West Bank shake-up seen as a small step
Leadership change is unlikely to help the Palestinian Authority win over its people or Israel or end the war.
The Palestinian Authority’s prime minister announced his government’s resignation this week, seen as the first step in a reform process urged by the United States as part of its plan to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
But it will do little to address the authority’s longstanding lack of legitimacy among its own people or its strained relations with Israel. Both pose major obstacles to U.S. plans calling for the authority, which administers parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, to govern postwar Gaza ahead of eventual statehood.
That’s assuming that the war in the Gaza Strip ends with the defeat of the Hamas militant group — an Israeli and U.S. goal that seems elusive five months into the grueling war in which Israel’s assaults have killed almost 30,000 Palestinians and pushed the territory to the brink of famine.
Here’s a look at the government shake-up and what it means for the IsraelHamas war.
What is the Palestinian Authority?
The authority was created in the early 1990s through interim peace agreements signed between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization, then led by Yasser Arafat.
It was granted limited autonomy in parts of the West Bank and Gaza ahead of what the Palestinians hoped would be full statehood in both territories as well as East Jerusalem, lands that Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East War.
But the sides were unable to reach a final agreement through several rounds of peace talks. Mahmoud Abbas was elected president of the authority in 2005, months after Arafat’s death. Hamas won a landslide victory in parliamentary elections the following year, triggering an international boycott of the Palestinian Authority.
A power struggle between Abbas’ secular Fatah
party and Hamas boiled over in the summer of 2007, with Hamas seizing power in Gaza after a week of street battles. That in effect confined Abbas’ authority to parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Abbas recognizes Israel, is opposed to armed struggle and is committed to a two-state solution. His security forces have cooperated with Israel’s military to crack down on Hamas and other armed groups, and his government has worked with Israel to facilitate work permits, medical travel and other civilian affairs.
What does the resignation mean?
In announcing his resignation, Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said new arrangements were needed to address “the new reality in the Gaza Strip.”
Abbas accepted Shtayyeh’s resignation and is expected to replace him with Mohammad Mustafa, a U.S.-educated economist who has held senior positions at the World Bank and currently leads the Palestine Investment Fund. He was deputy prime minister and economy minister from 2013 to 2014.
The appointment of Mustafa, a political independent and not a Fatah loyalist like Shtayyeh, would
probably be welcomed by the U.S., Israel and other countries.
Mustafa has no political base, and Abbas will continue to have the final say on any major policies. Still, the appointment would convey the image of a reformed, professional authority that can run Gaza, which is important for the U.S.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said that it was up to the Palestinians to choose their leaders, but that the U.S. welcomes any steps to “reform and revitalize” the authority.
“We think those steps are positive. We think that they’re an important step to achieving a reunited Gaza and West Bank under the Palestinian Authority.”
How do Palestinians view the authority?
Abbas’ popularity has plummeted in recent years, with polls consistently finding that a large majority of Palestinians want him to resign. The authority’s security coordination with Israel is extremely unpopular, causing many Palestinians to view it as a subcontractor of the occupation.
Both the authority and Hamas have cracked down on dissent in the territories they control, violently suppressing protests and jailing
and torturing critics. Abbas’ mandate expired in 2009 but the 88-year-old leader has refused to hold elections, citing Israeli restrictions.
Hamas, whose popularity has soared during this and previous rounds of violence, would probably do well in any free election.
But the most popular Palestinian leader by far is Marwan Barghouti, a Fatah leader who is serving five life sentences in an Israeli prison after a 2004 terrorism conviction.
Hamas is demanding his release in exchange for some of the hostages it captured in the Oct. 7 cross-border attack that ignited the war, but Israel has refused.
Hamas has called for all the Palestinian factions to establish an interim government to prepare for elections. But Israel, the U.S. and other Western countries are likely to boycott any Palestinian body that includes the militant group, which they view as a terrorist organization.
Does Israel support the Palestinian Authority?
Israel prefers the Palestinian Authority to Hamas. But even though they cooperate on security matters, Israel accuses the authority of inciting terrorism, and the authority accuses Israel of apartheid and genocide.
Israel’s criticism largely focuses on the authority’s provision of financial aid to the families of Palestinian prisoners and Palestinians killed by Israeli forces — including militants who killed Israelis. Israel says the payments incentivize terrorism. The authority portrays them as social welfare for victims of the occupation.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose government is opposed to Palestinian statehood, has said the authority should have no role in postwar Gaza. He says Israel will maintain open-ended security control over the territory while local Palestinian leaders administer civilian affairs.
The U.S. has outlined a path to a broader postwar settlement in which Saudi Arabia would recognize Israel and join other Arab states and a revitalized authority in helping to rebuild and govern Gaza — all in exchange for a credible path to an independent Palestinian state.
The reform of the authority represents a small part of that package, which has yet to win over the Israeli government.