Salam Fayyad
Salam Fayyad is a Palestinian politician, who on 15 June 2007, was appointed Prime Minister of the Palestinian National Authority. His appointment, justified by President Mahmoud Abbas on the basis of “national emergency”, has not been confirmed by the Palestinian Legislative Council, Palestine’s parliament. 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. Salam Fayyad received his MBA from St. Edward’s University in 1980. 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 World Bank from 1987 – 1995. He subsequently became the International Monetary Fund representative to the Palestinian National Authority until 2001, when he accepted the offer to become its finance minister.
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. 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. 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. 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.
This appointment has been challenged as illegal, because while the Palestinian Basic Law permits the preseident 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 the it. 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.
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.
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