Palestinian Authority government of June 2002

The June 2002 government of the Palestinian Authority , made up of members of Fatah , the Palestinian Democratic Union (FIDA) and the Palestinian People's Party (PPP), was presented to the public on June 9, 2002.

Government formation

In the months before the formation of the government, the Second Intifada and the reactions of the Israelis had intensified drastically. On December 3, 2001, Israeli tanks had entered Ramallah and on December 13, they surrounded Yasser Arafat's official residence, the Muqataa . Arafat was placed under house arrest. On March 4, the Israelis fired rockets at the Muqataa and destroyed part of the buildings. One week later, on March 11th, Arafat's house arrest was lifted.

When a Palestinian bomber killed 18 Israelis in a car bomb on June 5, most of them young soldiers, Israel began another reprisal. The Palestinian Authority condemned the attack and announced its intention to arrest the jihadist activists. Israel saw the attack as evidence that the Arafat government was a terrorist regime. On June 6, Israeli tanks and bulldozers attacked the Muqataa again. Arafat's bodyguard was killed, seven security guards injured and several buildings razed to the ground. In a first reaction, Arafat spoke of a "fascist" action.

On May 15, 2002, Arafat had promised in a speech to the Legislative Council , the Parliament of the Autonomous Areas, a government reshuffle and early elections. On June 9, 2002, Information Minister Yassir Abed Rabbo announced that the PNA government would be reduced to 21 ministers. The new government began working on the night of June 13th after another Israeli blockade of the muqataa was lifted.

composition

Most of the ministers were already in the previous government. Newly met Salam Fayyad , previously the IMF had served as finance minister; Ghassan Khatib as Minister of Labor; Mitri Abu Aita as Minister of Transport and Abdel Razzak al-Yahya as Minister of the Interior. Ibrahim Dughme , who had previously been Director General of the Justice Department, became the new Justice Minister.

There were some regroupings within the ministries: the prisoner affairs department went to the Ministry of Social Affairs, the industrial area to the Ministry of Economics. The Ministry of the Environment became the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources, and the Ministry of Education became the Ministry of Education. The NGO Ministry, the "Bethlehem 2000" Ministry and the Parliamentary Ministry were closed. Furthermore, no ministers without portfolio were appointed.

minister	portfolio	Political party
Yasser Arafat	president	Fatah
Yassir Abed Rabbo	Culture & information	FIDA
Salam Fayyad	Finances	Independently
Nabil Shaath	Planning and international cooperation	Fatah
Maher al-Masri	Trade and economy	Fatah
Abdel Razzak al-Yahya	Interior	Independently
Naim Abul Hummus	education and parenting	Fatah
Riad Za'noun	health	Fatah
Saeb Erekat	Local politics	Fatah
Ibrahim Dughme	Judiciary	Independently
Azzam Al-Ahmad	House building and public buildings	Fatah
Intissar al-Wazir	Social issues, prisoner affairs	Fatah
Rafik al-Natshe	Agriculture	Fatah
Ghassan Khatib	job	PPP
Nabil Kassis	tourism	Independently
Imad Al-Falouji	telecommunications	Fatah
Abdel Rahman Hamad	Energy and natural resources	FIDA
Mitri Abu Aita	transport	Independently
Jamil Tarifi	Civil affairs	Fatah
Abdel Aziz Shahin	Supplies
Ali Al-Qawasmeh	Youth & Sport	Independently
Mohammed Hussein *	Waqf and religion	Independently
Sari Nutseibeh	Representative of the PLO in Jerusalem

* Appointed at a later date.

resolution

The new cabinet quickly came into conflict with the Legislative Council. The fact that it was largely identical to the previous government and included several ministers who had been accused of corruption by the parliament saw it as a provocation. In addition, Arafat "dawdled" in presenting the new cabinet to the plenary, thereby repeating the ignorance he had already shown towards the institution in the past. At the end of August, after a "furious debate", the Legislative Council cited Arafat and the new committee to seek approval.

Arafat suspected that the Legislative Council would refuse its cabinet this approval and tried to prevent this. On September 10, 2002, when the vote was due to take place, the ministers who presented themselves said that the MPs should only vote on the new members. The question of whether this would be legally compliant was passed on to the parliamentary legal committee. At the beginning of the meeting on September 11th, Arafat announced the date for the promised new elections as January 20th, 2003. This would turn the current cabinet into a temporary interim government, which PLC members saw as a ploy to get approval. After the announcement, the judicial committee presented its assessment that all members of the cabinet should be voted on. In addition, the number of ministers was higher than that laid down in the Basic Law, which is why all decisions of the cabinet since its inauguration in June have been invalid. After the report was approved, the Speaker of the Parliament, Ahmad Qurai , interrupted the session. During the break, Arafat pulled the emergency brake and the entire government resigned to avoid classifying his decisions as illegal. In return for the resignation of the government, the decree on holding new elections on January 20, 2003 was not passed.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Middle East conflict: The events from June 2002 on ag-friedensforschung.de
2. ↑ PNA Government June - October 2002 ( Memento of the original from December 15, 2003 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on jmcc.org 
3. ^ Nathan J. Brown: Palestinian Politics After the Oslo Accords: Resuming Arab Palestine . University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles 2003, ISBN 0-520-23762-5 , pp. 114–116 ( google.at [accessed on August 6, 2014]).