CAIRO: On Monday, Palestinian Prime Minister to the Palestinian Authority (PA) Salam Fayyad stated that he is ready to step down from his post in an effort to better the prospects of a unity deal between Gaza bound Hamas and West Bank located PA. This would be a clear concession to Hamas from President Mahmoud Abbas, in what might look like an attempt to revive a struggling Palestinian Authority. Facing tough times, Abbas' PA seems to be facing opposition from all sides. Since elections in 2006 led to a crucial split between Hamas and Fatah and the 2007 Hamas take-over of Gaza, Fayyad was appointed leader of the interim unity government by President Mahmoud Abbas that same year. From that point on neither elections, nor formal unity of the factions have been close. Both are pre-conditioned by a unity deal of April 2011 that Hamas does not want to enter as long Fayyad holds the PM seat. Fayyad has long been a Western media darling, credited with revitalizing the West Bank economy and building institutions needed to set the Palestinian Authority on the path to full statehood. But Hamas has maintained accusing him of helping Israel to blockade the Gaza Strip and has never recognized him as legitimate Palestinian leader. Only recently the two factions came closer to unity talks, as they met up in Cairo to discuss the famed prisoner swap deal between Hamas and Israel. Fayyad's proposal is welcomed in a time of general hardship for Abbas' Palestinian Authority. Conditions have been hardening for the West Bank based government since its bid to the UN for recognition as a member state. As the first bid, which went to the UN Security Council, will certainly fall due to a US veto, the second one to the Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) was more successful. Palestine was admitted a member state by the agency's General Conference with a favorable vote of 107 to 14, with 52 abstentions. In the meantime though, and in spite of this relative victory for the PA, the renowned Gilad Shalit prisoner swap deal had prompted a serious fall in PA popularity with the Palestinian public in favor of Hamas. At the UN, Abbas have had to navigate in a hostile climate, as he has been subject to fierce political pressure from Washington and other western powers to drop the bid. The Quartet (the UN, the US, the EU and Russia) have stressed that the Palestinians forget the plea for statehood, and turn back to direct peace talks with Israel. As a consequence of the UNESCO recognition of Palestine, Israel's cabinet last week decided to withhold the handover of tax revenues it collects on behalf of the PA, as well as cutting all funding to the UN cultural body. The tax revenues including duties on goods being imported to the Palestinian territories, amount to about $100 million each month. On Monday, a narrow majority in the Israeli cabinet voted in favor of continuing the revenue freeze. This was done in spite of reports that Israeli security officials were in favor of doing the opposite. PLO official Saeb Erekat was quoted by Ma'an News Agency calling the revenue freeze “blackmailing, bullying and stealing.” “This money belongs to the Palestinian people,” Erekat told Ma'an. While the Israeli cabinet was not particularly one-sided on withholding the freeze, Israeli Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz in particular pressed to freeze the revenues as a punishment to the PA for the UN bid. In the light of recent hardships, the PA faces doubts of its legitimacy as an actual vehicle for independence and the establishment of a Palestinian sovereign state. Saying that the PA neither succeeded to end the split between Hamas and Fatah, nor to obtain actual recognition within the international community, the blogosphere has been swirling with statements that the UN bid has utterly failed, and that the PA is at the end of its road. Critics say the function of the PA is limited to running the West bank at the best as an autonomous area and, in parallel, relieving the Israelis from the burdens of their occupation. Reports this week stated that Abbas was opting to hold elections for a Palestinian Authority this coming May, elections in which he would not himself be a candidate. Abbas reportedly said he would propose the elections at his next meeting with Hamas political bureau head Khaled Meshal, this week or next week. In spite of denial from a number of Fatah officials, the London-based newspaper Al-Sharq Al-Awsat reported on the 30 Oct. that sources had confirmed that Abbas was planning to dissolve the PA sometime after these elections. “President Abbas intends on reverting the situation in the Palestinian territories to what it had been before the creation of the PA in 1994, handing over the management affairs of the West Bank to the administration of the Israeli occupation…in other words, dissolving the PA,” the report red. BM
