Fatah is looking to replace PA Prime Minister Shtayyeh

Middle East Monitor  /  June 1, 2022

A number of members of the Fatah Central Committee are mobilizing to replace Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh, Al-Resalah newspaper reported on Tuesday. However, sources inside the PA deny the reports.

Nevertheless, sources within the committee have repeated that there have been moves to remove Shtayyeh, even though Fatah is still looking for an alternative. According to committee member Tawfiq al-Tirawi, there are no such moves. Senior Fatah media official Moneer al-Jaghoub, though, confirmed the reports.

“There is no planned change for the government, but there is a planned government reshuffle,” he said. According to Abdul-Elah al-Ateera, Deputy Prime Minister and also a member of the movement’s Central Committee, there is neither a change of government nor a reshuffle planned.

However, Al-Jaghoub insisted that a reshuffle is necessary, citing human rights violations, corruption and other mismanagement issues.

Fatah sources told Al-Resalah that the EU had conditioned discussions about the resumption of aid to the PA on removing the Fatah government and installing a technocrat alternative. The movement’s losses in student union and syndicate elections were given as major reasons for the possible change.