The
Palestinian National Authority
(PNA or PA; Al-Sulá¹a
Al-Waá¹aniyyah Al-Filasá¹Ä«niyyah) is the administrative organization established to govern parts of the Palestinian
territories
of the West
Bank
and Gaza
Strip
.
The
Palestinian National Authority was formed in 1994, pursuant to the
Oslo Accords between the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the
government of Israel
, as a 5-year
interim body during which
final status negotiations between the two parties were to take
place but never did. According to the Oslo Accords, the
Palestinian Authority was designated to have control over both
security-related and civilian issues in Palestinian urban areas
(referred to as "Area A"), and only civilian control over
Palestinian rural areas ("Area B"). The remainder of the
territories, including Israeli settlements, the Jordan Valley
region, and bypass roads between
Palestinian communities, were to remain
under exclusive Israeli control ("Area C").
East Jerusalem was excluded from the
Accords.
Overview
The
Palestinian National Authority (PNA) is an interim
administrative body established in accordance with the Gaza-Jericho Agreement after the
Oslo Accords to assume the
responsibilities of the Israeli military administration in
populated Palestinian centers (Area A) in the
West
Bank and Gaza
Strip until final status negotiations with Israel are
concluded. The administrative responsibilities accorded to
the PNA are limited to civil matters and internal security and do
not include external security or foreign affairs. Palestinians in
the
diaspora and
inside Israel do not vote in
elections for the offices of the
Palestinian National Authority. The PNA should not be confused with
the
Palestine
Liberation Organization (PLO) who continues to enjoy
international recognition as the
sole legitimate representative of the
Palestinian people, representing them at
the
United Nations under the name
"
Palestine".
The PNA
has received financial assistance from the European Union and the United States
(approximately USD $1 bln. combined in
2005). All direct aid was suspended on 7 April 2006 as a
result of the
Hamas victory in parliamentary
elections. Shortly thereafter, aid payments resumed, but were
channeled directly to the offices of
Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank.
Conflict between Hamas and Fatah later
in 2006 resulted in
Hamas taking exclusive
control over the administration of all PNA institutions in the Gaza
Strip. Since January 9, 2009, when Mahmoud Abbas' term as President
was supposed to have ended and elections were to have been called,
Hamas supporters and many in the Gaza Strip have withdrawn
recognition for his Presidency and instead consider
Aziz Dweik, who served as the speaker of the
house in the
Palestinian
Legislative Council, to be the acting President until new
elections can be held. No Western financial assistance is given to
the PNA authorities in Gaza and Western governments do not
recognize anyone but Abbas to be the President.
The
Gaza
International Airport
was built by the PNA in the city of Rafah
, but
operated for only a brief period before being razed by Israel
following the outbreak of Al-Aqsa
Intifada in 2000. A sea
port was
also being constructed in Gaza but was never completed (see
below).
The creation of a Palestinian police force was called for under the
Oslo Accords.
The first Palestinian police force of
9,000 was deployed in Jericho
in 1994, and
later in Gaza
.
These forces initially struggled to control security in the areas
in which it had partial control which was used an excuse by Israel
to delay expansion of the area to be administered by the PNA. By
1996, the PNA security forces were estimated to include anywhere
from 40,000 to 80,000 recruits. employing some armored cars, and a
limited number carry automatic weapons. Many Palestinians opposed
to or critical of the peace process perceive the Palestinian
security forces to be little more than a proxy of the State of
Israel.
Many Palestinians are dependent on access to the Israeli job
market. During the 1990s, Israel began to replace Palestinians with
foreign workers. The process was found to be economical and also
addressed security concerns. This hurt the Palestinian economy, in
particular in the Gaza strip, where 45.7% of the population is
under the poverty line according to the
CIA World Factbook, but it also affected
the West Bank.
Officials
States that recognize Palestine
centre
More than 100 states recognize the State of Palestine, and 20 more
grant some form of diplomatic status to a Palestinian delegation,
falling short of full diplomatic recognition.
The following are listed in alphabetical order by region.
Africa
Americas
Asia
Europe
Middle East
Oceania
History
For the history of the territories currently controlled by the
PNA prior to its establishment, see History of Palestine and History of the
Palestinian territories.
