New Palestinian government gets wary greeting
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The Palestinian Authority led by President Mahmoud Abbas is under pressure from Washington to prepare to step into the breach in the aftermath of the Gaza war.
PHOTO: AFP
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RAMALLAH – A new Palestinian government that includes both Gazans and four women was sworn in on March 31, but was already facing scepticism from its own people.
The Palestinian Authority led by President Mahmoud Abbas is under pressure from Washington to prepare to step into the breach in the aftermath of the Gaza war and undertake reforms.
Newly appointed Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa said the government’s “top national priority” was ending the war as he named his new team.
He said his Cabinet would “work on formulating visions to reunify the institutions, including assuming responsibility for Gaza”.
President Abbas, 88, is being nudged by the United States to shake up the creaking authority so that it can reunite the occupied West Bank and Gaza under a single rule after the war.
The Palestinian Authority has had almost no influence over the Gaza Strip since Hamas took power there in 2007.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged Mr Abbas to make “administrative reforms” when the two men met in January.
Mr Abbas’ Ramallah-based administration has been hamstrung by Israel’s decades-old occupation of the West Bank and his own unpopularity.
Dr Mustafa, an economist and long-time Abbas adviser, said the “reconstruction” of the Palestinian territories was his main goal, with Gaza in ruins after six months of Israeli bombardment in retaliation for the Oct 7 attack.
His new Cabinet is made up of 23 ministers and includes four women and six ministers from Gaza, among them former Gaza City mayor Maged Abu Ramadan, who has been given the health portfolio.
Among the new female faces is Dr Varsen Aghabekian, a Palestinian-Armenian academic, who will work alongside Dr Mustafa in the Foreign Ministry, which he also controls.
The Premier, who previously worked for the World Bank, said the thorny issue of Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem was also a top priority, along with the “fight against corruption”.
But many doubt whether the Palestinian Authority – which has been dogged by divisions, corruption scandals and the authoritarian tendencies of its ageing leader – can be a credible player in any future deal.
Professor Ali Jarbawi, a former Palestinian Authority minister and political scientist, said it faced massive challenges on all fronts.
“It is broke and it’s in debt and can’t pay its salaries, so it needs immediate financial support,” he said.
It also needs to be accepted by both Palestinian factions – Fatah, which controls the West Bank, and Hamas in Gaza.
“Thirdly, it needs a political horizon, from the international community, and a commitment to the two-state solution,” Prof Jarbawi said.
He added that none of that can happen unless the “Israeli government, the army and settlers in the West Bank ease the pressure” on Palestinians.
Senior Hamas member Bassem Naim criticised Mr Abbas’ policies.
His “hijacking of the unified Palestinian decision-making” is dangerous for “our cause at this very critical stage in the history of our people”, he told AFP.
He said Hamas “proposed sitting down for the sake of national dialogue and rebuilding the political system... but Abbas blocked all these attempts”.
Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Marxist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine issued a joint statement in March declaring that Dr Mustafa’s appointment would only deepen Palestinian divisions.
People on the streets of Ramallah, where the authority is based, were equally sceptical.
“Changing the government will not solve anything because change to us comes only from the outside,” said Mr Suleiman Nassar, 56.
“We know very well that any minister or any Palestinian government will not get in without American or Israeli (approval).” AFP
