Palestinian Unity Government of June 2014

Background

Pursuant to the Oslo Accords, the authority of the PA Government is limited to some civil rights of the Palestinians in the West Bank Areas A and B and in the Gaza Strip, and to internal security in Area A and in Gaza. Since 2007, Gaza has de facto been ruled by Hamas alone.

On 3 May 2011, Fatah and Hamas signed the 2011 Cairo agreement, which promised the formation of a consensus government with the aim to prepare Presidential, Legislative and Palestinian National Council elections to be held in May 2012. Other tasks would be the formation of a "Higher Security Committee", the reconstruction operations in the Gaza Strip (after the 2008/2009 Operation Cast Lead) and the efforts to end the siege and blockade imposed on Gaza, end the split of the governments in West Bank and Gaza, and reactivate the Palestinian Legislative Council.

In the Fatah–Hamas Doha Agreement of 7 February 2012, both parties again agreed to form an interim national consensus government composed of independent technocrats, to prepare for upcoming elections. It would be led by President Mahmoud Abbas. After the implementation of the agreement had been stalled, allegedly because Hamas leaders had refused to allow the registration of new voters in Gaza, a new agreement was signed in May 2012. Eventually, a unity government did not materialize and President Abbas established a new Palestinian Authority Government in the West Bank on 6 June 2013, headed by Rami Hamdallah.

On 1 April 2014, the Palestinians submitted official requests to join 15 UN conventions and treaties, when Israel refused to abide its commitment to release a batch of prisoners as a condition for peace talks. On 23 April 2014, Fatah and Hamas concluded the 2014 Fatah–Hamas Gaza Agreement to form a national unity government within five weeks, to be followed by general elections as soon as December. An Israeli official declared that the Israeli decision to scrap the release of prisoners came after Palestinian UN envoy Riyad Mansour had announced to join the 15 UN conventions.

Establishment

The Government was inaugurated on 2 June 2014 following the agreement between Fatah and Hamas. After the inauguration ceremony, President Mahmoud Abbas said in a televised speech that was broadcast on Palestine TV, that the unity government would serve as an interim government with its main mission to prepare for presidential and parliamentary elections.

Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah considered the formation of this government as the first step toward ending the division, uniting the Palestinian homeland and institutions and bringing about national reconciliation. He said that the government’s tasks included addressing division, reuniting state institutions, commencing Gaza reconstruction and paving the way for facilitating presidential and parliamentary elections.

The new government was composed of technocratic members. The ministers were nominally independent, but overwhelmingly seen as loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah movement or to smaller leftist factions. None was believed to be affiliated with Hamas.

In March 2016, senior Hamas official Mahmoud Al-Zahar said that Hamas had agreed with a government without Hamas as a coexistence between different programmes rather than "a mix of interests". He said the government’s task was to improve electricity and rebuild the Gaza Strip. Improve the situation of the Palestinians in Gaza and prepare for elections was the condition for not being part of any government.

Like the former emergency governments after June 2007, which were installed by presidential decree, this unity government was in fact illegal, as it was not approved by the Legislative Council. Without the cooperation of all parties, however, it was not possible to get the necessary quorum to put a vote.

The agreement that led to the formation of the consensus government also calls for reforming the PLO, that ostensibly represents all Palestinians inside and outside the occupied territories. It includes holding elections for the Palestine National Council, the PLO’s long-neglected parliament-in-exile, and expanding PLO membership to include Hamas and other political parties.

Dispute about the Prisoners' Affairs Ministry

Hours before the swearing-in ceremony on 2 June, Hamas threatened not to recognize the unity government if it did not include a Minister for Prisoner Affairs. Abbas wanted to dissolve the Ministry in favour of forming a prisoner affair administration under control of the PLO. In the end, the Prisoners’ Affairs Ministry was turned into a commission that would be temporarily run by Shawki al-Issa, the Minister of Agriculture and Social Affairs, upon a decision by the PLO.

In September 2014, the PA declared that the Prisoners Affairs Ministry was replaced with the new established "Higher National Commission for Prisoners and Detainees Affairs", headed by former PA Prisoners Affairs Minister Issa Qaraqe. The Commission came under the responsibility of the PLO. The move was said to have been taken at the request of Israel and Western donor countries, who objected the financial aid the former Ministry provided to Palestinian prisoners of Israel.

After the change, media continued referring to Qaraqe as the "Palestinian minister for prisoner affairs", while Ma'an News Agency in July 2015 used the title "Minister of Prisoners' Affairs" and in 2016 "Head of the Palestinian Committee for Prisoners' Affairs".

In December 2015, Ma'an wrote that the PA had cut the salaries of former Palestinian prisoners. In a response, the Palestinian Prisoners' Society (PPS) said that some of them were no longer paid due to their political affiliations. Others were requested to prove that they actually became sick while in prison. the PPS said they may not recognize the "legitimacy" of the Palestinian Authority.

