Authority and State Study of the experience of Salam Fayyad’s government

Abstract This study investigates the problem of the "Establishing the State and Finishing the Occupation" Proposal submitted by the government of Dr. Salam Fayad as a course to establish a Palestinian state. The researcher started by testing her hypothesis stating that "The proposal and its policies collectively shall not pave the way to establish a Palestinian state, but they will promote the growth of the Palestinian Authority establishments by creating a new de facto." The researcher selected to investigate this topic as a result of several factors that collectively represented the significance of this study. The first element is the birth of a Palestinian government through a birth-labor and exceptional circumstances during which it underwent several political phases. The second element comprises the resulting policies that put the issue of establishing a Palestinian state as a top priority of the strategic objective. Such elements encouraged the researcher to study the details of establishing a Palestinian state and ending the occupation in order to reach the objective of the study in highlighting the effectiveness and capabilities of such policies to achieve their strategic objective through assessing them and measuring the range of distance that separates the objective (i.e. the state" and the policies (i.e. the mechanisms). In her study, the researcher investigated the government's background and its philosophy; the environmental circumstances and surrounding factors; the nature of the Palestinian political system establishments; and identifying the identity of the problem and its policy. The problem is identified as general and historical whereas the policies brought by the proposal are symbolic, materialistic and organizational. The researcher determined the appropriate instrument to evaluate the policies of the thirteenth government. The DAY instrument consists of three categories of questions: the first contains descriptive questions; the second comprises the reasons; and the third contains the impacts of the general policies. Some links and criteria were added to expand the range of analysis with the six links that discuss the reciprocal effect of the general policy. Scientific criteria were added to evaluate and judge the extent of usefulness of the general policy according to the strategic objective. With this scientific combination, we obtained an instrument to evaluate the policies including its three basic constituents: the descriptive, analytical and evaluative. The researcher examined the policies and programs adopted by the government in order to achieve its announced objective related to establish the state and end the occupation. This is done by the descriptive basis. Following this, the researcher investigated the other two constituents: the analytical and evaluative through interpreting the general policy according to the reciprocal relationship of influence between the environmental forces and elements and the general policy. The first main question of the study, i.e. (To what extent is the thirteenth government general policy effective towards achieving its objective in establishing the Palestinian state and ending the occupation?) was answered through what the researcher reached by the process of analysis and evaluation of the proposal that showed the following:  The general policy and the mechanisms adopted within the plan of establishing the state and ending the occupation do not achieve the strategic objective. Hence, the occupation has not been ended and neither has the state been established. However, it has been able to maintain the establishments of the Palestinian National Authority that were constructed during the time of the Oslo Agreement. On the other hand, few establishments have been built to keep up the requirements of the stage. In addition, it is not possible to establish the Palestinian State without embodying the demographic and geographic elements.  The general policies were concerned with the local and international dimensions. The issue of managing the internal dimension suffered from political fragmentation without being able to achieve a consensus on the topic. In the international dimension, the outcome of voting for the complete membership of Palestine at the United Nations Organization showed that the compass of the international movement to promote the proposal was set inaccurately.  Such policies had negative impacts upon the Palestinian community. The Palestinian political life and public freedoms were affected in several locations in one way or another. The researcher gave several recommendations, the most prominent of them are:  The Palestinian leadership shall promote the Palestinian internal cohesion through reuniting the two parts of the homeland.  The Proposal's instruments and mechanisms are to be developed so that it contains real and radical solutions for the demographic and geographic dimensions to establish the Palestinian State. In addition, it shall not ignore the fact of supplying a real effective political life.  It is necessary to reform the PLO in order to become able to hold its responsibilities since the Palestinian National Authority does not possess the instruments or the capabilities to bear the proposal of establishing the Palestinian State.  It is important to review the Palestinian diplomacy and the negotiation mechanisms with Israel and the agreements signed with it that reinforce the occupation.