Salam Fayyad

Salam Fayyad سلام فياض
Prime Minister of the Palestinian National Authority
Incumbent
Assumed office 15 June 2007
President	Mahmoud Abbas
Preceded by	Ismail Haniyeh*
Personal details
Born	1952 (age 59–60) Deir al-Ghusun, Jordanian West Bank
Political party	Third Way
Alma mater	American University of Beirut Saint Edward's University University of Texas, Austin
Religion	Sunni Islam
*Haniyeh was dismissed by Abbas on 14 June 2007 and appointed Fayyad instead. This has been deemed illegal by the Legislative Council, which continues to recognise Haniyeh. Fayyad governs in Fatah-controlled West Bank, while Haniyeh continues to govern in Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

Salam Fayyad (Arabic: سلام فياض‎, Salām Fayāḍ; born 1952) is a Palestinian politician and Prime Minister of the Palestinian National Authority. His first appointment, on 15 June 2007, which was justified by President Mahmoud Abbas on the basis of "national emergency", has not been confirmed by the Palestinian Legislative Council, the Palestinian Authority's parliament.^[1][2] He was reappointed on 19 May 2009. Fayyad has also been the finance minister from 17 March 2007 and previously held the post from June 2002 to November 2006. Fayyad is an internationally respected economist and politician.^[3][4]

Life and career

Salam Fayyad was born in Deir al-Ghusun. He graduated from the American University of Beirut in 1975^[6] and received his MBA from St. Edward's University in 1980.^[7] Fayyad has a PhD in economics from the University of Texas at Austin, where he was a student of William Barnett and did early research on the American Divisia Monetary Aggregates, which he continued on the staff of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Fayyad began his career teaching economics at Yarmouk University in Jordan, before joining the International Monetary Fund in 1987, where he served as representative to the Palestinian National Authority from 1996-2001. Following this Fayyad served as the regional manager of the Arab Bank in the West Bank and Gaza until he accepted an offer to become Yasser Arafat's finance minister.

Meeting George W.Bush

Upon resigning as finance minister, Fayyad ran as founder and leader of the new Third Way party in the legislative elections of 2006 alongside Hanan Ashrawi and Yasser Abd Rabbo.^[8] Fayyad and Ashrawi won their seats.

He is seen as pro-Western and was predicted to be offered prime minister by both Fatah and by the winner of the elections: the List of Change and Reform. Fayyad was credited for the U.S. Congress' deposit of $200 million to the Palestinian Authority in 2009.^[9] In response to the offer, Fayyad presented several conditions to becoming prime minister, including that Hamas would recognise Israel, which Hamas declined.

On 17 March 2007, Fayyad was again appointed finance minister, this time within the Fatah-Hamas coalition government.^[10] On 15 June 2007, following the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip, Fayyad was appointed prime minister of a new "independent" government (without any Fatah or Hamas members) which is supported by the Fatah, Israel and the West. In April 2007, during his time as Palestinian Minister of Finance, Fayyad visited the Palestine Center in Washington, DC and gave a lecture entitled "Building a Thriving Economy and a Strong Democracy."

This appointment has been challenged as illegal, because while the Palestinian Basic Law permits the president to dismiss a sitting prime minister, the appointment of a replacement requires the approval of the Legislative Council. The law provides that after removal of the prime minister (in this case, Ismail Haniyeh), the outgoing prime minister heads a caretaker government. The current Legislative Council, in which Hamas holds a majority of seats, has not approved the appointments of Fayyad or the balance of his new government. Fayyad's appointment was never placed before, or approved by it.^[11] Haniyeh continues to operate as prime minister in Gaza, and is recognized by a large number of Palestinians as the legitimate acting prime minister. Anis al-Qasem, a constitutional lawyer who drafted the Basic Law, is among those who publicly declared the appointment of Fayyad to be illegal.^[12]

On 17 October 2008, while visiting the University of Texas in Austin, he received the Distinguished Alumni Award before the Texas-Missouri football game, presented by the Ex-Students' Association of the University of Texas.

