Palestinian unity govt sworn in

FE Team | Published: June 03, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00

RAMALLAH, June 2, (agencies) A long-awaited Palestinian unity government was sworn in before president Mahmud Abbas Monday after a landmark reconciliation deal with the Islamist Hamas that has infuriated Israel.
Following a ceremony at the Muqataa presidential compound in Ramallah, Abbas hailed "the end" of a bitter and sometimes bloody divide between his Fatah movement and the rival Hamas which rules Gaza.
Hamas also applauded the new government as representing "all Palestinians," saying it was a "turning point" in its formerly bitter relations with Fatah.
Prime minister Rami Hamdallah, who stays on in his current post to head the first Palestinian unity government in seven years, is a respected academic who is little-known abroad.
Hamdallah was first appointed to the position of premier in June 2013 after his predecessor Salam Fayyad resigned.
Although he submitted his resignation over a cabinet power struggle, he stayed on in the job and has now taken over the reins of the first Palestinian government of national unity since 2007.
Pan-Arab daily Al-Quds al-Arabi has described him as a "solid, upright man with patriotic principles" who had been dropped into "the jungle of the Muqataa (the president's headquarters) among the lions and hyenas."
But the university professor has managed to impose himself upon the volatile Palestinian political scene, despite initial predictions by the Israeli media that he was on a "suicide mission".
Standing on a red carpet lined with Palestinian flags, the new ministers filed past, each laying their hand on either a Koran or a Bible to take the oath of office as Abbas stood by.
It is the first Palestinian unity government to take office in seven years, and the first fruits of a landmark reconciliation deal signed in April.
"Today, with the formation of a national consensus government, we announce the end of a Palestinian division that has greatly damaged our national case," said Abbas.
"This black page in history has been turned forever," he pledged in remarks echoed by the outgoing Hamas government in Gaza.
"We hail the national consensus government, which represents all the Palestinian people," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told AFP, describing it as "a turning point".
Hours earlier, a dispute over the fate of the prisoners' ministry raised fears the government could be delayed, but the issue was resolved after the parties agreed the portfolio would be held by prime minister Rami Hamdallah. He will also head the interior ministry.
The new cabinet, which was pieced together by Fatah and Hamas, counts 17 ministers, all of them political independents. Technocratic in nature, the new government will not have a political mandate.
The government includes three women and five ministers who come from Gaza. Over the weekend, Israel blocked three of the Gazans from travelling to Ramallah for the oath-taking.