BICOM

Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas yesterday oversaw the swearing in of the new PA government in Ramallah, the fifteenth since the establishment of the Authority during the 1990s.

The government is headed by new Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah, who was appointed by Abbas earlier this week to succeed Salam Fayyad who resigned in April. Hamdallah is a career academic who spent time studying in the UK.

Hamdallah has stressed that he will only remain in position until the formation of a Palestinian unity government including Abbas’ Fatah faction and Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip. The two factions agreed last month to set a three-month framework to implement such an arrangement, but previous unity initiatives have failed to bear fruit. Hamdallah told AFP “Let’s be optimists and hope that we can achieve a unity government… I ask all Palestinian factions to work together to end this sad situation of division.” However, earlier this week a Hamas statement said that the appointment of the new PA government “proves that the Fatah leadership is willing to maintain and prolong the state of disagreement.”

Hamdallah’s government itself includes two new deputy prime ministers, Ziad Abu Amr, an independent politician from the Gaza Strip, and Muhammad Mustafa, an economic advisor to Abbas and director of the PLO’s Palestine Investment Fund. Other new faces in the 24-member government include Shukri Bishara as Finance Minister, Ali Abu Zuhri as Education Minister, Kamal al-Sharafi as Social Welfare Minister, Jawad Awwad as Health Minister, Nabil Smaidi as Transportation Minister, and Saed al-Kawni as Minister for Local Government.

The remaining positions are filled by ministers from Fayyad’s administration, including Foreign Affairs Minister Riad Malki, Interior Minister Said Abu Ali, and Minister for Jerusalem Affairs Adnan Husseini.