Mahmoud Abbas creates his own Palestinian government

Under pressure from Washington, who urges him se “correction” and for “Revive”, On Thursday March 28, the Palestinian Authority (PA) adopted a new government of technocrats, relatively unknown to the general public. On March 14, President Mahmoud Abbas instructed his economic adviser, Mohammad Mustafa, to form and lead this team. The government is to prepare for a return to power in the Gaza Strip, from where Hamas ousted it in 2007, and where Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, refuses to leave it with the slightest responsibility.

The team was sanctioned by a simple presidential decree. She should be sworn in on Sunday 31 March, without going before Parliament, dissolved in 2018. Prime Minister Mustafa is an apolitical civil servant, educated in the United States, formerly of the World Bank in Washington, and well versed in international donors of authority. Palestinian. Interior Minister Ziad Hab al-Rieh, who coordinates the security forces, remains in place. Six ministers are from Gaza, including the city’s former mayor, Majed Abu Ramadan.

In a letter to the President, Mr. Mustafa recalled on Thursday that his priority would be “Reintegrate institutions, including taking responsibility for Gaza” and contributes “Reconstruction” of the enclave, for which he plans to appoint a specific coordinator. If this government was able to be formed in two short weeks, it is because it was formed without much consultation with the Palestinian groups and especially without Hamas, which condemned this unilateralism on March 14.

Drive to bankruptcy

President Abbas, elected to a four-year term in 2005, remains at the center of the game at the age of 88. They promise reforms that their Western donors see as purely formal within the Palestinian Authority, which has been driven to bankruptcy by increasing Israeli pressure since the start of the war. This week, the Israeli government must rule on a possible severance of ties between the country’s banks and Palestinian financial institutions, which depend on them. This process was initiated by the Minister of Finance, Bezalel Smotrich, who was a staunch supporter of the West Bank settlements.

According to the Palestinian polling institute PCPSR, the vast majority of Palestinians reject Mr. Mustafa’s appointment, which they do not even consider a sign of reform. More than 60%, by contrast, demand a majority government, neither under the control of any party nor in the hands of Mr. Abbas.

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