my guest is palestinian politician, physician and civil rights activist mustafa barghouti.f anything, can the palestinians do to improve their situation? mustafa barghouti in ramallah, welcome to hardtalk. thank you. nice to be with you. thank you. good to have you on the show. let's start with the situation in the west bank, where you sit, in ramallah. is there any semblance of political authority or control in the west bank right now? unfortunately, the existing authority is the authority of occupation, israeli military occupation, which is really, from security perspective, controlling the whole area. the palestinian authority has been weakened dramatically by the israeli side. since 2002, when the israeli army re—invaded all palestinian cities and all the so—called area a, which is supposed to be under palestinian authority, since then, practically, the palestinian authority is an authority under military occupation, under israeli occupation. so it's an authority without real authority. i just want to be clear about what you're saying. are you saying, in essence, the pa