By Khaled Abu Toameh
(JNS) — Why does Qatar, the largest funder and sponsor of Hamas, have such a strong desire to restore Palestinian Authority control of the Gaza Strip? Answer: To guarantee Hamas’s continued domination of the territory.
Qatar has no problem with the P.A., which Hamas expelled from Gaza in 2007, taking up its duties there again as long as Hamas is permitted to maintain its grasp on power and preserve its military forces and capabilities.
Qatar wants the P.A. government to collect the garbage, rebuild destroyed houses and pay salaries to Palestinians in Gaza, while Hamas is busy rearming, regrouping and getting ready for the next attack on Israel.
Hamas has sustained enormous losses since the beginning of the war it started on Oct. 7, 2023, when thousands of its terrorists and “ordinary” Palestinians invaded Israel, murdering 1,200 Israelis, wounding thousands and kidnapping more than 250 others. The Qataris seem to realize that Hamas cannot undertake the task of rebuilding the Gaza Strip on its own. They also seem to understand that the international community will not agree to transfer funds to the Gaza Strip through Hamas. Qatar needs the P.A. in the Gaza Strip to facilitate the flow of millions of dollars in Western aid. (In any case, the aid should be supervised by international parties and donors, including the United States, to make sure it is not stolen.)
Two days after the announcement of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire agreement, Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Abdulrahman Al Thani said that Doha hopes for the return of the P.A. to the Gaza Strip. Lasting peace in the Gaza Strip, he added, depends on Israel and Hamas showing good faith: “If they proceed in good faith, this will continue, and hopefully lead to a permanent ceasefire.”
This statement by the Qatari official, whose country has long supported and hosted the leaders of the terrorist group, was not made out of affection for the P.A. Qatar’s financial and political backing of Hamas has caused tensions between it and the P.A. over the past two decades. P.A. officials have frequently criticized Qatar for backing their rivals.
The P.A.-Qatar crisis reached its peak earlier this month when the P.A. government in Ramallah, the de facto capital of the Palestinians in the West Bank, decided to suspend the broadcasts of Qatar-owned Al-Jazeera television for supporting and promoting Hamas and other Palestinian terror groups. Israel and some Arab states have also shut down the broadcasts, for the same reason.
According to a recent investigative report by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI):
“Among the Islamist terrorist organizations that Qatar and Al-Jazeera have supported over the years are the Muslim Brotherhood, Al-Qaeda, the Taliban, Hezbollah, the Al-Nusra Front/ Hay’at Tahrir Al-Sham, ISIS, Hamas, and even the Shiite proxies in Yemen, Ansar Allah (the Houthis).”
If the P.A. is allowed to operate in Gaza while Hamas is still in power, another slaughter of Israelis, most likely worse than the Oct. 7 carnage, will occur. The Qataris do not want the P.A. in the Gaza Strip to rein in Hamas and other terrorist groups, or to prevent attacks against Israel. Instead, they want the P.A. to act as a front to maintain Hamas’s hold on power. That is the main reason Qatar has refrained from calling on Hamas to cede control over the Gaza Strip in the wake of the catastrophe the terrorist group brought on the two million residents there.
If it truly cared about the safety and well-being of the Palestinians, Qatar would have stopped supporting Hamas and insisted that the terrorist group relinquish control of the Gaza Strip. After all these years, however, Qatar chose to do the exact opposite. Hamas was able to expand and strengthen its hold on the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip thanks to Qatar’s political and financial backing.
If Qatar truly cared about the Palestinians, it would not have allowed Al-Jazeera to act as a mouthpiece for Hamas and other jihadist groups responsible for the death of thousands of Israelis and Palestinians.
Qatar has one main purpose: to safeguard its friends in Hamas, continue promoting radical Islam and deceive Westerners into believing that the jihadists are a better alternative to the Arab world’s present regimes. Whether the new U.S. administration will be as gullible as other Westerners in trusting Qatar remains to be seen.
Originally published by the Gatestone Institute.
Khaled Abu Toameh is an award winning Arab and Palestinian Affairs journalist formerly with The Jerusalem Post. He is Senior Distinguished Fellow at the Gatestone Institute and a Fellow of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.