Abbas Names Academic Hamdallah as Palestinian Prime Minister

Abbas Names Academic Hamdallah
as Palestinian Prime Minister

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has appointed Rami Hamdallah, president of An-Najah National University in the West Bank city of Nablus, as prime minister.

The decision, made yesterday, was confirmed by Ahmed Assaf, a spokesman for Abbas’s Fatah party. Hamdallah has three weeks to form a government, Assaf said by phone.

Hamdallah, 54, who has a doctorate in applied linguistics from the University of Lancaster in England, replaces Salam Fayyad, who worked in Washington and was familiar with the U.S. government and international aid organizations. Hamdallah’s resume says he is also the chairman of the Palestine Exchange.

“Hamdallah is a respected academic in the West Bank who has good relations with the Fatah movement, unlike Fayyad, who was distrusted by Fatah, and that is the key thing here,” said Mkhaimar Abusada, a political scientist at al-Azhar University in the Gaza Strip.

Fayyad wasn’t a member of Fatah and had criticized Hamas, damaging Fatah efforts to reconcile with the rival group. Hamas seized control of Gaza and ousted troops loyal to Abbas in 2007, a year after winning legislative elections. Abbas won a presidential election in 2005 to what was originally supposed to be a four-year term.
Political Base

“We don’t know the new Palestinian prime minister as a statesman but as an academic, and we will see how things develop,” Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said today, according to an e-mail from the ministry. “Hopefully we are dealing with pragmatic people.”

The appointment of a new prime minister in the West Bank “will not resolve the problems and doesn’t achieve unity,” Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said. Considered a terrorist group by the U.S. and the European Union, Hamas refuses to recognize Israel’s right to exist.

Abbas choice of Hamdallah over other candidates better known internationally, including his top economic adviser Mohammad Mustafa, “shows more concern for his domestic political base and is maybe sending a message to the U.S. and Europe that he has grown impatient with their peacemaking efforts that haven’t produced much,” said Abusada.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry last week pressed Israelis and Palestinians to renew peace negotiations, touting a plan he said could attract $4 billion in investments to boost the Palestinian economy.
‘Moment of Challenge’

Kerry congratulated Hamdallah in a statement, saying “his appointment comes at a moment of challenge, which is also an important moment of opportunity.”

It wasn’t immediately clear whether the appointment would help Abbas retain the confidence of international donors, who contribute half the Palestinian Authority’s budget. Fayyad, a University of Texas-educated economist for the International Monetary Fund, fulfilled that role until he resigned in April, warning that the government was in an unsustainable financial position.

“Hamdallah has lots of experience managing things and political experience as head of the elections committee,” said Samir Abdullah, a former Palestinian Authority planning minister, who runs an economic research group in Ramallah. “I don’t think his appointment should be of concern to the donors.”