MESOP MIDEAST WATCH : Analysis | President Abbas Fired Most of His Palestinian Authority Governors, but Is It Part of a Greater Plan?

The sudden dismissal of Palestinian Authority governors indicates change might be underway in Abbas’ leadership, but the Palestinian public are skeptical that it means anything at all

Aug 20, 2023 6:28 pm IDT Jack Khoury HAARETZ

The Palestinian public was caught by surprise when the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas fired most of the regional governors in the West Bank and Gaza Strip earlier this month. The governors themselves were even surprised, learning about it from Palestinian news. Off the record, they did nothing to hide their anger and frustration, but none dared to criticize Abbas publicly.

The position of governor is a relatively new one in Palestinian politics, established along with the formation of the PA as part of the Oslo Accords. Yasser Arafat, who was then president, divided the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza into 16 governorates – 11 of them in the West Bank and five in Gaza.

Under a 2003 presidential decree, a governor is equivalent to a minister, and serves as the president’s representative in that district, responsible for law, order and security.

The position of governor exists in many Arab countries, including Egypt and Jordan, but because of the Israeli occupation and the concentrated power in Arafat’s hands, and that of Abbas after him, the Palestinian public never saw the governors as important.

This is doubly true when it comes to the governor of Jerusalem, whose role is purely symbolic, without any ability to influence – much less control – the city. Adnan Ghaith, Jerusalem’s current governor, was also persecuted by the Israeli authorities and arrested more than 10 times on suspicion of violating the ban on PA activities in the city.

Military orders forbade Ghaith to have any contact with Abbas and senior PA officials, or to enter the West Bank. Since Hamas took over the Strip in 2007, the PA governors there have had no actual authority either.

As a result, Abbas’ mass dismissal will have a limited impact on the ground, and whatever small impact it does have will be felt only in the West Bank, where eight of the area’s 11 governors were dismissed.

The three that remain on the job are those for Jerusalem, Salfit and Ramallah-Al Bireh governorates. The latter has the PA’s only female governor, Laila Ghannam, who is reportedly especially close to Abbas. Salfit’s governor, Abdallah Kamil, is also close to the president.

Governors were not the only figures to be faced with dismissal by Abbas, who have the order to the Palestinian Foreign Ministry to inform a number of ambassadors over retirement age that their retirement process is about to commence, expressing gratitude for their service.

The process of appointing new governors is percieved by ordinary palestinians as having little to do with them. Appointments are made directly by the president and usually reflect the balance of power in Fatah’s Central Committee, not public opinion. Most of the governors come to the post by way of the PA security forces, and are all either members of Fatah or considered close to key people in the movement or the PA.

Former Jenin Governor Akram Rajoub, for example, made his career in the security services, was previously the governor of Nablus, and is close to the Fatah leader Jibril Rajoub. The story is similar for former Hebron Governor Jibreen Al-Bakri and Jericho Governor Jihad Yousef Abu al-Asal.

President Abbas visiting the Jenin refugee camp for the first time since 2005, in July.Credit: Nasser Nasser/AP

The ex-governors of Bethlehem and Nablus, Kamal Hamid and Ibrahim Ramadan, respectively, are both close to the head of the Palestinian intelligence services, Maj. Gen. Majed Faraj. Former Tubas Governor Younis al-Assi is reportedly close to Hussein al-Sheikh, secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Executive Committee. All were dismissed last week.

“The governors are not particularly popular, mainly because they are chosen by the Rais [the president] or his associates rather than in elections – not even fake elections, as happens in local government,” says a longtime Fatah operative based in Nablus. (In local elections, the results are often arranged in advance under agreements between clan heads.)

The lack of sympathy is also due to the fact that “most of the governors have been in office for 10 years or more, even if they move from governorate to governorate via a revolving door through which they gain more power and privileges. That’s why no one shed a tear or protested that they were sent packing,” he says.

The operative emphasized that only when it becomes clear who will replace the governors will it be possible to understand if their dismissals were part of a broader plan by Abbas or reflects a power struggle inside Fatah and around the president that will not lead to any change.

In announcing the dismissals this month, Abbas said he would chair a presidential committee that would vet candidates for governor and make recommendations. It is still not clear if this committee will act professionally and only consider candidates with relevant experience, or if it will act as a cover for powerful Fatah officials to name allies.

