Palestinian Authority announces a new Cabinet as it faces calls for reform
RAMALLAH, West Bank — The Palestinian Authority has announced the formation of a new Cabinet as it faces international pressure to reform.
President Mahmoud Abbas, who has led the authority for nearly two decades and remains in overall control, announced the new government in a decree Thursday. None of the incoming ministers is a well-known figure.
Abbas tapped Mohammad Mustafa, a longtime advisor, to be prime minister this month. Mustafa, a politically independent, U.S.-educated economist, had vowed to form a technocratic government and create an independent trust fund to help rebuild the Gaza Strip. Mustafa will also serve as foreign minister.
Interior Minister Ziad Hab al-Rih is a member of Abbas’ secular Fatah movement and held the same portfolio in the previous government. The Interior Ministry oversees the security forces. The incoming minister for Jerusalem affairs, Ashraf al-Awar, registered to run as a Fatah candidate in elections in 2021 that were indefinitely delayed.
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At least five of the incoming 23 ministers are from Gaza, but it was not immediately clear whether they are still in the territory.
The Palestinian Authority administers parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Its forces were driven from Gaza when the militant group Hamas seized power in 2007, and it has no power there. It has little popular support or legitimacy among Palestinians, in part because it has not held elections in 18 years. Its policy of cooperating with Israel on security matters is extremely unpopular and has led many Palestinians to view it as a subcontractor of the occupation.
Polls in recent years have consistently found that a vast majority of Palestinians want the 88-year-old Abbas to resign.
The U.S. has called for a revitalized Palestinian Authority to administer postwar Gaza ahead of eventual statehood.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has appointed his longtime economic adviser to be the next prime minister
Israel has rejected that idea, saying it will maintain open-ended security control over Gaza and partner with Palestinians who are not affiliated with the Palestinian Authority or Hamas. It’s unclear who in Gaza would be willing to take on such a role.
White House national security spokesman John F. Kirby said it was too early to make any broad assessments of the new Cabinet and on whether it would deliver on the “credible and far-reaching reforms” sought by the Biden administration.
Hamas has rejected the formation of the new government as illegitimate, calling instead for all Palestinian factions, including Fatah, to form a power-sharing government ahead of national elections.
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