President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas is expected to name a long-time insider as the next prime minister, sources said.
The appointment comes after Mohammed Shtayyeh, the previous prime minister, resigned following a downgrading of the Palestinian government by the envoy who coordinates US assistance to the Palestinians. This came amid growing discontent with his management of the economic and political crisis in Palestinian territories.
A report suggests that Abbas will nominate Mohammad Mustafa, a leading Palestinian economist and former adviser to the Palestinian Authority, who has served in several earlier cabinet positions, such as Minister of National Economy and Head of the Palestinian Investment Fund.
The fact that Abbas decided to anoint Mustafa from his inner circle signaled his readiness to ensure the continuity and stability of the Palestinian leadership in the face of mounting fragmentation both domestically and internationally.
But the Palestinian Authority has plodded on through a series of economic and political woes. Having been paralyzed by a rift with the Islamist group Hamas since 2007 and hamstrung both by Israel and the international community, the conflict over Palestinian statehood shows little sign of resolution. The appointment of a new prime minister was seen as an opportunity to restart stalled talk of Palestinian statehood and breathe new life into the Palestinian government’s efforts.
Abbas’s cronies are likely to treat Mustafa’s nomination sympathetically, but one critic predicted that once appointed, he will ‘have no choice but to do what the factions tell him to.’ Mustafa must do more than oversee technical matters if he is to deal with deep-rooted problems.
‘The appointment of Mohammad Mustafa isn’t the kind of change that Palestinians are really looking for,’ said the analyst Jamal Najjar of Birzeit University in the West Bank. ‘I don’t think he’s a bad technocrat, but he’s part of what we look at as the old guard, and he’s not going to be able to push through the kind of reformism needed to redress the suffering of the Palestinian people.’
Despite the unenthusiastic response to Mustafa’s designation, Abbas is likely to confirm the appointment any day now. At a time when the Palestinian Authority is trying to shore itself up and assert its viability in the face of new threats—both domestic and regional—knowing Mustafa might not be the best man for the job could be of secondary importance.
The next prime minister will face intense scrutiny from Palestinian officials, international observers, and foreign stakeholders with a keen interest in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as it is likely to shape the course of Palestinian politics and diplomacy profoundly.
Source: www.nytimes.com March 14, 2024