On 7 March 2009, Salam Fayyad submitted his resignation to President Mahmoud Abbas.^[13]

On 19 May 2009, Fayyad was reappointed to the post of Prime Minister.^[14]

Fayyad is married to Bashaer Kalouti, and together they have three children.

Fayyadism

Known as "Fayyadism", Fayyad's political agenda holds that neither violence nor peaceful negotiations have brought the Palestinians any closer to an independent state. His main tenets^[15] are: 1) strong security, 2) good governance, and 3) economic opportunity.

On August 23, 2009, Fayyad came out with a detailed working plan for the 13th Government of the Palestinian Authority for establishing the fundamental infrastructures of a Palestinian State, called "Palestine — Ending the Occupation, Establishing the State", in which he detailed a two year working plan for reinforcing the institutions of the future Palestinian State. This included, among other elements, a separation of powers, a free market, the development of existing infrastructure, and the building of new infrastructure such as government offices, a stock market, and an airport, all with the purpose of establishing a "de facto Palestinian State," based on the premise that the peace talks with Israel were faltering.^[16][17]

Thomas Friedman, a noted American columnist, has praised Fayyad for trying to build functioning institutions of a Palestinian state, and not focusing on Israel. Unlike Yasser Arafat, Fayyad "calls for the opposite — for a nonviolent struggle, for building non corrupt transparent institutions and effective police and paramilitary units, which even the Israeli Army says are doing a good job; and then, once they are all up and running, declare a Palestinian state in the West Bank by 2011."^[18]

In September 2010, The New York Review of Books published an article by Nathan Thrall that raised serious questions about the Fayyad plan and one of its central elements: United States-sponsored training, equipping, and funding of the Palestinian Authority's security forces, which have been cooperating with Israel at unprecedented levels in the West Bank to quell supporters of Hamas, the main Palestinian Islamist group that opposes negotiations with Israel.^[19]

Management of the West Bank

Salaam Fayyad won international and domestic approval for his management of the West Bank. The World Bank credited him with making substantial improvements in Palestinian state institutions.^[20] A polling in November of 2009 showed that that 60.7% of Palestinians credited his government with improving the economy of the West Bank; 61.9% faulted Hamas for the deterioration in the economy of Gaza. 54.4% of Palestinians believed that Fayyad's government is superior to the Hamas government.^[21] 57.1% of Palestinians believed that Fayyad's government advanced reforms of the Palestinian Authority, 52% believe corruption decreased and 48% believed that security improved under his governance.^[22]

On Palestinian Statehood

Fayyad has rejected calls for a binational state and unilateral declaration of statehood:

"[Statehood] is not something that is going to happen to the Israelis, nor something that is going to happen to the Palestinians.... is something that will grow on both sides as a reality... creating a belief that this was inevitable through the process, a convergence of two paths, the political and the process, from the bottom up and the top down"^[23]

On 29 June 2011, in contravention of the Palestinian Authority's official position, and that of President Mahmoud Abbas, Fayyad expressed skepticism about its approach to the UN for a vote on statehood, saying it would be only a symbolic victory.^[24]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Salam Fayyad

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Salam Fayyad

• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Salam Fayyad on Charlie Rose
• Works by or about Salam Fayyad in libraries (WorldCat catalog) (English)
• Profile: Salam Fayyad, BBC News, 17 June 2007
• Salam Fayyad collected news and commentary at Ha'aretz
• Salam Fayyad collected news and commentary at The Jerusalem Post
• Salam Fayyad collected news and commentary at The New York Times

Articles

• Salam Fayyad: Everyone's favorite Palestinian, Haaretz, 1 April 2007
• Green Shoots in Palestine by Thomas Friedman, New York Times, 4 August 2009
• Palestine Ending the Occupation, Establishing the State, Ynet, 25 August 2009
• Our Man in Palestine, Nathan Thrall, The New York Review of Books, 14 October 2010
• Palestinian Basic Law, selection of links and news

v t e Prime Ministers of the Palestinian National Authority Mahmoud Abbas · Ahmad Qurei · Nabil Shaath (acting) · Ahmad Qurei · Salam Fayyad (West Bank)/Ismail Haniyeh (Gaza Strip)