The
Oslo Accords were signed on 13
September 1993 between the
Palestine Liberation
Organization and Israel. The
Gaza–Jericho Agreement was
signed on 4 May 1994 and detailed the creation of the Palestinian
Authority. This was an interim organization created to administer a
limited form of Palestinian self-governance in the Palestinian
territories for a period of five years during which final-status
negotiations would take place. The
Palestine Central Council, itself
acting on behalf of the
Palestine National Council of the
Palestine Liberation
Organization, implemented this agreement, making the
Palestinian National Authority accountable to the
PLO Executive Committee in a meeting
convened in Tunis from 10-11 October 1993. General elections were
held for its first legislative body, the
Palestinian Legislative
Council, on 20 January 1996. The expiration of the body's term
was 4 May 1999, but elections were not held because of the "the
prevailing coercive situation".
Since
the beginning of the Second
Intifada, the Palestinian Authority (PA) has been undermined
both in the Palestinian occupied
territories (Gaza
strip
and West
Bank) and abroad. Ariel
Sharon and the
George
W. Bush
administration refused to negotiate with
Yasser Arafat, leader of the
Palestine Liberation
Organization (PLO) and then president of the PA, whom they
asserted formed "part of the problem" (concerning the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict)
and not of its solution — this despite Arafat's signature of the
1993
Oslo Accords. In January 2006,
Hamas won the
legislative
elections, and thus replaced Arafat's
Fatah as leading party of the
Palestinian people.
Israel has accused the Palestinian Authority of ignoring and
covertly sponsoring violence against Israelis. This view has been
officially accepted by the United States in summer 2002, which
decided then to halt most sorts of negotiations with the current
Palestinian authority, pending a fundamental organizational change.
The US
Council on Foreign
Relations think tank has declared the
Palestinian Authority under Arafat a haven for terrorism.
During the Intifada, Israel has often targeted Palestinian
Authority personnel and resources. In particular, many of the
people arrested, assassinated or killed in action because of their
alleged terrorist activities, were employees of the Palestinian
Authority's securiy forces or militias. In
Operation Defensive Shield Israel
has captured documents that allegedly proved that the Palestinian
Authority officially sponsors terrorist activities, which are
carried out by its personnel as "shadow" jobs. For instance, Israel
arrested and convicted
Marwan
Barghouti, a prominent leader of Fatah, for his role as leader
of the
Al-Aqsa Martyrs'
Brigades. Barghouti maintains his innocence, and rejects the
impartiality of the Israeli courts.
Israel has also targeted Palestinian Authority infrastructure; in
particular it has closed parts of the Palestinian sea and air
ports, which Israel alleges have been used to transport terrorists
and their equipment. Israel's incursions during the Intifada also
led to damage to some of the Palestinian computer
infrastructure.
These moves were criticized by the Palestinians, who claim that the
Palestinian Authority is nearing collapse, and is no longer able to
carry out its internal and external obligations. The UN countered
by saying that this was "a good thing". This is because these
repeated degradations of PA resources and infrastructure have led
to complaints by the PA and some of its
European Union funders that Israel is
deliberately hobbling the PA to restrict its powers of law
enforcement in order to present an image of terrorism and
lawlessness in the Palestinian Territories.
On 7 July 2004, the
Quartet of
Middle East mediators informed
Ahmed Qurei,
Prime
Minister of the PA from 2003 to 2006, that they were "sick and
tired" of the Palestinians failure to carry out promised reforms:
"If security reforms are not done, there will be no (more)
international support and no funding from the international
community"
On 18
July 2004, United
States President George W. Bush stated that the establishment of a
Palestinian state by the end of 2005 was unlikely due to instabilty
and violence in the Palestinian Authority.
- In order for there to be a Palestinian state, it is essential
for its leaders to be open to reform and be dedicated to their
people.
The problem of the Palestinians is a territorial one – they have no
state and they have no leaders. Palestinians that want change need
to demand that a security force be established. The real problem is
that there is no leadership that is able to say 'help us establish
a state and we will fight terror and answer the needs of the
Palestinians'.
Following Arafat's death on 11 November 2004,
Rawhi Fattuh, leader of the
Palestinian Legislative
Council became
Acting President
of the Palestinian Authority as provided for in Article 54(2) of
the Authority's Basic Law.
- If the office of the President of the National Authority
becomes vacant due to any of the above cases, the Speaker of the
Palestinian Legislative Council shall assume the powers and duties
of the Presidency of the National Authority, temporarily for a
period not exceeding (60) sixty days, during which free and direct
elections to choose a new president shall take place in accordance
with the Palestinian Elections Law.
On 19
April 2005, Vladimir Putin the
president of Russia
agreed to aid the Palestinian Authority
stating, "We support the efforts of President Abbas to reform the
security services and fight against terrorism [...] If we are
waiting for President Abbas to fight terrorism, he cannot do it
with the resources he has now. [...] We will give the
Palestinian Authority technical help by sending equipment, training
people. We will give the Palestinian Authority helicopters and also
communication equipment."
