Palestinian Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh announces the resignation of his government at its weekly session on Monday (Al Jazeera)

Ramallah -

Palestinian Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh gave many justifications for the resignation of his government, which Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas accepted on Monday evening, including crises that accompanied the governments from their beginnings in 2019, the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, and the talks of the Palestinian factions.

Shtayyeh said, in a speech at the beginning of the cabinet session, that his decision “comes in light of the political, security and economic developments related to the aggression against our people in Gaza, and the unprecedented escalation in the West Bank and the city of Jerusalem, and in light of the unprecedented financial strangulation as well, and the effort to make the Palestinian National Authority an authority.” Security administrative and without political content.”

According to Shtayyeh, “The next stage and its challenges require new governmental and political arrangements that take into account the emerging reality in the Gaza Strip, the national unity talks and the urgent need for a Palestinian-Palestinian consensus, based on a national basis, broad participation and unity of ranks, and to extend the Authority’s authority over the entire territory.” Palestine".

Al Jazeera Net went to a number of analysts and asked them about the contexts and reasons for the government’s resignation and the form of the next government. Their opinions agreed that it was a response to international pressure to achieve the demand of “renewing power,” ruling out the possibility that any upcoming government would amount to an entitlement, especially since the resignation preceded the factional meeting scheduled for Thursday. in Moscow.

Resigned Palestinian Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh was assigned to form the government in 2019 (Al Jazeera)

Internal and regional arrangements

Professor of Political Science at Hebron University, Dr. Bilal Al-Shobaki, says that talk about changing the government at the present time “is not far from what is happening in the Gaza Strip, and may come in harmony or as a result of arrangements at the internal and regional Palestinian level,” pointing to internal Palestinian meetings that preceded the upcoming Moscow meeting in February 29 of this year.

Al-Shoubaki does not rule out discussions with international powers to arrange a new government, which may be devoid of political character, “given that there is a new challenge facing the Palestinians in managing internal affairs in daily issues in the post-war period on Gaza, whether with regard to the issue of reconstruction or Securing the life of the Palestinian citizen, including health, education, and the like.”

The Palestinian analyst asks, “Does changing the government solve the existing dilemmas?”, followed by the answer that, “The impact of the change will not be noticeable or significant, because any government change requires changing the Palestinian political path and action, and this requires activating the Palestine Liberation Organization and integrating the factions that did not participate in it.”

Al-Shoubaki adds that “the value of any government that is formed is linked to its political reference, and not to itself,” ruling out any fundamental differences between the resigned government and the next one, unless there are fundamental changes at the level of the political program and political vision.

He stressed that "the main challenge now for the Palestinians is not managing the daily life of the citizen as much as it is confronting a whole project from the right-wing Israeli government, which targets not only the Gaza Strip, but also all of the Palestinians and their institutions, which the Palestinians see as the seed of a state, and the occupation sees as nothing more than a municipality." big".

Palestinian Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh announces the submission of his government’s resignation to President Mahmoud Abbas#Gaza_War pic.twitter.com/F0xTFPryxE

- Al Jazeera Channel (@AJArabic) February 26, 2024

Many contexts

Ayman Youssef, professor of political science at the Arab American University, believes that there are “several contexts for Shtayyeh’s resignation, the first of which is the continuation of the aggression against the Gaza Strip and the inability of the Palestinians to do anything.”

He pointed to "many initiatives, pressures, and scenarios being presented on the scene, including Netanyahu's post-war plan. Shtayyeh's resignation was a pre-emptive strike by President Abu Mazen to interact with regional contexts and international initiatives."

According to the Palestinian analyst, “The Palestinian situation has become calcified from within, and it needs a new vision to deal directly with the changes, developments, and indicators created by the Gaza battle.”

He added, "The Shtayyeh government was a politicized government, a government of crises, and went through several problems. It clearly represented the Fatah movement, and as a result of the regional pressures exerted and internal and external changes, the president's desire was to change it."

He suggested that the president would tend to form a government of technocrats from independent professionals “so that it is not criticized for representing the Fatah movement and some factions at the expense of others,” and he spoke about “pressure exerted on the president from neighboring countries, especially Egypt, Jordan, and Qatar, to deal positively with reform initiatives and the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip.” .

Popularly requested

“Changing the political system completely is a national demand agreed upon by the factions, based on almost popular consensus, and not forming a government in the West Bank that is politically linked to the ruling authority and distances itself from a state of national unity,” according to political analyst Samer Anabtawi.

Anabtawi added, "The dismissal of the government comes in response to Western, foreign, European and American pressure, with the aim of bringing about political changes within the Western point of view, and not to appease the Palestinian people's demand for political change."

He said, "The change taking place comes within talk about the day after the war, and America's attempt to show as if there is a tendency to form a government that will lead to a Palestinian state, even though that is a speck of ash in the eyes and a deception against the Palestinian people and the entire international community."

He continued, "What is required is not to change governments, but rather to form a national unity government, especially in light of the war of genocide that the Palestinian people are exposed to and the end to their cause, which includes everyone and on the basis of struggle and struggle, which will draw up the next policy for the Palestinian future, and pave the way for holding presidential and legislative elections and for the PLO, and re-establishing Building it on militant and national foundations.”

Hence, Anabtawi believes that “the next government will be a technocratic government, which is not suitable for a people living in a stage of national liberation, which requires the presence of national trends,” considering that the American administration is trying to move away from the national framework and the right to self-determination to internal administrative issues.

Abbas's measures to support Gaza!!


From his people's sources, he will dismiss the Shtayyeh government and replace it with a technocratic government, "for the sake of future entitlements in light of the talk about the day after the war in Gaza."


Abbas's candidate (according to the same sources) is Muhammad Mustafa.


Abbasi Dahlani's race does not stop, and for everyone who supports him!


Great people and leadership addicted to shame.

- Yasser Al-Zaatreh (@YZaatreh) February 26, 2024

The next prime minister

The Palestinian politician and independent representative in the dissolved Legislative Council, Hassan Khraisha, believes that “Shtayyeh’s resignation is an expression of inability and failure, and then a response to the American trend that creates renewed authority.”

He said, "Preoccupying people with the government buys time for the Israelis to engage in more war of extermination, and is a distraction for the Palestinian people, as if we are living in a normal situation."

It is unlikely that the next government will be the product of a national dialogue, “and the evidence is that the president anticipated the Moscow dialogues to change the government,” and he continued that the resignation also comes “in preparation for the next stage, given that there are American promises that the authority will be responsible for the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, at a time when the Israelis announce They do not want Hamas or Fatah, but rather an Israeli civil administration for the Strip.”

Kreisha believes that the next prime minister will likely be Dr. Muhammad Mustafa, the president’s economic advisor and head of the Palestine Investment Fund affiliated with the Liberation Organization, explaining that he “has long-standing relations” and that he is “an alternative to President Salam Fayyad, whom the Americans are pressing to assign to form the government.”

Source: Al Jazeera