This chapter discusses the structural factors behind the Palestinian political system's weakness. They include the Israeli occupation and colonial policies, conditions dictated by donors, and internal factors such as the overlap between the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the opacity of their legitimacy, the Fatah–Hamas split, the dominance of the executive branch and the security services, and the fragility of the political parties and civil society. This chapter claims that these factors distort the structures and functions of the Palestinian political system, increasing the ambiguity and contradiction of its goals and strategies and severely limiting its ability to respond to Palestinian aspirations. In actuality, the PA has acted as a subcontractor of the Israeli occupation authorities and become the factual provider of colonial services. Thus, the Palestinian "political" field has become simultaneously free and restricted: free because it is devoid of the coercive power of the state that has not yet been created, and restricted because it is constrained by the system's fragility and weakness. To tackle these challenges, concrete steps that can be taken include redefining national goals and applying sound strategies to achieve them - provided that there is harmony between the diplomatic, legal, and political forms of resistance. A starting point could involve clarifying the relationship between the PA and the PLO, ending the Fatah-Hamas split, and introducing a social contract that entails renewing the existing structures and policies of the Palestinian political system to encounter its vulnerability and weakness.
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