Foreign Minister Schallenberg visited a Palestinian prime minister on duty in Ramallah on Wednesday. PLO leader Abbas wants to install a technocratic government under US pressure. He also seeks Hamas' blessing.
Things are happening quickly for Alexander Schallenberg. He enters the West Bank from Israel via the Beitunia freight border crossing, quickly changes vehicles and continues in a convoy with flashing lights to the center of the Palestinian administration in Ramallah. Palestinians often spend hours at checkpoints. Since the terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, mobile checkpoints have frequently appeared. And some of them are built by Jewish settlers themselves. This is strangling economic life and fueling discontent among Palestinians.
In the center of Ramallah, a stone ink castle stands next to each other – banks, government buildings, embassies. Outside, life goes on as normal. The restaurants are busy and the streets are full of honking horns. But behind the facade there is something brewing. Hamas' popularity is rising in the West Bank. According to a poll carried out in December, 75 percent of the population here wants the terrorist organization to remain in power in Gaza. In Gaza itself, only 38 percent of respondents expressed this desire. They know better what it means to live under the rule of radical Islamists.