Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh announced on Monday a comprehensive reform program for the Palestinian Authority, initiated under the direction of President Mahmoud Abbas. The program includes appointing new governors, conducting elections, enacting new laws, reducing salaries, and restructuring security forces.
In a government meeting held in Ramallah, West Bank, Shtayyeh said, “Today we launch a new phase in implementing this program in the judicial, security, administrative, and financial systems, focusing on enhancing the judiciary system and structural changes within it, enforcing the law, addressing the duration of litigation in courts, and continuing dialogue with the union and related parties regarding the enactment of a legal aid system for those in need.”
The reform program aims to complete the Palestinian administrative system’s functioning, with President Abbas appointing new governors after several months of vacancies in all governorates. This extends to embassies that have also experienced vacancies.
The United States has emphasized the importance of reforms in the Palestinian Authority, especially in assuming governance responsibilities in Gaza post the Gaza War. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged President Abbas to “immediately commence serious reforms in preparation for managing the sector.” Washington announced working with the Authority to introduce financial, legal, and political reforms, “to boost donor and Palestinian public confidence in the efficiency of its institutions.”
Shtayyeh highlighted that the program includes “significant changes in the Ministry of Health, especially issues related to providing health insurance for all Palestinians and managing medical referrals, whether in private hospitals or hospitals at the other end, to control them.”
Debt Management and Structural Changes
The program involves changes to address debts owed by various entities related to water and electricity bills, deducted by Israel from tax revenues. It also includes restructuring some government services provided to citizens, according to Shtayyeh’s statements.
Key legislative reforms include the Civil Service Law, the Value-Added Tax Law, and the Economic Competition Law. The program also focuses on reducing the salary bill by employing one person instead of two retirees and not renewing contracts for those reaching retirement age, thus creating job opportunities for new graduates. Continuing the monthly publication of financial information to keep citizens informed about the financial situation is also part of the plan.
Additionally, the program aims to address salaries, define retirement benefits and age for all state employees based on the retirement law and diplomatic corps law or its amendments, complete the integration of non-ministerial government institutions with related ministries, appoint new boards of trustees for educational and public institutions related to the official institution according to the law, and restructure the security forces, developing their job descriptions and governance of their and security bodies’ references according to the law, and modifying the appointment system in the security forces to include new recruits.
Combating Crime and Enhancing Transparency
Shtayyeh explained that the Palestinian Authority reform program includes combating crime and lawbreakers, enhancing civil peace, and assigning the Anti-Corruption Commission to issue periodic statements about its work and reconstitute its board to advance its work with more transparency.
The program also includes establishing the National Water Company, completing the construction of water facilities in various governorates, and gradually transferring property tax responsibilities from the Ministry of Finance to municipalities to enable them to provide better services and enhance their role in serving citizens.
According to Shtayyeh, the reform program will expand the participation of civil society institutions through certain laws to ensure the development of the relationship with civil society and confirms the cessation of working with the decision by law No. 7 of 2021, which civil society institutions had previously protested against.
Media Competition and Government Consultation
The program will open competition in the media sector and establish freedom of access to information by enacting a set of related laws, in coordination with the Journalists’ Syndicate. Ministries are instructed to hold regular consultative sessions with workers in the economic and service sectors from civil society and the private sector.
Shtayyeh emphasized that President Mahmoud Abbas affirms the importance of conducting general elections as soon as suitable conditions are available, including in occupied Jerusalem.
He stressed that “the important thing in the subject of reviving the authority and what the international community talks about is stopping Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank, removing barriers, halting settler crimes, stopping the invasion of camps, villages, and cities, and stopping the financial deductions from tax entitlements, and transferring money.”
Israel and the International Court of Justice
In a related context, Shtayyeh stressed the need for Israel to comply with all that came in the decision of the International Court of Justice, describing the court’s decision as “legally, politically, and humanely important, as
