Government of Palestine

This article is about the Government of the Palestinian territories. For the Government of the State of Palestine, see Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

The Palestinian Government is the institution that governs the Palestinian territories. The ruling power is split into two separate and competitive administrations. The first is the Palestinian unity government of 2014, which rules the West Bank Area A and in theory also partially Area B, and is generally referred to as the Palestinian Authority (PA). The other is the Hamas government of 2012, which is de facto ruling the Gaza Strip. Although the 2014 unity government formally is a government representing both Fatah and Hamas, the two parties are hostile to each other as reconciliation attempts have failed so far.

The overarching government of the State of Palestine is the PLO Executive Committee, which is supposed to represent all Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territories as well as the Palestinians abroad. Hamas, which is the dominant Palestinian party alongside Fatah, however, is not represented in the PLO. Both the Palestinian Authority and the PLO Executive are established under the responsibility of the Palestine Liberation Organization. The PLO Executive has been largely dysfunctional for many years due to continued absence of Palestinian National Council elections.

Governments

PNA governments until June 2007

Main article: Politics of the Palestinian National Authority

Palestinian National Authority is an interim administrative body established by the PLO pursuant to the Oslo Accords of 1993, which exercised limited control of populated areas of the West Bank. Listed below are the executive organs of the PNA cabinets:

• Palestinian government of October 2002 (PNA)
• Palestinian government of November 2003 (PNA)
• Palestinian government of March 2006 (PNA)
• Palestinian government of March 2007 (PNA, unity of Hamas and Fatah)

After the split of Fatah and Hamas

Main articles: Palestinian government of 2013 and Hamas government of 2012

Since June 2007, the Fatah government has exercised authority in Ramallah, West Bank, and has been recognized as the official government of the Palestinian National Authority, while the Hamas administration took control in the Gaza Strip, and exercised control of that territory after it ousted Fatah PNA representatives in 2007.

• Fatah government in the West Bank
  • Palestinian government of June 2007 (PNA, Fatah)
  • Palestinian government of 2009 (PNA, Fatah)
• Governance of the Gaza Strip
  • First Hamas government 2007-2012 (Hamas Administration in Gaza)
  • Second Hamas government September 2012-present (Hamas Administration in Gaza)

A Palestinian unity government of 2014 was sworn in the aftermath of a Hamas-Fatah Gaza accord on reconciliation.

History

The following organizations have claimed or executed authority over the people in the past:

• Arab Higher Committee, the central political organ of the Arab community of Mandatory Palestine. It was established on 25 April 1936 and sidestepped by the All-Palestine Government in 1948.
  • First Committee 1936-1937 (Arab Higher Committee)
  • Second Committee 1945-1948 (Arab Higher Committee)
• All-Palestine Government, a Palestinian entity set-up by the Arab League in Egyptian occupied Gaza Strip on September 22, 1948. It was dissolved by Egypt in 1959.
• Palestine Liberation Organization, the official representative of the Palestinian people before the international community since 1964.
  • Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)

See also

• Palestinian Authority government in the West Bank
• Finance Minister of the Palestinian National Authority
• Foreign Affairs Minister of the Palestinian National Authority
• Foreign relations of Palestine
• Foreign relations of the Palestine Liberation Organization
• International recognition of the State of Palestine
• Israeli-occupied territories
• Palestinian Declaration of Independence
• Palestinian Ambassador to the United Nations