The
Palestinian Authority became responsible for civil administration
in some rural areas, as well as security in the major cities of the
West
Bank and the Gaza Strip. Although the five-year interim period
expired in 1999, the final status agreement has yet to be concluded
despite attempts such as the
Camp
David 2000 Summit, the
Taba summit,
and the unofficial
Geneva
Accords.
In August 2005,
Israeli Prime
minister Ariel Sharon began his
unilateral
disengagement plan from Gaza strip, ceding full effective
internal control of the Strip to the Palestinian Authority but
retained control of its borders including air and sea (except for
the Egyptian border).. This increased the percentage of land in the
Gaza strip nominally governed by the PNA from 60 percent to 100
percent.
Palestinian
legislative elections took place on 25 January 2006.
Hamas was victorious and
Ismail Haniyeh was nominated as Prime
Minister on 16 February 2006 and sworn in on 29 March 2006.
However,
when a Hamas-led government was formed, Israel, the United
States, Canada
, and the European Union froze all funds to the
Palestinian Authority, after Hamas refused to recognize Israel's
right to exist, renounce violence, and agree to past
agreements. These countries view Hamas as a
terrorist organization.
In December 2006,
Ismail Haniyeh,
Prime Minister of the PA, declared that the PA will never recognize
Israel: "We will never recognize the usurper Zionist government and
will continue our jihad-like movement until the liberation of
Jerusalem."
In an attempt to resolve the financial and diplomatic impasse, the
Hamas-led government together with Fatah Chairman
Mahmoud Abbas agreed to form a
unity government.
Haniyeh resigned on 15 February 2007 as part of the agreement. The
unity government was finally formed on 18 March 2007 under Prime
Minister
Ismail Haniyeh and consisted
of members from Hamas, Fatah and other parties and
independents.
After the
takeover in Gaza by
Hamas on 14 June 2007,
Palestinian Authority Chairman Abbas
dismissed the government and on 15 June 2007 appointed
Salam Fayad Prime
Minister to form a new government.
Though the new
government's authority is claimed to extend to all Palestinian
territories, in effect it is limited to the Palestinian Authority
controlled areas of the West
Bank. The Fayad government has won widespread
international support.
Egypt
, Jordan
, and Saudi
Arabia
said in late June 2007 that the West Bank-based
Cabinet formed by Fayad was the sole legitimate Palestinian
government, and Egypt moved its embassy from Gaza to the West
Bank. Hamas, which has effective control of the Gaza Strip,
faces international diplomatic and economic isolation.
A six-month
truce between Hamas and Israel
ended on 19 December 2008. Hamas claimed that Israel broke the
truce on 4 November 2008, and that Israel had failed to lift the
Gaza Strip blockade, and Israel
blamed Hamas for the
rocket
fire directed at southern Israeli towns and cities. The
2008–2009
Israel–Gaza conflict began on 27 December 2008 (11:30
a.m. local time; 9:30 a.m.
UTC) when
the
Israel Defense Forces
launched a military campaign codenamed Operation Cast Lead ( ,
Mivtza Oferet Yetzuka) in response to rocket fire from the
area, targeting the members and infrastructure of
Gaza's governing party,
Hamas.
Politics and internal structure
The
Palestinian National Authority (PNA) was created by, is ultimately
accountable to, and has historically been associated with the
Palestine Liberation
Organization (PLO), with whom Israel negotiated
the Oslo Accords. The Chairman
of the PLO,
Yasser Arafat, was elected
as President of PNA in a
landslide victory in
1996. Subsequent elections were postponed, ostensibly due to
the eruption of the
Al-Aqsa
Intifada and the Israeli military clampdown that accompanied
it. However, internal Palestinian strife was also a reason for the
disorganization in government. After Arafat's death in 2004, new
elections occurred on both presidential and local levels. Although
almost 80% of the employees of the PA were local Palestinians,
higher posts were occupied mostly by PLO officials who returned
from exile once the PNA was established in 1994. To many local
Palestinians, these "returnees" were a source of bureaucracy and
corruption.
Arafat's administration was criticized for its lack of democracy,
widespread corruption among officials, and the division of power
among families and numerous governmental agencies with overlapping
functions. He established over ten distinct security organizations
through various mechanisms in an alleged
divide et impera scheme, which is
claimed to have guaranteed an atmosphere of power-struggle in the
Authority which enabled him to preserve overall control. Both
Israel and the US declared they lost trust in Arafat as a partner
and refused to negotiate with him, regarding him as linked to
terrorism. Arafat denied this, and was visited by other leaders
around the world up until his death. However, this began a push for
change in the Palestinian leadership. In 2003, Arafat succumbed to
domestic and international pressure and appointed
Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) as prime minister of
the PNA. Abbas resigned four months later because of lack of
support from Israel, the US, and Arafat himself. He was later
chosen as his
Fatah party's candidate for
president of the PA in 2004 after the death of Arafat. He won the
presidency on January 9, 2005 with 62% of the vote.
