The killing of a prominent Palestinian political activist in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah by the Israeli occupation army last week has once again exposed one of the most controversial truths of the Palestinian Authority (PA), a semi-governmental body ruling three million Palestinians in the West Bank.

PA security forces arrested Basil al-Araj, 34, in April 2016, with five of his friends, accusing them of carrying unlicensed weapons and planning to carry out an attack on Israeli targets. Under the Oslo agreements signed between Israel and Palestine in 1993, the PA is obliged to share information with Israel about any armed resistance to the Israeli occupation in a practice known as "security coordination".

Araj and his friends were released after five months in PA prisons. While four of his friends were immediately re-arrested by Israeli forces, Araj went into hiding for more than two months in an old house in Ramallah. On March 6, the Israeli army found Araj and killed him, causing outrage among Palestinians.