On February 26, local time, Palestinian Prime Minister Ashtiyeh announced in the West Bank city of Ramallah that Palestine ** resigned.
On February 26, Palestinian Prime Minister Ashtiyah announced the resignation of Palestinians in a speech at a working meeting held in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Xinhua News Agency.
Given the new realities in the Gaza Strip and the urgent need for the Palestinian people to reach a consensus based on broad participation and solidarity and to extend the governance of the Palestinian National Authority to the entire Palestinian land, the next phase and its challenges will require new Palestinian political arrangements. Ashtiye said this after submitting his resignation.
According to foreign media reports, Ashtiyah has previously expressed his desire to establish a new professional and technical Palestine**. There are also reports of indications that Hamas has agreed to form a technical team with a mandate to rebuild Gaza and restore security to the Gaza Strip after the war.
As the Palestinian-Israeli conflict drags on, why did the Palestinians choose to resign now? What are the forces behind this? Can the new Palestinian** provide a solution to the growing humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip? South+ interviewed authoritative experts to interpret the above issues.
Question one. How is Palestine constituted?
To decipher why Palestinians resigned, the first thing to understand is how it was constituted.
In May 1994, the Palestinian National Authority was established by PLO resolution as a phased, transitional authority. In January 2013, the title of the Palestinian National Authority was officially changed to the State of Palestine.
On February 26, Palestinian Prime Minister Ashtiyah attended a working meeting in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Xinhua News Agency.
The state of Palestine is Mahmoud Abbas, who is also the chairman of the Palestinian National Liberation Movement (Fatah), a key Palestinian political faction.
Abbas represents the supreme authority of the State of Palestine. Palestine is the appointment of the Prime Minister of the State of Palestine by Abbas, who forms a cabinet to exercise specific administrative matters. Wang Jin, an associate professor at the Institute of Middle East Studies at Northwest University and a researcher at the Center for Syrian Studies, said.
In March 2019, Abbas appointed Mohammad Ashtiyeh, a member of the Fatah Committee and former Minister of Public Works and Housing, as Prime Minister, appointing him with the formation of a new one.
However, the ** formed in 2019 does not include members of another important political faction in Pakistan, the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas). The latter is the most important force in the current round of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict that has erupted with Israel in the Gaza Strip.
In fact, in recent years, Palestine has been in a state of ** internally. In 2007, Fatah clashed with Hamas, after which Fatah took de facto control of the West Bank and Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip.
That is, Palestine is actually a Fatah-led one. Wang Jin pointed out that the legitimacy of Palestine is not actually recognized by Hamas, and there is a delay in the process of internal political reconciliation in Palestinian.
With the outbreak of a new round of Palestinian-Israeli conflict, many contradictions within Palestine have also been revealed.
Question two. Why did Ashtieye announce his resignation at this time?
Xinhua news agency reported that when announcing the news of his resignation, Ashtiya said that the reason for his resignation was related to the situation in the Palestinian Gaza Strip, the West Bank and Jerusalem.
People inspect a car in the West Bank city of Jenin on February 22 after being hit by an Israeli drone. Xinhua News Agency.
According to the analysis of the interviewed experts, since the outbreak of the new round of Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the Palestinians have actually encountered both internal and external pressures.
Wen Shaobiao, an assistant researcher at the Institute of Middle East Studies at Shanghai Outer Chinese University, pointed out that from the perspective of Palestine, after the outbreak of the conflict, Hamas's support among the Palestinian people has increased significantly, putting pressure on Fatah. At the same time, some people have also criticized Fatah for not being tough enough on Israel, which has led to challenges to the legitimacy of Fatah-led Palestinians.
Wang Jin pointed out that from the perspective of Hamas, since Hamas won the second Palestinian legislative council election in 2006, the political faction has always claimed that the Palestinian structure should be decided according to the election results of that year. "Hamas has repeatedly stressed in recent years that it should be formed as a 'technocracy' with the aim of weakening the factional nature of Palestine and reversing the situation in which Fatah dominates. ”
In addition, Palestine** is also under pressure from Middle Eastern countries such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia. "These countries are the diplomatic and financial backers behind the Pakistani National Authority, and they hope that through the resignation of Pakistan, Pakistan will resolve the internal factional struggle in Pakistan and the criticism caused by the prolongation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Wang Jin said.
This is a makeshift camp in the border area between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, filmed in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, on February 21. Xinhua News Agency.
Egypt, Qatar and Israel's ally, the United States, are brokering a new humanitarian ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has suggested that once the new round of conflict ends, the Gaza Strip should be unified with the West Bank and under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian National Authority. The US side also pressured Abbas to implement "reforms" in the Palestinian National Authority.
According to Wang Jin's analysis, based on the reality of the above-mentioned gradually increasing pressure, the Palestinian ** chose to resign now, which is not only a gesture of the Palestinian National Authority to convey "readiness to change" at home and abroad, but also to maintain the stability of the power core of the Palestinian National Authority.
Question three. What is the impact on the course of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?
Xinhua news agency reported that after announcing his resignation, Ashtiyah said that the new Palestinian administration needed to be "extended to all Palestinian land".
In fact, this also proves that Palestine** did not have the capacity to manage the entire Palestinian territory, especially to provide an effective solution to the serious humanitarian crisis unfolding in the Gaza Strip. Wen Shaobiao said.
This is a building photographed after an Israeli airstrike in Rafah, a city in the southern Gaza Strip, on February 24. Xinhua News Agency.
Data from the health department of the Gaza Strip show that since the outbreak of the new round of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Israeli military operations have caused more than 2970,000 people died and about 70,000 were injured. The situation in the West Bank has similarly deteriorated significantly, with violent clashes escalating and more than 380 Palestinians killed.
Israel has recently carried out several rounds of heavy air strikes on the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, killing many people. Since the outbreak of the conflict, a large number of refugees have poured into Rafah, amounting to millions. The United Nations said on February 12 that the prospect of an all-out Israeli assault on the congested Gaza town of Rafah was "terrifying" and could result in an "extremely high" number of people.
However, the Palestinian ** is almost helpless against Rafah, and here it is almost in a state of "nothing**". "A lot of the management responsibilities in Rafah are actually borne by Egypt on the other side of the port. Wen Shaobiao said.
Wen Shaobiao believes that one of the reasons for the lack of effective management in Rafah and other cities in the Gaza Strip is that the former Palestine has strong partisan political overtones, which makes it difficult to send people into Gaza.
There is an analysis that the new Palestinian party will not be affiliated with any Palestinian political party, and professional independents will take over the administration during the initial transition phase until elections are held afterwards. In addition, Fatah and Hamas will send representatives to participate in the intra-Palestinian factional dialogue planned for 29 February in Moscow, the Russian capital.
On 22 February, smoke rose from Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip following an Israeli airstrike. Xinhua News Agency.
Wen Shaobiao pointed out that if the new ** can indeed achieve "depoliticized" professional skills**, it should be able to establish management on the ground more effectively, so as to resolve the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip to a certain extent.
Written by] Southern + reporter Lu Xi Wu Binbin.
Planner] Jay Lee.
Author] Ling Xi; Wu Binbin; Jay Lee.
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