Why Palestinians Cannot Make Peace with Israel

by Khaled Abu Toameh

• The Palestinian Authority, which is largely funded by American and European taxpayers' money, is imprisoning Palestinians for even trying to engage in real estate deals with Jews.
• The Palestinian public seems generally supportive of the death sentences and extrajudicial killings of suspected "land dealers" and informants. Even Palestinian human rights organizations appear to be extremely careful when they mention such issues.
• As far as Hamas and many Palestinians are concerned, peace with Israel or any form of "collaboration" with the "Zionist enemy" is an act of treason punishable by death.
• Mahmoud Abbas is already facing accusations of being a traitor because of the security coordination between the PA security forces and the Israeli authorities in the West Bank.
• As long as the PA and Hamas punish Palestinians who work with Israel or are willing to sell real estate to Israeli Jews -- frequently by issuing sentences of hard labor or death -- the hope of reviving the "peace process" is, unfortunately, a pitiful waste of time and effort.
• The verdicts passed against the "land dealers" in the West Bank and the suspected "collaborators" in the Gaza Strip show that Palestinians remain as far as ever from accepting Israel, let alone making peace with it.
• The verdicts are yet more proof of how Palestinian leaders continue to radicalize their people against Israel -- to the point that no Palestinian who wishes to stay alive would ever claim that he or she seeks to make peace with Israel or recognize all of the land as anything other than totally Palestinian in every way.

The Palestinian Authority (PA), which is largely funded by American and European taxpayers' money, is imprisoning Palestinians for even trying to engage in real estate deals with Jews. The Palestinian public seems generally supportive of the death sentences and extrajudicial killings of suspected "land dealers" and informants. Pictured: The PA criminal court in Ramallah, on October 4, 2021. (Photo by Abbas Momani/AFP via Getty Images)

The Palestinian Authority (PA) and Hamas have again shown that peace with Israel is not only extremely ill-advised and most likely doomed from the start but critically dangerous as well. The two Palestinian parties, both the PA and Hamas, do not want Palestinians to engage in any real estate transactions with Israeli Jews; they also do not want Palestinians to assist Israel in the war on terrorism.

By opposing the sale of properties to Israeli Jews and "collaboration" with Israel, the PA and Hamas are sending a message to the Palestinian public that despite all the talk about a "two-state solution" and the possible resumption of the "peace process," Israel remains the mortal enemy of the Palestinians.

This message does not bode well for the Biden administration's desire to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by establishing an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel.

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