rich minority of Palestinian businesspeople who benefit from close economic ties with Israel and its West Bank occupation, at everyone else’s expense.

Corruption

His extended family, the Tarifis, Foreign Policy explained, “had a history of close ties with the Israelis. His relative Jamil, a wealthy businessman who owned quarries, leveraged his relationship with Israeli officials to get permits and privileges for Palestinians he knew.”

The reporters explained, “In a sense, al-Sheikh inherited the family business: liaising between Israeli [occupation] authorities and Palestinians.”

The article also explains how al-Sheikh leverages these ties for his own personal enrichment, in a system of entrenched corruption, which seems to be actively encouraged by the Israelis. In one 2022 poll, “nearly a quarter of Palestinians reported having paid a bribe or offered a gift, or a relative having done so, in exchange for receiving a public service.”

Al-Sheikh’s office is responsible for collaborating with the Israelis to give out VIP permits that allow high-ranking Palestinian officials “to cross through checkpoints normally reserved for Israelis. Wealthy businesspeople can apply for a ‘businessman card,’ or BMC, a pass that provides nearly unfettered access to Israel and its international airport near Tel Aviv.”

These are often given out in a brazenly corrupt fashion: “When merchants approach officials in al-Sheikh’s ministry about obtaining a BMC, they might be asked to provide favors or cash.”

Al-Sheikh has also been credibly accused of the sexual harassment of an employee. A formal complaint by the employee’s husband (who, according to Foreign Policy is influential within Fatah, Abbas and al-Sheikh’s political party) led to a hush-money payout of $100,000.

Such corruption amongst Israel’s Palestinian collaborators provides important leverage against the possibility of them ever turning against their masters in Tel Aviv.

Violence

Assaults by the PA against Palestinian resistance to Israeli occupation are mostly violent in nature and target both Palestinian political or media critics – such as Nizar Banat, notoriously beaten to death by PA thugs in 2021 – as well as resistance fighters.

Most recently, PA troops worked closely with Israeli occupation forces in the northern West Bank to attack Palestinian resistance fighters based in the Jenin refugee camp between December and January.

The still ongoing Israeli occupation assault on Jenin and the surrounding areas which followed in January has resulted in dozens of dead Palestinians. Almost 40,000 people have been displaced from their homes.

The Electronic Intifada’s Jenin reporters in March documented PA forces working closely with Israeli occupation forces by taking over the top floor of the city’s public hospital and opening fire from within the facility.

The formalization of al-Sheikh as Abbas’ successor, ensures a long future for the PA carrying out the role it was created to fulfill: the liquidation of Palestinian resistance in all its forms.