What is the Palestinian Authority?

The Palestinian Authority (also called the Palestinian National Authority) is an autonomous governmental body established by a series of Israeli-Palestinian peace pacts in the 1990s. 

The PA plan was to create a ruling body to govern most Palestinians living in the territories of the West Bank and Gaza and possibly to be the basis for a full Palestinian state later on in the peace process. 

While the PA does not have all the powers of a state, such as complete control over its territory, a military or even its own monetary system, it does have responsibility for criminal justice, education, health care and sanitation for Area ‘A’ territories within the West Bank. 

Ever since the disastrous Fatah war with Hamas in 2007, the PA has had no authority in Gaza, which is entirely controlled by the Hamas terrorist organization. 

The PA is not considered the same as the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO). The PLO founded the PA within the Palestinians’ peace agreement negotiations with Israel in the 1990s. However, the 1993 Oslo Accords actually recognize the PLO as the legitimate leadership of the Palestinian people. 

The PA was dominated by the PLO and its dominant Fatah party until Fatah lost control of the Palestinian parliament in 2006, when Hamas won the largest number of seats during the elections. 

The previous year, in 2005, Fatah’s representative, Mahmoud Abbas, had won the Palestinian presidential election. Since that time, however, Hamas has dominated the elections. This is widely believed to be the reason why no elections have been held since the 2007 conflict that led to Hamas pushing Fatah out of Gaza. 

Many Palestinians have expressed their dissatisfaction with the governing body, and it has come under fire from international organizations, as well. 

Among the problematic issues reported: 

• Weak rule of law. The PA parliament does not meet for the purpose of passing laws and Abbas has acted as a de facto dictator. 

• Government jobs are based on cronyism rather than merit. The jobs are highly sought after because of a very poor Palestinian economy, but they are doled out based on loyalty to Abbas and Fatah leaders. 

• Graft. Very wealthy Palestinians usually evade most taxes while, at the same time, often securing lucrative funding for economic projects, many of which involve non-existent companies. Also, many PA leaders have huge salaries and increasingly large bank accounts, despite the general poverty of the average Palestinian citizen.

Since 2009, the Palestinian Authority has been led by Abbas and has functioned mostly to keep him and his supporters in power. 

The lack of respect for the PA by many Palestinians has directly led to the growth of militant terror groups like Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Lion’s Den.