According to the Palestinian "Basic Law" which was signed by Arafat
in 2002 after a long delay, the current structure of the PA is
based on three separate branches of power: executive, legislative,
and judiciary. The Judiciary Branch has yet to be properly
formalized.The president of the PA is directly elected by the
people, and the holder of this position is also considered to be
the commander-in chief of the armed forces. In an amendment to the
Basic Law approved in 2003 (and which may or may not become part of
the Palestinian constitution once independence is established), the
president appoints a "prime minister" who is also chief of the
national security services. The prime minister chooses a cabinet of
ministers and runs the government, reporting directly to the
president. Former prime minister
Ahmed
Qureia formed his government on February 24, 2005 to wide
international praise because, for the first time, most ministries
were headed by experts in their field as opposed to political
appointees.
The
Palestinian
Legislative Council (PLC) is an elected body of 132
representatives and acts as a parliament. The PLC must approve all
government cabinet positions proposed by the prime minister, and
must also confirm the prime minister himself upon nomination by the
president. As opposed to other Arab countries, the PLC has
historically demonstrated considerable power, and has frequently
caused changes in government appointments through threats of
no-confidence votes. Many critical votes are won in the
government's favor without an outright majority. Since the death of
Arafat, the PLC has reinvigorated its activity, and commonly
summons senior executive officials to testify before it.
Parliamentary elections were conducted in January 2006 after the
recent passage of an overhauled election law that increased the
number of seats from 88 to 132.
Political parties and elections
From the establishment of the Palestinian Authority in 1993 until
the death of
Yasser Arafat in late
2004, only one election had taken place. All other elections were
deferred for various reasons.
A single
election
for president and the legislature took place in 1996. The next
presidential and legislative elections were scheduled for 2001, but
were delayed following the outbreak of the
Al-Aqsa Intifada. Following Arafat's death,
elections for
the President of the Authority were announced for January 9,
2005. The PLO leader
Mahmoud Abbas won
62.3% of the vote, while Dr.
Mustafa
Barghouti, a physician and independent candidate, won
19.8%.
On May 10, 2004 the Palestinian Cabinet announced that municipal
elections would take place for the first time.
Elections were
announced for August 2004 in Jericho, followed by certain municipalities in the Gaza Strip. In July 2004 these elections were
postponed. Issues with voter registration are said to have
contributed to the delay.
Municipal elections finally took place for
council officials in Jericho and 25 other towns and villages in the West Bank on December 23, 2004. On January 27, 2005,
the first round of the municipal elections
took place in the Gaza
Strip for officials in 10 local councils. Further
rounds in the West Bank took place in May 2005.
Elections for a new
Palestinian Legislative
Council (PLC) were scheduled for July 2005 by Acting
Palestinian Authority President
Rawhi
Fattuh in January 2005. These elections were postponed by
Mahmoud Abbas after major changes to
the Election Law were enacted by the PLC which required more time
for the
Palestinian Central
Elections Committee to process and prepare. Among these changes
were the expansion of the number of
parliament seats from 88 to 132, with half of the
seats to be competed for in 16 localities, and the other half to be
elected in proportion to party votes from a nationwide pool of
candidates.
The following organizations, listed in alphabetic order, have taken
part in recent elections inside the Palestinian National Authority:
October 2006 polls have shown that
Fatah and
Hamas have
equal strength.
On June 14, 2007, after the
Battle
of Gaza , Palestine president
Mahmoud
Abbas has dismissed the Hamas led government, leaving the
government under his control for 30 days, after which the temporary
government has to be approved by the Palestinian Legislative
Council.
Law
Violence against civilians
The
Palestinian Human
Rights Monitoring Group reports "
everyday disagreements and
clashes between the various political factions, families and cities
that a complete picture of Palestinian society is painted.
These divisions have during the course of the al Aqsa Intifada
also led to an increasingly violent ‘Intrafada’. In the 10
year period from 1993 to 2003, 16% of Palestinian civilian deaths
were caused by Palestinian groups or individuals."
