On the Reshuffling of the Palestinian Government

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

For days now, Palestinian media has been preoccupied with the question of reshuffling the government hastily named the “consensus government,” and speculation about this reshuffle abounds. It is noteworthy that various Palestinian sources say it will be minor.

One would expect there to be reasons and justifications for reshuffling a government — the emergence of an urgent crisis, a particular notable failure, entry into war, and so on. But whoever looks at conditions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip sees nothing new on the Palestinian scene, and finds no justification for carrying out this reshuffle. It therefore appears the reshuffle concerns the internal relations of those controlling the Palestinian political scene. Perhaps a certain minister’s performance has been weak, or someone’s character has broken down, or become disobedient, and so on.

The success or failure of a given government is judged by the answer to this question: has the government changed anything about the reality of the Palestinian citizen under occupation? If the ordinary citizen feels no new reality, or does not feel the government has given him anything that positively affects his daily life, then he does not care whether the government is changed, reshuffled, or abolished. And on the Palestinian street, a passerby notices that the media is preoccupied with a ministerial reshuffle, while the citizen is preoccupied with managing his own livelihood, paying no attention to what happens in the corridors of Ramallah.

Since the establishment of the Palestinian Authority, many cabinets have been formed — perhaps as many as nineteen governments — and not a single one has offered the Palestinian people a program, a work plan, a vision, a philosophy, or a work strategy, including the current government headed by Rami Hamdallah. Governments form and pass, and no one knows how they will operate, or what they will do. The current government came with a kind of promise to the Palestinian people that it would end the division, and people were hopeful — but the division continues, and has perhaps deepened further. There was talk of rebuilding the Gaza Strip, paying the salaries of Gaza’s employees, and holding presidential and legislative elections in the West Bank and Gaza. None of these promises, nor the agreement between Fatah and Hamas, has been fulfilled. Gaza still suffers, employees outside the Authority’s own payroll receive no salaries, and no date for elections has been set. The “consensus” was nothing but a mirage.

“If the ordinary citizen feels no new reality, or does not feel the government has given him anything that positively affects his daily life, then he does not care whether the government is changed, reshuffled, or abolished.”

The president of the Authority had announced, from the very beginning, before the government was even formed, that it would be his government, operating according to his own program. For this reason, he announced it would operate under two conditions: continuing security coordination with the Zionists, and accepting the agreements with the Zionists. With these two conditions, he condemned the government’s work to failure from the outset. The Palestinian scene split apart and descended into infighting because of security coordination and the agreements with the Zionists, and every attempt to continue with both amounts to an insistence on division and infighting.

There remains the question: who governs in the territory occupied in ‘67 — the Palestinians, or the Zionists? It is clear that any government formed subject to the agreements with the Zionists cannot succeed, because Israel’s interests remain paramount, given the occupation’s capacity to control Palestinian policies across various fields. The occupation does not accept Palestinian policies that fall outside the scope of the agreements, and thereby stands between the people and its free will. There is no free political will in the occupied territory, and the decision, in the end, lies with the occupation and the United States. Given this, no government can offer the Palestinian people a work program, nor formulate an economic, social, or cultural vision, independent of the provisions of the agreements. The greater tragedy is that the Palestinian Authority must stand in confrontation with what is called “Palestinian terrorism,” and defend the security of Jews, settlers included.

Beyond this, the Palestinian people bears great expense as a result of the succession of governments — every minister requires an entourage, privileges, and allowances that cost the Palestinian treasury a great deal, at a time when that treasury awaits handouts from others. A minister is also allocated a salary after finishing his term at the ministry. There are now hundreds of people who have held the position of minister, or have been appointed to posts with ministerial rank, and they cost the Palestinian people money without providing any service in return for the salaries they draw.

The question is: does the Palestinian people, in the West Bank and Gaza, need governments and ministers at all? If the government produces no new reality for the Palestinian citizen, and if the Zionists intervene in every small and large matter, preventing the formulation of implementable work programs, what is the use of a Palestinian government that does not truly govern? The Palestinian people in the West Bank needs only a national body to manage the population’s daily and civil affairs, so that chaos does not occur. As for these grand titles — “Excellency,” “Your Honor,” “State” — they are entirely unnecessary, reflecting nothing of the true state of affairs. But even if a national body were formed to manage the population’s affairs, it would not be expected to succeed unless it were a purely administrative body with no relation to political dimensions, security coordination and the agreements with the Zionists especially. The Palestinian people needs to step out from under the “Oslo” umbrella, and matters will never be set right as long as the enemy remains at the helm, steering the Palestinian course.

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “بمناسبة تعديل الحكومة الفلسطينية” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.