Settlements and National Missions Minister Orit Strook urged fellow members of the Security Cabinet to change Israel’s policy toward the Palestinian Authority, in a letter published on Thursday.
In the missive to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior ministers, she called for an urgent Cabinet meeting to redefine the security establishment’s long-held approach of strengthening the P.A.
Strook said Ramallah had launched a major “public relations campaign” to improve its image and secure additional funding from the international community in an effort to take control of Gaza after the current war.
However, the P.A. continues to undermine Israel’s security, she wrote, noting that a recent study by the Impact-se NGO revealed that its latest textbooks continue to promote terrorism and hatred against Jews.
She also highlighted the P.A.’s continued financial and logistical support for terrorism, its anti-Israel campaigns in international fora and courts, and its systematic campaign to seize lands in Judea and Samaria.
Strook also condemned Ramallah’s practice of sheltering terrorists who have harmed Israelis, while simultaneously imprisoning and torturing Palestinians accused of cooperating with Israel or selling land to Jews.
Many members of the Jewish state’s security brass support P.A. control of swaths of Judea and Samaria as a “moderating force” opposed to Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other Iranian-backed terrorist organizations.
Members of Ramallah’s forces have a long history of attacking Israeli soldiers and civilians. In 2023, the P.A.’s ruling Fatah faction boasted that most of its “martyrs” had once served in the P.A. Security Forces.
In addition, Hamas has recruited dozens of PASF operatives, using them as gunmen and for intelligence gathering, Kan News reported in 2023.
Dozens of members of the U.S.-trained and -armed P.A. police forces have been implicated in terrorism against Israeli civilians and military personnel in the past few years alone, according to research published by the Jerusalem-based Regavim Movement think tank in March 2024.