February 14, 2025
The Palestinian Leaders' War on Preventing Corruption
The Palestinian Authority has chosen to crack down on anti-corruption activists as part of an effort to silence its critics and deter others from demanding transparency and accountability.
The Palestinian Authority has chosen to crack down on anti-corruption activists as part of an effort to silence its critics and deter others from demanding transparency and accountability.

A growing number of Palestinians are demanding that the Palestinian Authority (PA) take serious measures to end financial and administrative corruption among its top brass.

Rather than heeding these calls, however, the Palestinian Authority has chosen to crack down on anti-corruption activists as part of an effort to silence its critics and deter others from demanding transparency and accountability. The Palestinian Authority’s measures against anti-corruption activists have angered many Palestinians, who are accusing their leaders of covering up for senior officials suspected of abusing power for their own personal gain.

In the past few days, the Palestinian Authority security forces in the West Bank arrested two prominent anti-corruption activists: Fayez al-Sweiti, Mohammed Ayesh and Saed Abu al-Baha.

Sweiti, who heads a not-for-profit anti-corruption organization, was arrested after he shared on his Facebook page a document accusing senior Palestinian official Hussein al-Sheikh, head of the Palestinian General Authority for Civil Affairs and member of the Fatah Central Committee, of exploiting his job for personal gain.

Although the Palestinian Authority insists that the document is forged, several Palestinians say they have good reason to believe it is authentic.

[…]