Awad Rajoub-Hebron

At the end of a hard day's work, the Palestinian Abdel Qader Qazzaz sat tired and punched his desk at his employer.He then began to inventory the business today, not counting the money he received, but to sort out the checks returned from the banks because there was no balance in the owners' accounts.

Abdelkader, who has been working for a food company for 25 years, says he has not been through worse economic conditions than he is today. He attributed the reason to the government stopped paying the full salaries of its employees during the past six months.

Abdelkader is in contact with the owners of the checks, some answering the phone and justifying his failure to the general situation, others do not care about communication.

The justifications do not convince the Palestinian Authority to pay a portion of the salary to the merchant Qazzaz.He says that a class of senior beneficiaries in the Authority has not been affected by the general situation, and its projects and travels are continuing, considering that the dismissal of the Palestinian president to his advisors is a recognition of a problem and the beginning of the solution.

Abdul Qader Qazzaz sorts checks returned from banks for lack of balance in the accounts of their owners (Al Jazeera)

Abuse of power

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has terminated the services of all of his advisors, canceled the decisions and contracts related to them, and stopped the rights and privileges entailed as advisers.

Abbas also decided to oblige the president and members of the 17th government to return the sums they received in excess of their salaries during their tenure and rent.

The president's advisers are paid between $ 3,000 and $ 5,000 a month, plus expenses and other expenses and foreign missions.

The Palestinian trader considered the president's decision to correct previous mistakes, calling on him to continue fighting corruption and stop measures that increase the suffering of the people, especially some taxes.

The Coalition for Accountability and Integrity (AMAN) welcomed the Palestinian president's directives "to reduce the abuse of power to obtain benefits and privileges outside the provisions of the law," however called for the formation of an impartial professional committee to investigate and uncover the whole truth and hold the parties involved in approving the increase in the salaries of ministers. ".

To strengthen the resilience of citizens and restore confidence in the government, the coalition called for "the adoption and publication of a comprehensive and participatory austerity plan that reflects serious attitudes and will to rationalize".

The conviction of the head of the pyramid

For his part, the Palestinian analyst Adel Shadid ruled out that President Abbas's move was part of a systematic plan to fight corruption, and unlikely to be a passing step.

He says in an interview with Al Jazeera Net, that what reflects the conviction of the head of the pyramid represented by the President of the existence of an institution of corruption is paying the price is on the one hand, and actually start measures to combat this corruption on the other hand, saying that the move may not enhance confidence in the institution of the presidency, but it reduces congestion in The Palestinian street sucks his anger.

The question of boosting confidence requires steps to be taken on the ground that citizens see as having an impact, including limiting the power of a small group to jobs or economic sectors and monopolizing the market.

Complaints received by the Anti-Corruption Commission showed that the public sector ranked first in terms of the number of complaints related to corruption received in 2018, followed by local authorities.

Reports and conferences on corruption in the PA without practical steps to combat it (Al-Jazeera)

Prosthetic step

In turn, anti-corruption activist Fayez al-Sweiti sees the president's decisions as an "improvisational step" without a comprehensive plan or political will, plans and programs to reform corruption, refusing to dismiss the decision to remove advisers as a fight against corruption.

Al-Sweiti, who heads the Hand in Hand Towards a Corruption-Free Homeland and is being tried in several cases for his publications on corruption, adds that corruption has engulfed the political, administrative, financial, media and even judicial sectors.

He considered that the Palestinian street has come a long way through communication networks in monitoring the government and the public sector and spreading corruption or reporting it.

The results of a poll conducted by the Aman Coalition in 2018 showed that social media was the most effective media with 63% of the sample.