The Relationship Between Governorates and Municipalities and the Reflection of that Relationship of their Performance in the West Bank in the Period 1994-2004

This study aimed to diagnose the relationship between govern orates and municipalities by studying the factors that affected the development of this relationship in the West Back between 1994 and the year 2004 in four areas: Bethlehem, Ramallah and El-Bireh, Nablus, and Jenin; and explored the effects of this relationship on the performance of both institutes. The study tried to clarify the ambiguity that surrounded the relationship between govern orates and municipalities by analyzing constitutional and legal stipulations, the determination of the mandate and responsibilities of each, the relationship with central authority, and the role of all of these factors in the formation of dualistic authority and overlapping jurisdictions and specializations between the two institutions. The study also examined the political influences that were associated with the development of the authority of the political regime which contributed to the forming of the relationship between central authority and the institutes of govern orates and municipalities via the policies followed by the Palestinian Authority (PA) to use local authority institutions to achieve its goals. The study also analyzed the family and clan factor in the forming of the relationship, since the Palestinian Authority depended on appointing personalities from influential families to head the municipalities in comparison with appointed governors who came with the PA from abroad. The study chose the four mentioned areas because each has a distinctive factor that distinguish it from the other areas. Each of these factors was denoted as the “uniqueness of the area”. The study explored the influences that governed the relationship in all areas which were laws and regulations, politics, tribalism, by analyzing the resultant interaction between each of these influences with the “uniqueness of the area” factor. Consequently, examining the effects of these interactions on the development of relationship between govern orates and municipalities. The “uniqueness of the area” factors for the different areas were: religion for Bethlehem, geographic location and the participation of central authority for Ramallah and El-Bireh, the multiple responsibilities and positions of the mayor for Nablus, and the weakness of resources and marginalization for Jenin. The interactions between the different influences and the unique factor in each area were studied to see any regional differences between the different areas, and to see the link between the kind of relationship between the two institutes and the efficiency of their performance and how that is connected with the situation of the local society. The study reached to conclusions that confirm the development of a conflicting relationship between the govern orate and municipality in each of the studied areas but with varying levels, evident in the trends that resulted from the conduct of both institutions, whether refusing to cooperate and coordinate between them in shared fields of work, or seen in the intervention of central authority in certain cases to resolve the conflict between them. The problematic relationship was also manifested in the refraining of each institution from taking certain actions so as not to be accused of infringing on the mandate of the other institution. The conflict reached in one of the studied areas to the level of clashing and that had negative ramifications on the local organizations of society, but in the other areas the conflicting relationship remained within the realm of internal administrative work. The study offered a set of recommendations that can treat the conflicting relationship. The main recommendations were: the amendment of laws and regulations that specify the mandate and responsibilities of both the govern orate and the municipality in order to put an end to the overlapping of roles and functions and to stop that state of duality of authority on the local level; to use the method of free and direct elections to chose the mayors and members of city councils in order to diminish the effects of family and clan as a reference to chose representatives; and the enacting of a law that stipulates the mandates and responsibilities of governors and their relationship with the central authority. The study also recommended the ending of the politicizing of municipalities and the limiting of their roles to the services field. Also suggested not to appoint the mayors of municipalities to other political or official posts.