Saturday July 14, 2007

I've Been Thinking:

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas just appointed and new set of ministers.
Well, sort of a new set of ministers.

I have read the Palestinian Code of Basic Law.
According to my understanding of the Code, Abbas is perfectly within his right to fire the prime minister - just as he did when Hamas representative Ismail Hanyih had the position. What happened this time is that Abbas asked Salam Fayyad to step down - and then promptly reappointed him. Fayyad, the old new Prime Minister, is now in charge of the new Palestinian government.

Also according to the Code, Abbas can appoint an emergency government for 30 days - but there's a catch:
All new ministers must be approved by the Palestinian Parliament and Abbas skipped that step.
He reappointed people whom he had previously appointed to his emergency government and even added two new ministers. The reappointments might just slip through a loophole, but the new appointments certainly do not.

So why did Abbas opt out of Parliamentary confirmation?
Because the majority of the Palestinian parliament is made up of Hamas.
So what can Abbas do in order to form and legally maintain a government?
Abbas must disband the Parliament and call for new elections.
And then together Abbas and Fayyad can plan a real future for their government.

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