Abbas confidant: PA will stop providing civil services if Israel annexes

Hussein al-Sheikh, a senior Palestinian official and close adviser to PA head Mahmoud Abbas, says that the Palestinians will not continue to provide civil services in the West Bank if annexation plans move ahead.

Either they backtrack on annexation and things go back to how they were, or they follow through with annexation and they go back to being the occupying power in the whole West Bank,” he tells The New York Times.

“I will not accept that my role is a service provider,” he adds. “I’m not a municipality or a charity.”

According to the paper, the PA has already begun curbing its cooperation with Israel, which includes facilitating permits for Palestinians to receive medical treatment at Israel’s better equipped facilities or enter Israel for other reasons.

Al-Sheikh also tells the paper that the PA will not longer turn over Israelis caught in the West Bank and accused of crimes. Several Israeli Arabs are being held by the PA, it says.

“Every day, I’ll be retreating from my responsibilities,” al-Sheikh says. “I am telling the Israelis, if this situation continues, you will have to take full responsibility as an occupying power. It could go back to like it was before Oslo.”