Prime Minister and government of the Palestinian Authority Resign

Mohammed Shtayyeh, the prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, stated on Monday that his administration and members had tendered their resignations.

“Today, I formally submit the resignation of the government to Mr. President Mahmoud Abbas, as I would like to inform the honorable council and our great people,” Shtayyeh wrote in a Facebook post last Tuesday.

The resignation occurs at a time when the United States is exerting significant pressure on the Palestinian Authority (PA) to enhance its administration in the Israeli-occupied West Bank through reforms.

Both Palestinians and US lawmakers have long viewed the PA as corrupt.

After the Palestine Liberation Organization signed the Oslo Accords with Israel, the PA was established in the middle of the 1990s as a transitional administration in anticipation of Palestinian independence.

Its headquarters are in Ramallah, the city in the West Bank that is under occupation, and it has some degree of self-rule over the region.

After Hamas emerged victorious in the 2006 legislative elections in the occupied territories and drove the government, which is dominated by the Fatah political party, out of the Gaza Strip, administrative authority was retained by the government until 2007.

Israel has disregarded the idea of creating a Palestinian state in the territories as well as the possibility of the PA returning to Gaza following the conflict.

But as part of a future independent state, the US supports a reformed PA controlling Gaza as well as the West Bank.

Prime Minister Shtayyeh, who took office in 2019, stated to CNN in October that the US is necessary to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian problem, but he also mentioned that the US administration lacks the political will to do so.

“They are handling it,” he remarked.

Palestinians regard the PA as incapable of offering security against Israel’s frequent invasions into the West Bank, which contributes to their extreme dislike of it.

More than 60% of Palestinians support the dissolution of the PA, according to a December survey by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research.

In the meantime, the position of President Abbas, who has been in office since 2005, has lost all support.

The poll indicates that 92% of respondents in the West Bank want him to step down.

The PA’s prime minister position was established in 2003 in response to calls for change from the US, the EU, and Israel, which came after the Second Palestinian Intifada.

It was President Yasser Arafat’s first significant step toward power sharing since the PA was founded.

Arafat appointed Abbas prime minister at the time. President Abbas assumed office following Arafat’s passing in 2004.