Fayyad’s Resignation: It’s Not Just the Occupation
Shlomi Eldar responds to Daoud Kuttab’s article, and notes other reasons for the Palestinian prime minister’s resignation.
Israel is responsible for the resignation of Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad. That is what Daoud Kuttab claims in an article in Al-Monitor titled, “Israeli Occupation Brings Down Fayyad.”
“His biggest enemies, as are the enemies of all Palestinians, were the Israeli occupiers whose policies, despite public rhetoric to the opposite, are to perpetuate the occupation indefinitely.”
Salam Fayyad had plenty of reasons to resign. The occupation is just one of them, if it is a reason at all.
Fayyad was appointed prime minister of the Palestinian Authority after the Hamas coup in Gaza, the humiliating expulsion of Fatah from there, and the establishment of two parallel Palestinian governments: one in Gaza, headed by Ismail Haniyeh, and the other in the West Bank, headed by him, under Palestinian Chairman Abu Mazen. Despite premature prognoses and pressure from many sectors within the Palestinian Authority to remove him, he was able to hold on to his position for six straight years.
