Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. (AP)
The prime minister of the Palestinian Authority dissolved his cabinet on Monday and was immediately reappointed by the president to form a new one. It was the latest in a series of political steps taken by the authority after the popular uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt.
Ghassan Khatib, the spokesman for the authority's government in the West Bank, said there had been plans for a cabinet reshuffle for months, but that the process had "taken longer than expected."
Speaking by telephone from Ramallah, the authority's headquarters, Mr. Khatib said the timing of the move had more to do with the Palestinian Authority's timetable for statehood. Mr. Fayyad's two-year plan for building the institutions of a state is supposed to be completed by September. That same month, the one-year time frame runs out for direct peace talks with Israel, which the Palestinians have suspended because of continued Israeli settlement activity. And in the absence of a negotiated agreement, the Palestinians hope that they will have enough international support by September for a United Nations resolution recognizing their right to a state within the 1967 boundaries.
"The Palestinians are taking September very seriously," Mr. Khatib said, "and I hope that the outside world will take us seriously. We cannot continue with business as usual after this date."
But it appears that the regional upheavals have given the Palestinian Authority a sense of urgency.
With the Palestinians split between the West Bank and Gaza, which is controlled by the militant Islamic group Hamas, the authority's president, Mahmoud Abbas, and his senior officials seem to be seeking greater unity and government accountability in the West Bank.
After the popular protests began in Egypt last month, the Palestinian leadership in the West Bank called for local council elections in July and parliamentary and presidential elections by September. All are long overdue.
Hamas has said that it will not cooperate with any elections in the absence of a reconciliation agreement with Fatah, the secularist party led by Mr. Abbas. All attempts at reconciliation have failed.
By law, the prime minister, Salam Fayyad, has up to five weeks to form a new cabinet, though officials said they hoped the task would be completed sooner. The old cabinet had 24 seats, but at least 6 were vacant, either because the ministers had resigned or were unable to travel from Gaza.
Forming a government involves finding a balance between technocrats like Mr. Fayyad, an American-educated economist who has the confidence of the West, and ministers who will satisfy Fatah and other political factions.
The Palestinians have not held elections since 2006, when Hamas won a majority in Parliament, leading to a year and a half of uneasy power sharing and a brief civil war, which ended in June 2007 after Hamas seized control in Gaza. A cabinet led by Mr. Fayyad was subsequently appointed by presidential decree.
Mr. Fayyad submitted his resignation in March 2009, saying he wanted to help pave the way for a Palestinian unity government with Hamas, but was reappointed in May after reconciliation talks with Hamas ended.