Hamas operatives in Gaza, in April.Credit: Arafat Barbakh/Reuters

This week, Abbas appointed Rasan Daglas as acting governor of Nablus. Daglas is from the middle generation of Fatah movement leaders and rose to a position of power as a street activist during the first intifada. He is known by the public as a field operative interviewed frequently by the media, and as a coordinator of the monitoring of settlers and the settlements in the northern West Bank.

Recently, Daglas told the local media that he wanted to restore Nablus to its role as the capital of the Palestinian economy, but warned that the continued settler violence could lead to an escalation that harms the economy.

Daglas has no particular administrative experience, and his appointment is seen as seeking to show the public that the PA is ready to pass the baton to the next generation. It has yet to be seen, however, whether Daglas or anyone else from his generation will get a permanent appointment.

Fresh blood for leadership

Adel Shadeed, a researcher on the Palestinian conflict and society living in the Hebron area, told Haaretz that Abbas’ undertaking was designed to send several messages. Aged 87, the president is interested in showing that he is still in charge and that he can dismiss 12 governors all at once if she chooses to.

Shadeed said he believed that Abbas fired the Gaza governors in particular to show that despite the division between Fatah and Hamas, the PA continues to have an official presence in the enclave.

In addition, says Shadeed, Abbas wants to show that, to some extent, he is refreshing his leadership and is attentive to the recent public criticism of the governors, some of whom have grown corrupt after being in office for more than a decade.

In recent months, criticism of the governors has increased, especially in Nablus and Jenin, for not supporting armed operatives (mainly those affiliated with Hamas and Islamic Jihad) and sometimes even arresting them. Critics claim that these actions indicate a lack of commitment to fighting the occupation, while governors say they are refusing to lend a hand to chaos and anarchy.

Palestinian President Abbas with heads of security organizations in Ramallah, last year,Credit: AFP

Shadeed says that the Palestinian public is now wondering if the dismissals mark the first step of a wider plan that may include shaking up the PA’s diplomatic staff, security organization and cabinet, or whether Abbas will be satisfied just with the removal of these governors. Other questions raised by Shadeed focus on whether a younger generation of leaders will be appointed, and if the PA’s political structure will be reformed.

Last week, after the decision was announced, senior PA officials told Haaretz that Abbas was considering shaking up the cabinet as well. Nevertheless, Shadeed says, the public is skeptical that any real reforms are on the way, and so remainss indifferent.

Dr. Hussam al-Dajani, a Gaza-based researcher of Palestinian society, published an article in the local media last week in which he offered four hypotheses for Abbas’ last move. One is that those in the president’s circle want to appoint governors who will be loyal to Abbas’ successor. The second possibility is that Abbas indeed wants to inject new blood into the ranks of Fatah and the PA.

A third possibility is that the move is related to understandings reached in the talks in Aqaba and Sharm el-Sheikh a few months ago, in which concessions for the PA were raised. Israel and the United States then demanded that the Palestinian representatives take operative steps to strengthen the PA and its security organization. Al-Dajani says Abbas is now acting on his promise.

His fourth hypothesis is that the dismissals are aimed at facilitating intra-Palestinian reconciliation, by appointing governors who will also be acceptable to Hamas, as a gesture of goodwill. He regards this hypothesis as less likely.

In all events, al-Dajani, like many others, said the personnel changes would not lead to a fundamental change as long as no Palestinian faction has a real mandate to govern due to the absence of a minimal democratic system of elections.

Palestinian President Abbas (right) with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi (center) and Jordanian King Abdullah II, last week.

Inside Fatah, many not only believe that Abbas’s move was not part of a systematic plan, but that it was done without a thorough examination or follow-up plan.

“Any dismissal or removal from power of any government symbol is welcomed by the Palestinian public, because the entire institution called the PA has no real support,” says a long-time Fatah operative who was among the key decision-makers in the PA during Arafat’s rule. “No one took to the streets to demonstrate – on the contrary, there is an atmosphere of Eid joy. But what’s next, who will lead the next phase, no one knows. There doesn’t seem to be a plan.”

He says that above and beyond the issue of the occupation and its effects – which is a recipe for decay and corruption – one of the main problems all Palestinian factions face is their legitimacy, both in the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip.

“In order to get a mandate and a minimum of legitimacy, we need elections, but as long as there is no horizon for elections or any real political process, the bar of expectations has disintegrated,” he says. “Unfortunately, at the administrative level, we are like a very sick person, who needs to be constantly resuscitated to keep him alive but never to recover.”