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Palestinian Authority

The Palestinian Authority (PA) was created in 1994 to administer the territories of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, both occupied by Israel in 1967. It is not a sovereign government, lacking control over its borders and finances, and its mandate is primarily restricted to civil affairs and security. The PA has an ambiguous relationship to the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the internationally recognized representative of the Palestinian people with observer status at the UN. Hamas, the Islamist party that won a majority in the PA’s legislature in 2006, is not part of the PLO.

Palestinian leaders believed the 1993 Oslo accords that birthed the PA would lead to a full-fledged Palestinian state following the withdrawal of Israeli soldiers and settlers from the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. But, on the eve of the 2000 Palestinian uprising that became the current low-level war, the PA controlled only portions of this territory. Meanwhile, Israeli settlement expansion had dampened Palestinians’ faith in both the Oslo process and the PA’s leadership. The late Yasser Arafat’s refusal of Israel’s “generous offer” at the July 2000 Camp David summit stemmed from these facts, as well as Israel’s refusal to participate in compensating or relocating Palestinians made refugees in 1948. President Mahmoud Abbas, like Arafat before him, officially represents these refugees in his capacity as head of the PLO.

From 2000 to the present, Israel has responded to Palestinian militant attacks on soldiers, settlers and civilians inside Israel with attacks aimed at the PA, along with large-scale military offensives to track down militant groups. Operation Defensive Shield in 2002 severely degraded the PA’s administrative capacity, as did Israel’s periodic withholding of crucial customs revenue. Israel’s system of checkpoints, curfews and closures deepened poverty and unemployment. Together with the PA leadership’s mismanagement and corruption, these conditions fueled the discontent that led Palestinians to elect Hamas. Israel, along with the PA’s Western donors, tightened financial penalties following the Hamas victory. The future of the PA is in doubt.


Facts and Figures »