Upon the formation of the government in 2014, former long-serving deputy Minister for Prisoners’ Affairs Ziad Abu Ein became in charge of the portfolio for the struggle against the Israeli West Bank barrier and the settlements, a role equivalent to the rank of a minister in the Palestinian Authority government. Abu Ein died on 10 December 2014, during protest in the West Bank "after inhaling tear gas and being shoved and struck in the chest by a member of the Israeli security forces".

International reactions

The European Union, the United Nations, the United States, China, India, Russia and Turkey all agreed to work with the new government. The US-based Palestine Center wrote that despite the fact that Hamas was explicitly not involved in the government, US mainstream coverage of the new government focused on Hamas' involvement, echoing Israeli talking points about the government by overstating the alleged role Hamas played in it, in an effort to label it a "terrorist" government.

US Secretary of State John Kerry said that Washington would work with the new Palestinian government while continuing to watch it closely. He expressed “concern about Hamas’ role in any such government”. The Israeli Government condemned the unity government. It immediately announced a series of punitive measures. They included the withholding of some taxes it collects on the PA's behalf, and freezing negotiations with the Palestinians. It refused to allow the passage of four prospective ministers from the Gaza Strip to the occupied West Bank, while it called on the international community to shun the new Palestinian government. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ended peace talks with Abbas.

Timeline

Despite the formation of the "unity government", the PA security forces continued arresting Hamas supporters in the West Bank. Hamas in return arrested a senior Fatah official in the Gaza Strip.

Although initially the primary task of the national consensus government was to prepare for legislative and presidential elections to be held after six months, its focus soon shifted to more urgent questions. On 14 June 2014, less than 2 weeks after the inauguration, the Israeli military started major raids on Palestinian areas throughout the West Bank, following the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenager settlers, which continued for some weeks. Militants in the Gaza Strip responded with increased rocket fire at Israel. On 8 July, Israel launched an unprecedented military operation against Gaza with over 2,100 Palestinian killed and wide-scale destruction of civilian property and infrastructure. The government now focussed to rebuilding the war-shattered and impoverished enclave.

The Palestinian Unity Government convened on 9 October 2014 for the first time since 2007 in Gaza, to discuss the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip following the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict. As Hamas was discontended with the government over the failure of the reconstruction process in Gaza, the ongoing closure of the crossings and the failure to settle the issue of the payment of employee salaries, it threatened with a vote of no confidence in Parliament in November 2014.

Dispute about expiration

On 30 November 2014, Hamas declared that the unity government had ended with the expiration of the six-month term. Abbas had accused Israel and Hamas of secretly negotiating, and said earlier that Hamas is completely responsible for Gaza, and not the joint Fatah-Hamas unity government. Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri criticized the PA for the arrest of hundreds of Hamas operatives and detaining 80 Palestinians in the West Bank for political affiliation. Hamas denounced "the escalating violations and criminal acts by the PA security services against supporters of Hamas and the Palestinian resistance". Fatah denied that the unity government mandate had ended. Faisal Abu Shahla said that the reconciliation agreement was still in force, but additional reconciliation talks were suspended until Hamas responded to Fatah regarding a series of bomb attacks against Fatah officials’ property in Gaza and the subsequent cancellation of a memorial service for deceased Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

Resignation

On 17 June 2015, the government resigned after President Mahmoud Abbas had said it was unable to operate in the Gaza Strip. There had been indirect talks between Hamas and Israel on ways to firm up an informal ceasefire agreement concluded after the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict. Hamas, however, rejected any unilateral dissolution of the Palestinian consensus government without holding discussions with all parties.

Members of the Government

June 2014 to June 2015

July reshuffle

On 1 July 2015, a cabinet reshuffle was announced. President Mahmoud Abbas appointed 5 new ministers. On 31 July, the new ministers were sworn-in.

Hamas was not consulted about the move and opposed the unilateral forming process, arguing that any unity government should be a non-political entity, carrying out tasks agreed upon by all factions. Hamas said it will retain its control on the Gaza Strip and split from the coming government if it was not actively included in the process, but preferred a consensus government to govern both the Gaza Strip and West Bank.

Although Hamas did not recognize the new ministers and rejected the one-sided changes, the reshuffling was called "technical and not political", and the new cabinet was presented as a slightly changed existing government, still called "consensus government".

December reshuffle

On 14 December 2015, President Abbas announced a minor cabinet reshuffle. Three ministers were replaced.

The new cabinet members were more loyal to Abbas. Palestinian officials accused the President of abusing his powers to settle scores with political rivals in the PLO and his own Fatah faction. Earlier, Abbas had fired Yasser Abed Rabbo as PLO secretary-general on 30 June 2015 and dismissed as head of the Darwish Foundation in December. Abbas also dismissed by presidential decree 25 members of the board of directors of a foundation created to preserve the cultural, literal and intellectual heritage of Mahmoud Darwish and declared the Union of Public Employees illegal in 2014.

Hamas denounced the unilateral step and did not recognise the new ministers. Also former Minister of State and Fatah official Hasan Asfour criticized the decrees, saying that they amounted to a “hijacking of Palestinian legitimacy.”