GAZA, 10 June — Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat pared down his Cabinet yesterday in a move that could pave the way for reforms of the Palestinian Authority.
The Palestinian president reduced his Cabinet to 21 ministers from 31 in what Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said was an interim measure until parliamentary elections.
The Palestinian Authority shake-up included the appointment of new Interior Minister Gen. Abdel Razzaq Al-Yahya to head a streamlined security force made up of three divisions instead of nine main security agencies.
“All Palestinian security services will be under the supervision of the Ministry of Interior in order to prevent any overlap,” Abed Rabbo said at a news conference in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
Israel had demanded the reshuffle as part of a reform program to end Palestinian bombings. It reacted coolly to the news of the changes.
“If we see fundamental change in the behavior of the Palestinian security forces in which they intercept the attacks against Israel and not collaborate with them, we’ll know that something big has occurred,” Dore Gold, an adviser to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, told Reuters.
The new Palestinian Cabinet, including five new ministers and several merged portfolios, will meet today.
“The aim of this new government will be the reconstruction of what the occupation has destroyed in the past few months,” Abed Rabbo said.
“This transitional government will have the task of preparing the municipal, legislative and presidential elections, slated for the end of 2002 and the start of 2003,” Abed Rabbo said.
But there was no sign the 72-year-old Arafat, who has led the Palestinian movement for three decades, was ready to step down as head of the PA that has been devastated by the Israeli military in recent months.
Saeb Erekat, chief Palestinian negotiator who retained his post as minister of local affairs, brushed off speculation Arafat could be given a purely ceremonial job. “That’s not being discussed,” he told CNN.
Hamas condemned the new Cabinet, saying the appointments were a product of US intervention and would not reduce domestic corruption.
Following is the new Cabinet list, minus a minister for religious affairs to be announced later:
Interior: Gen. Abdel Razzaq Al-Yahya (new); Finance: Salam Fayad (new); Labor: Ghassan Al-Khatib (new); Justice: Ibrahim Dughmeh (new); Education: Naim Abul Hummus (new); Housing and Public Works: Azzam Al-Ahmad (ex-public works); Economy, Trade and Industry: Maher Al-Masri (ex-economy and trade); Planning and International Cooperation: Nabil Shaath; Local Administration: Saeb Erekat; Information and Culture: Yasser Abed Rabbo; Health: Riad Zannun; Agriculture: Rafiq Al-Natsheh (ex-labor); Social Affairs: Intisar Al-Wazir; Civil Affairs: Jamil Tarifi; Natural Resources: Abdelrahman Hamad (ex-housing); Transport: Mitri Abu Eita (ex-tourism); Tourism: Nabil Qassis (ex-minister without portfolio); Telecommunications: Imad Al-Faluji; Supply: Abdel Aziz Shahin; Youth and Sports: Ali Al-Kawashmeh (ex-transport).
Meanwhile, the Israeli Army placed several Palestinian villages in Nablus under curfew yesterday morning following a clash in the nearby Israeli settlement of Yitzhar Saturday night.
Four soldiers were wounded, two of them seriously, when a Palestinian gunman entered the northern West Bank settlement, and opened fire at several mobile homes.
The gunman was killed by the soldiers. A Palestinian, Sami Meslih, 28, was killed by Israeli Army gunfire in Beit Hanun as he was returning home from work. The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine claimed responsibility for the attack in a phone call to AFP. It identified the dead activist as Ahmed Yasser Hamad, aged 18, from the village of Assira near Nablus. Israeli tanks and troops entered the northern West Bank town of Tulkarm yesterday, wounding two Palestinians in the operation, Palestinian security officials said. They said about 20 tanks and armored vehicles rolled into the autonomous town. The two wounded Palestinians were shot in the leg, the officials said.
The Israeli military arrested a member of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s presidential guard — Force 17 member Bashar Said Kamal Khatib — who had been involved in numerous shooting attacks, an Israeli security source said yesterday.
In Gaza, two senior leaders of Islamic Jihad group were arrested in Gaza City by Palestinian security forces early yesterday, a Palestinian security source said.
