What's behind Hamas’ latest Cabinet reshuffle in Gaza?
Hamas carried out a ministerial reshuffle in the Gaza Strip, claiming to pump new blood into the ministries as the consensus government has failed to meet its responsibilities toward Gaza.
The Government Media Office in the Gaza Strip announced Oct. 17 that the Supreme Administrative Committee, which is in charge of the conduct of Gaza’s ministries, had taken a decision to carry out a Cabinet reshuffle in active ministries and change the positions of 16 deputy ministers and directors general in government institutions.
The most important reshuffles carried out by Hamas, which oversees the committee, included transferring Ibrahim Radwan from the Land Authority to the Ministry of Public Works; Ibrahim Jaber from the Ministry of Planning to the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities; Kamel Madi from the Ministry of Interior to the Land Authority; Anwar al-Buraawi from the Ministry of Education to the Ministry of Culture; Ihab al-Ghusain from the State Media to the Ministry of Transport; Samir Mtayyar from the Ministry of Culture to the Energy Authority; Emad al-Baz from the Ministry of Economy to the Court of Fatwa; and Bashir Abu al-Naja from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Ministry of Youth.
Oussama Saad, the deputy secretary-general of the Cabinet in Gaza, told Al-Monitor, “The administrative reshuffling of the high-ranking staff in Gaza’s ministries aims at improving the quality of work, transferring expertise from one place to another and developing new visions for advanced government positions. This is a positive reshuffle that will involve deputy ministers and directors general in the majority of active ministries in Gaza. It is a legal action because it is executed by a committee set up by the PLC [Palestinian Legislative Council] to manage Gaza’s ministries until the consensus government takes over.”
The Supreme Administrative Committee was in charge of the Cabinet reshuffle after the committee was approved by the PLC in the Gaza Strip and the majority of Hamas PLC members in June to organize the affairs of ministries and government institutions.