Erika Waak reports in
The
Humanist "
Of the total number of Palestinian
civilians killed during this period by both Israeli and Palestinian
security forces, 16 percent were the victims of Palestinian
security forces." Accusations of collaboration with Israel are
used to target and kill individual Palestinians:"
Those who are
convicted have either been caught helping Israelis, spoken out
against Arafat, or are involved in rival criminal gangs, and these
individuals are hanged after summary trials. Arafat
creates an environment where the violence continues while silencing
would-be critics, and although he could make the violence
impossible, he doesn't stop it."
Freedom House's annual survey of
political rights and civil liberties, Freedom in the World
2001-2002, reports "
Civil liberties declined due to: shooting
deaths of Palestinian civilians by Palestinian security personnel;
the summary trial and executions of alleged collaborators by the
Palestinian Authority (PA); extrajudicial killings of suspected
collaborators by militias; and the apparent official encouragement
of Palestinian youth to confront Israeli soldiers, thus placing
them directly in harm's way."
Palestinian security forces have, as of
March 2005, not made any arrests for the October 2003 killing of
three American members of a diplomatic convoy in the Gaza Strip. Moussa Arafat,
head of the Palestinian Military Intelligence and a cousin of then
Palestinian Authority Chairman
Yasser
Arafat has stated that, regarding the United States pressure to
arrest the killers; "They know that we are in a very critical
position and that clashing with any Palestinian party under the
presence of the occupation is an issue that will present many
problems for us". Since the October 2003 attack, United States
diplomats have been banned from entering the Gaza Strip.
It is
claimed that some of the smuggling
tunnels connecting Egypt and the Gaza Strip are controlled by one of the Palestinian Authority
security services under Moussa Arafat's command. He is
accused of receiving a portion of the profits derived from the
smuggling tunnels.
During 2007 many Western and Christian targets were attacked in the
West Bank and Gaza. Members of local gangs and terror cells blew up
and destroyed institutions linked to Western culture such as
American schools, church libraries and dozens of Internet cafes.
These events were largely ignored by the media.
Violence against officials (2003-2004)
On
October 15, 2003, three members of a United States diplomatic convoy were killed and additional
members of the convoy wounded three kilometers south of the Erez
Crossing into the Gaza Strip by a terrorist bomb. The
perpetrators remain at large.
In
February 2004 Ghassan Shaqawa (the
mayor of Nablus
) filed his resignation from office in protest of
the Palestinian Authority's
lack of action against the armed militias rampaging the city and
the multiple attempts by some Palestinians to assassinate
him. Gaza's police chief, General Saib al-Ajez, later would
say: "This internal conflict between police and the militants
cannot happen. It is forbidden. We are a single nation and many
people know each other and it is not easy to kill someone who is
bearing a weapon to defend his nation."
Through the first three months of 2004, a number of attacks on
journalists in the West Bank and Gaza Strip have been blamed on the
Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades,
most clearly the attack on the Arab television station
Al-Arabiya's West Bank offices by masked men
self-identifying as members of the Brigades. Palestinian
journalists in Gaza called a general strike on February 9 to
protest this rising violence against journalists.
Karen Abu Zayd, deputy commissioner general for the
UN Relief and Works Agency in the Gaza Strip stated on
February 29, 2004: "What has begun to be more visible is the
beginning of the breakdown of law and order, all the groups have
their own militias, and they are very organized. It's factions
trying to exercise their powers."
Ghazi al-Jabali, the Gaza Strip Chief of Police, since 1994 has been the target of
repeated attacks by Palestinian. In March 2004, his
offices were targeted by gunfire. In April 2004, a bomb was
detonated destroying the front of his house. In July 17, 2004, he
was kidnapped at the at gunpoint following an
ambush of his convoy and
wounding of two bodyguards. He was released several
hours later. Less than six hours later, Colonel Khaled Abu Aloula,
director of military coordination in the southern part of Gaza was
abducted.
On July
17 eve, Fatah movement members kidnapped 5 French
citizens (3 men and 2 women) and held hostage in
Red
Crescent Society
building in
Khan
Yunis
:
- Palestinian security officials said that the kidnapping was
carried out by the Abu al-Rish Brigades, accused of being linked to
Palestinian Authority Chairman
Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction.
On July
18, Arafat replaced Ghazi al-Jabali,
with his nephew Moussa Arafat,
sparking violent riots in Rafah and Khan Yunis in which members of the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades burned
PA offices and opened fire on Palestinian policemen. During
the riots at least one Palestinian was killed and dozen more
seriously wounded.
