Palestinian Authority

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PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY

autonomous palestinian government operating in parts of the west bank and gaza starting from 1994.

The September 1993 Oslo Accord between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) called for the establishment of a Palestinian Interim Self-Governing Authority (PISGA) in those parts of the West Bank and Gaza from which Israeli forces would eventually withdraw. Israel would then cede certain autonomous powers to the PISGA pending a final peace settlement. This concept was actualized by the subsequent May 1994 Gaza-Jericho Agreement that led to an initial Israeli withdrawal from those two areas and that created the Palestinian Authority (PA), which would exercise autonomous powers until an elected Palestinian council could replace it. PLO Chair Yasir Arafat and a body of PLO cadres were allowed to return from exile and form the 24-member council of ministers that made up the PA, which commenced functioning in July 1994.

The September 1995 Interim Agreement between Israel and the PLO laid the basis for further Israeli withdrawals from the West Bank and for an elected Palestinian Council that would wield both legislative and, through its executive authority, executive powers. Following elections, the Palestinian Council and the president of its executive authority would thereafter assume the powers of Palestinian self-government from the PA, although in fact the new governmental structure that emerged continued to use the same name. Elections for the 88-seat council and its president were held in January 1996. Arafat won the presidency decisively. Chief PLO negotiator Ahmad Sulayman Qurai (also Qurei, Quray, Abu Ala) was elected as the first speaker of the council.

After further redeployments of Israeli forces starting in late 1995, the PA exercised different levels of authority in the West Bank and Gaza. By early 1997 it exercised full control over Gaza excluding the areas in and around Israeli settlements. The situation in the West Bank was more complicated. Israeli forces had only withdrawn from about 27 percent of the territory. The PA exercised full civil and security control over Area A, which included all of the major towns except Jerusalem (which remained under total Israeli control). It controlled civil matters in Area B—most other Palestinian villages and inhabited sites—but shared security functions with Israel. Finally, Area C remained under complete Israeli authority. Not only was the total area under full or partial PA control less than a third of the West Bank, it was divided among hundreds of separate Area A and B enclaves that were cut off from one another (and from Gaza) by Israeli-controlled Area C.

A burgeoning bureaucracy grew to enable the PA to govern. By early 1997 PA ministries and departments controlled many aspects of daily life for Palestinians. The PA even issued passports and postage stamps, and dispatched a two-man team to the 1996 Olympic Games. A multitude of competing security and intelligence agencies developed. Security forces comprised former soldiers of the PLO's exile Palestine Liberation Army, other exiles, and locally recruited men. These agencies included the National Security Forces; Civil Police; Border Police; Coastal Police; Civil Defense; University Police; and Arafat's own guard, Force 17/Presidential Guard. Intelligence agencies included the General Security Service; Military Intelligence; Special Security Force; and the powerful Preventative Security Forces, headed in Gaza by Muhammad Dahlan and in the West Bank by Jibril Rajub.

Even after the Palestinian Council began meeting, Arafat continued to rule in an authoritarian fashion through the security and intelligence services and his new twenty-two-member executive council (cabinet). The judiciary was not independent; Arafat's government sometimes simply ignored its rulings, and certain cases were decided by secret military courts. Arafat possessed the authority to veto council legislation. As calls for reform mounted, important legislators such as Haydar Abd al-Shafi resigned, and Marwan Barghuthi introduced a no-confidence motion in the council in April 1997.

Palestinian demands for change combined with outside pressures for reform. Israeli and U.S. anger over terrorist attacks by groups such as HAMAS and Islamic Jihad that were based in the PA led to mounting international pressure on Arafat to crack down on militants and to change PA governance. The second intifada saw Israel reoccupy large areas of the PA and decimate its infrastructure. Yielding to pressure, Arafat in April 2003 created the post of prime minister, which was filled by veteran PLO leader Mahmud Abbas. The PA's ability to function, however, remained hostage to rivalries and wider developments in the peace process.

see also abbas, mahmud; aqsa intifada, al-; arafat, yasir; barghuthi, marwan; dahlan, muhammad; gaza (city); hamas; islamic jihad; israel: overview; israeli settlements; jerusalem; oslo accord (1993); palestine liberation organization (plo); qurai, ahmad sulayman; rajub, jibril; west bank.