Though only one portfolio remains to be filled, the soon-to-be-announced Palestinian national unity government faces unprecedented challenges, writes Khaled Amayreh in the West Bank Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh are working intensively to surmount "the last remaining obstacle" impeding the completion of a long- awaited Palestinian national unity government. Fatah and Hamas are reportedly yet to agree on the identity of who will be at the helm of the politically sensitive Interior Ministry. PA spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina said Wednesday "talks will continue between President Abbas and acting Prime Minister Haniyeh. We are at the very last moments before the government is announced. The announcement will take place this week." Abbas and Haniyeh met for two and a half hours Tuesday night. Ghazi Hamed, spokesman for the outgoing government, described the meeting as "positive", adding that both Abbas and Haniyeh agreed that the government should be announced before the end of the week. Hamed said Hamas submitted three more candidates for the portfolio of interior minister. Abbas has rejected two previous candidates, including a former Fatah security officer. Earlier, Haniyeh said the new government was "almost ready", adding that he was awaiting the arrival of President Abbas in Gaza in order to "put the final touches" on the new line-up. "Thank God, we have been able to overcome most of the problems impeding the formation of the government. And, God willing, we will present the government to the Legislative Council for approval this coming Saturday," Haniyeh said. President Abbas, who is also head of the Fatah movement, has already received a list of candidates for the seven ministerial portfolios allotted to Fatah. According to the Palestinian daily Al-Ayam, Fatah has proposed that Azzam Al-Ahmed, head of the group's parliamentary bloc, be appointed deputy prime minister. The same paper, however, quoted unidentified sources as saying that Abbas favoured Salam Fayad for the post in addition to the finance portfolio, which he occupied during the pre-2006 PA government. Fayad is widely accepted by the West, which had pressed former Palestinian president Yasser Arafat to appoint him to the helm of the Finance Ministry as part of a package of political and financial reforms demanded by donor countries. Abbas hopes that with Fayad as both deputy premier and finance minister, the European Union and other influential states would be prompted to terminate, or at least alleviate, the current financial and political blockade on the Palestinians. Haniyeh, speaking during the final session of the outgoing Hamas-dominated government, said the upcoming national unity government would "give our people hope for a better tomorrow and for living in peace, stability and freedom." He added that the government would work with Arab, Islamic and friendly countries to lift the "oppressive siege" and realise in full the aspirations of the Palestinian people, adding that he and Abbas would attend the upcoming Arab summit in Riyadh, and that "for the first time, the Palestinians will speak in one voice." The Riyadh summit is expected to re- launch the so-called Arab or Saudi initiative, which calls for a full Israeli withdrawal from Arab territories occupied in 1967, including East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, in return for the normalisation of Arab relations with Israel. Meanwhile, the upcoming Palestinian national unity government will face a host of formidable challenges upon which its survival depends, including healing the wounds of armed and bloody showdowns between Fatah and Hamas that created a chasm of mistrust between the two groups. The restoration of law and order is critical and includes refurbishing the justice system, now dominated by cronyism and factionalism. The most daunting task is perhaps the confiscation of illegal weapons and controlling militias and gunmen operating outside the law. There is also the task of merging the Hamas-backed Executive Force into the Fatah-dominated national security apparatus, which is not expected to be easy. Then there is the cardinal task of lifting the crippling siege, imposed by the West and Israel following Palestinian parliamentary elections that brought Hamas to power. Indeed, lifting the siege is the raison d'être of the national unity government. The two wings of the government, Fatah and Hamas, hope that Saudi Arabia, with its political and financial weight, will be able to woo Arab states and some European countries into lifting the siege. It is uncertain whether Saudi Arabia -- presuming it agrees to throw its weight behind the unity government -- will be able to counter Israeli and American pressure on the EU to maintain the blockade until the government explicitly recognises Israel, even without Israeli reciprocity. Finally, the government will have to deal with the core issue confronting all Palestinians: the Israeli occupation and its daily acts of repression and murder throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip. For its part, Israel seems determined to thwart the national unity government through a policy of arresting its ministers and officials, especially those affiliated with Hamas, and also by refusing to unfreeze over half a billion dollars of Palestinian customs revenue seized by Israel last year as collective punishment against the Palestinians for electing Hamas. Furthermore, it is all but certain that Israel will continue its daily raids and incursions into Palestinian population centres for the purpose of overwhelming and destabilising the government, regardless of whether it recognises Israel or not. (see p.5)