On July
20, 2004 David Satterfield, the second-in-charge at the United
States Department of State Near East desk stated in hearing before
the Senate that the Palestinian Authority has failed to arrest the
Palestinian terrorist who
murdered three members of an American diplomatic convoy traveling
in the Gaza
Strip on October 15, 2003. Satterfield
states:
- There has been no satisfactory resolution of this case. We can
only conclude that there has been a political decision taken by the
chairman (Yasser Arafat) to block
further progress in this investigation.
On July 21,
Nabil Amar, former Minister
of Information and a cabinet member and a member of the
Palestinian Legislative
Council, was shot by masked gunmen, after an interview to a TV
channel in which he criticized Yasser Arafat and called for reforms
in the PA.
Regarding the descent into chaos Cabinet minister
Qadura Fares stated on July 21, 2004:
- Every one of us is responsible. Arafat is the most responsible
for the failure. President Arafat failed and the Palestinian
government failed, the Palestinian political factions failed.
On July
22, 2004, The United Nations elevated
its threat warning level for the Gaza Strip to "Phase Four" (one less than the maximum "Phase
Five") and plans to evacuate non-essential foreign staff from the
Gaza Strip.
The
firing of Qassam rockets from the
Gaza
Strip into Israel is strongly
opposed by those living closest to the firing location due to
frequent Israeli military responses to Qassam rocket
launches. On July 23, 2004, an Arab boy was shot and killed
by
Palestinian terrorist of
the
Al-Aqsa Martyrs'
Brigades after he and his family physically opposed their
attempt to set up a Qassam rocket launcher outside the family's
house. Five other individuals were wounded in the incident.
On July
25, 2004, 20 members of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades seized
the governor's office in the Gaza Strip town of Khan Yunis. Among their demands are
that
Yasser Arafat's cousin, Moussa
Arafat be dismissed from his post as chief of general security in
Gaza. In a separate attack, unidentified persons stormed a police
station and burned the structure causing extensive damage.
On July
31, Palestinian kidnappers in Nablus seized 3 foreign nationals, an American, British
and Irish
citizen. They were later released.
Also, a
PA security forces HQ building was burnt down in Jenin
by the al Aqsa
Martyrs' Brigades. A leader of Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades
said they torched the building because new mayor Qadorrah Moussa,
appointed by Arafat, had refused to pay salaries to Al Aqsa members
or to cooperate with the group.
On August 8, 2004 the Justice Minister Nahed Arreyes resigned
stating that he has been stripped of much of his authority over the
legal system. The year before,
Yasser
Arafat created a rival agency to the Justice Ministry and was
accused of continuing to control the judiciary and in particular
the state prosecutors.
On August 10, 2004, a report by an investigation committee
Palestinian Legislative
Council for the reasons for the anarchy and chaos in the PA was
published by
Haaretz daily
newspaper. The report puts the main blame on Yasser Arafat and the
PA's security forces, which "have failed to make a clear political
decision to end it".The report states,
- "The main reason for the failure of the Palestinian security
forces and their lack of action in restoring law and order"
...
- "is the total lack of a clear political decision and no
definition of their roles, either for the long term or the
short."
The report also calls to stop shooting
Qassam rockets and mortar shells on Israeli
settlements because of it hurts "Palestinian interests".Hakham
Balawi said:
- "... It is prohibited to launch rockets and to fire weapons
from houses, and that is a supreme Palestinian interest that should
not be violated because the result is barbaric retaliation by the
occupying army and the citizenry cannot accept such shooting. Those
who do it are a certain group that does not represent the people
and nation, doing it without thinking about the general interest
and public opinion in the world and in Israel. There is no vision
or purpose to the missiles; the Palestinian interest is more
important"
Despite the criticism against Yasser Arafat, the troubles
continued.
On August 24, the Lieutenant Commander of
the Palestinian General Intelligence in the Gaza Strip, Tareq Abu-Rajab, was shot by group of armed
men. He was seriously injured.
On
August 31, the Jenin Martyrs Brigades, the armed wing of the Popular Resistance
Committees, threaten to kill Minister Nabil Shaath for participating in a conference
in Italy
attended by Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom,
declaring "He will be sentenced to death if he enters. The
decision cannot be rescinded, we call upon his bodyguards to
abandon his convoy in order to save their lives."
On September 8, Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei, threatens to resign,
again. Three weeks have elapsed since he retracted is resignation,
originally tendered six weeks ago.
On October 12,
Moussa Arafat, cousin
of Yasser Arafat and a top security official in the Gaza Strip,
survived a
car bomb assassination attempt.
Recently the Popular Resistance Committees threatened Moussa Arafat
with retaliation for an alleged attempt to assassinate its leader,
Mohammed Nashabat.
On October 14, Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei stated that
the Palestinian Authority is unable to stop the spreading anarchy.
