Palestinian government

The Palestinian Government is the institution that governs the Palestinian territories. The ruling power is split into two separate and competitive administrations. The first is the Palestinian unity government of 2014, which rules the West Bank Area A and in theory also partially Area B, and is generally referred to as the Palestinian Authority (PA). The other is the Hamas government of 2012, which is de facto ruling the Gaza Strip. Although the 2014 unity government formally is a government representing both Fatah and Hamas, the two parties are hostile to each other as reconciliation attempts have failed so far.

The overarching government of the State of Palestine is the PLO Executive Committee, which is supposed to represent all Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territories as well as the Palestinians abroad. Hamas, which is the dominant Palestinian party alongside Fatah, however, is not represented in the PLO. Both the Palestinian Authority and the PLO Executive are established under the responsibility of the Palestine Liberation Organization. The PLO Executive has been largely dysfunctional for many years due to continued absence of Palestinian National Council elections.