While routinely blaming Israel for the PA's problems, he pointed
out that the many PA security forces are hobbled by corruption and
factional feuding. Due to the lack of governmentals reforms
demanded by international peace mediators, Palestinian legislators
demanded Qurei present a report on the matter by October 20, at
which point they will decide upon holding a no-confidence
vote.
On
October 19, a group of Al-Aqsa
Martyrs' Brigades members, led by Zakaria Zubeidi, seized buildings belonging
to the Palestinan Finance ministry and Palestinian parliament in
Jenin.
Current Palestinian measures to keep law and order
In 2006, after the
Hamas victory, the
Palestinian interior minister formed an Executive Force for the
police. However, the PA president objected and after clashes
between Hamas and Fatah, a redeployment of the force was made and
efforts started in order to integrate it with the police
force.
Administrative divisions
After
the signing of the Oslo Accords, the
West
bank
and the Gaza Strip were divided into areas (A, B, and C)
and governorates.Area A refers
to the area under
PNA security
and civilian control.
Area B refers to the area under Palestinian civilian and Israeli security control.Area C refers to the area
under full Israeli control such as settlements.
Since the
Battle of Gaza most
of the Gaza Strip is in control of the
Hamas
with the
PA stating it is
officially no longer in control of the Gaza Strip.
Map showing governorates and areas of
formal Palestinian control (Areas A and B in deep green)
The PNA divides the Palestinian territories into
16
governorates
,
Economy
Following the 2006 legislative elections, won by
Hamas, Israel has ceased transferring the $55 million
tax-receipts to the PA; since the PA has no access point (ports,
airports, etc.) to receive taxes, it is Israel that is charged with
this duty. These funds accounted for a third of the PA's budget,
two thirds of its proper budget, and ensure the wages of 160,000
Palestinian civil servants (among them 60,000 security and police
officers), on which a third of the Palestinian population is
dependent. Israel has also increased controls on check-point, which
has been a main cause of the 2001-2002 economic recession since the
beginning of the
Second Intifada,
which the
World Bank has compared to the
1929 economic crisis. Furthermore,
the US and the EU have stopped direct aid to the PA, while the US
imposed a financial blockade on PA's banks, impeding some of the
Arab League's funds (e.g.
Saudi
Arabia and Qatar
) from being transferred to the PA. On May 6
and 7, 2006, hundreds of Palestinians demonstrated in Gaza and the
West Bank demanding payment of their wages. Tension between Hamas
and
Fatah has increased with the "economic
squeeze" on the PA. The
UN
institution underlines that
unemployment, which was estimated to 23% in
2005, would increase to 39% in 2006, while
poverty, estimated at 44%, would increase to 67% in
2006.
Foreign aid and budget deficit
Due to
conditions in the territory it administers, the Palestinian Authority (PA) has received
unprecedented financial support from the international
community. According to the
World
Bank, USD $929 million were given by the international
community to the PNA in 2001, $891 million in 2003 and $1.1 billion
in 2005 (representing 53% of the
budget in
2005). The main objectives are support to the budget,
development aid and
public health.
In 2003, the US funded $224 million, the
EU $187 million, the Arab League $124
million, Norway
$53 million, the World Bank $50 million, the
United
Kingdom $43 million, Italy $40 million, and the last $170 million by
others. According to the World Bank, the
budget deficit was about of $800 million in
2005, with nearly half of it financed by donors. "The PA's fiscal
situation has become increasingly unsustainable mainly as a result
of uncontrolled government consumption, in particular a rapidly
increasing public sector wage bill, expanding social transfer
schemes and rising net lending," said the World Bank report.
Government corruption is widely seen as the cause of much of the PA
financial difficulties.
Economic sanctions following January 2006 legislative
elections
Following the
January 2006 legislative
elections, won by
Hamas, the
Quartet (the United States,
Russia, the European Union, and the United Nations) threatened to
cut funds to the Palestinian Authority.On February 2, 2006,
according to the
AFP, the PNA
accused Israel of "practicing collective punishment after it
snubbed US calls to unblock funds owed to the Palestinians." Prime
minister
Ahmed Qorei "said he was
hopeful of finding alternative funding to meet the budget shortfall
of around 50 million dollars, needed to pay the wages of public
sector workers, and which should have been handed over by Israel on
the first of the month." The US Department criticized Israel for
refusing to quickly unblock the funds. The funds were later
unblocked.However, the
New York Times alleged on February
14, 2006 that a "destabilization plan" of the United States and
Israel, aimed against
Hamas, winner of the
January 2006 legislative elections, centered "largely on money" and
cutting all funds to the PA once Hamas takes power, in order to
delegitimize it in the eyes of the Palestinians. According to the
news article, "The Palestinian Authority has a monthly cash deficit
of some $60 million to $70 million after it receives between $50
million and $55 million a month from Israel in taxes and customs
duties collected by Israeli officials at the borders but owed to
the Palestinians." Beginning March 2006, "the Palestinian Authority
will face a cash deficit of at least $110 million a month, or more
than $1 billion a year, which it needs to pay full salaries to its
140,000 employees, who are the breadwinners for at least one-third
of the Palestinian population. The employment figure includes some
58,000 members of the security forces, most of which are affiliated
with the defeated
Fatah movement." Since
January 25 elections, "the Palestinian
stock market has already fallen about 20 percent", while the
"Authority has exhausted its borrowing capacity with local
banks."
Use of European Union assistance
In February 2004, it was reported that the
European Union (EU) anti-fraud office
(
OLAF) was studying documents suggesting that
Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian
Authority had diverted tens of millions of dollars in EU funds to
organizations involved in terrorist attacks, such as the
Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. However,
in August 2004, a provisional assessment stated that "To date,
there is no evidence that funds from the non-targeted EU Direct
Budget Assistance to the Palestinian Authority have been used to
finance illegal activities, including terrorism."
A separate EU "Working Group" also issued a report in April 2004,
adopted by a 7-6 vote, which covers the period from the end of 2000
to the end of 2002, stating that EU aid has not been siphoned off
to Palestinian militants carrying out attacks on Israelis: "There
is no conclusive evidence, to date, that the EU non-targeted direct
budgetary support was used to finance illegal activities, including
the financing of terrorism".
Furthermore, the EU has changed the way it funded the Palestinians
and now uses targeted aid for specific purposes. From April 2003,
money is only handed over if various conditions are met, such as
the presentation of invoices for bills the Palestinians need to
pay. The EU remains the biggest donor to the Palestinian
Authority.
Payments to Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons
On July
22, 2004, Salam Fayyad, PNA Minister of Finance, in an article in
the Palestinian weekly, The Jerusalem Times, detailed the
following payments to Palestinians imprisoned by the Israeli authorities:
- Prisoner allowances increased between June 2002 and June 2004
to $9.6m monthly, an increase of 246 percent compared with January
1995-June 2002.
- Between June 2002 and June 2004, 77 million shekels were
delivered to prisoners, compared to 121 million between January
1995 and June 2002, which is an increase of 16 million shekels
yearly. The increase of annual spending between the two periods
registers 450 percent, which is much higher than the percentage of
increase of the number of prisoners.
- Between 2002 and 2004, the PNA paid 22 million shekels to cover
other expenses — lawyers’ fees, fines, and allocations for released
prisoners. This includes lawyers’ fees paid directly by the PNA and
fees paid through the Prisoners Club.
Demographics
West Bank
The following demographic statistics are from the
CIA World Factbook, unless otherwise
indicated.
Population
The population in the West Bank is 2,407,681, excluding Israeli
settlers.
[3942] This figure includes 209,000 Arabs in
east Jerusalem, also counted as Israeli residents (and in the
Israeli population statistics), as 98% of east Jerusalem
Palestinians have either Israeli residency or Israeli
citizenship.
Total population 2,771,681, including
187,000
Israeli settlers in the West Bank and 177,000 in east Jerusalem
(July 2008 est.)
Age structure
- 0-14 years: 38% (male 469,754, female 445,999)
- 15-64 years: 58.3% (male 719,267, female 684,790)
- 65 years and over: 3.6% (male 36,606, female 51,265) (2008
est.) World fact book
Population growth rate
2.225% (2008 est.)
[3943]
Birth rate
25.95 births per 1,000 population (2008 est.)
Mortality rate
3.85 deaths per 1,000 population (2006 est.)
Gaza Strip
The following demographic statistics are from the CIA World
Factbook, unless otherwise indicated.
Population
1,482,405 (June, 2007)
Age structure
- 0-14 years:44.7% (male 343,988, female 325,856)
- 15-64 years:52.7% (male 403,855, female 386,681)
- 65 years and over:2.7% (male 16,196, female 23,626)
(2008 est.)
Population growth rate
3.422% (2008 est. see also:
Demographic
trap)
Birth rate
39.45 births per 1,000 population (2006 est.)
Mortality rate
3.8 deaths per 1,000 population (2006 est.)
See also
Notes and references
Bibliography
External links
Government
General information
Other
OIC
members and Palestine The Statistical, Economic and Social
Research and Training Centre for Islamic Countries
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