1. Salam Fayyad is a Palestinian politician and economist who served as the prime minister of the Palestinian Authority and the finance minister.
30 Facts About Salam Fayyad
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Salam Fayyad was Finance Minister from June 2002 to November 2005 and from March 2007 to May 2012.
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Salam Fayyad resigned from the cabinet in November 2005 to run as founder and leader of the new Third Way party for the legislative elections of 2006.
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The party was not successful, and Salam Fayyad returned as Finance Minister in the March 2007 Unity Government.
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Salam Fayyad is a visiting senior scholar and the Daniella Lipper Coules '95 Distinguished Visitor in Foreign Affairs at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.
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Salam Fayyad is widely known for introducing various reforms that improved the Palestinian economy.
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Salam Fayyad was born in Nablus or Deir al-Ghusun in northern West Bank on 12 April 1952.
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Salam Fayyad graduated from the American University of Beirut in 1975 and received his MBA from St Edward's University in 1980.
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Salam Fayyad has a PhD in economics, which he received 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.
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Salam Fayyad began his teaching career at Yarmouk University in Jordan.
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Salam Fayyad then worked at the International Monetary Fund in Washington from 1987 to 1995 and from 1996 to 2001 as the International Monetary Fund's representative to Palestine based in Jerusalem.
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Salam Fayyad served as the regional manager of the Arab Bank in the West Bank and Gaza until he accepted an offer to become Yasser Arafat's Finance Minister in the Palestinian Authority Government of June 2002.
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Salam Fayyad held this post until November 2005, when he resigned from the cabinet to run as founder and leader of the new Third Way party in the legislative elections of 2006 alongside Hanan Ashrawi and Yasser Abd Rabbo.
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On 17 March 2007, Salam Fayyad was again appointed Finance Minister, this time in the Fatah-Hamas unity government.
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On 15 June 2007, following Hamas' takeover of Gaza, Salam Fayyad was appointed Prime Minister of a disputed emergency government, appointed by President Abbas.
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On 7 March 2009, Salam Fayyad submitted his resignation to pave the way for the formation of a national unity government.
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On 19 May 2009, Salam Fayyad was reappointed PM in a new government without Hamas.
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On 14 February 2011, Salam Fayyad tendered his government's resignation, two days after PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat had resigned over the leakage of the Palestine Papers, and one day after Abbas had unilaterally called for elections before September, without approval by Hamas.
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Salam Fayyad gave up his post as Finance Minister in favour of Nabeel Kassis.
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On 23 August 2009, Salam Fayyad came out with a plan to reform the fundamental infrastructure of a Palestinian State, called "Palestine: Ending the Occupation, Establishing the State".
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Salam Fayyad resigned because of political differences with Abbas over economic policy.
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On 6 June 2013, Salam Fayyad was replaced by Rami Hamdallah, who became PM of the Palestinian Authority Governments of 2013.
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Since 2017, Salam Fayyad has been visiting senior scholar in the School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.
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Salam Fayyad has rejected calls for a binational state and unilateral declaration of statehood.
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On 29 June 2011, in contravention of the Palestinian Authority's official position, and that of president Mahmoud Abbas, Salam Fayyad expressed skepticism about its approach to the United Nations for a vote on statehood, saying it would be only a symbolic victory.
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Salam Fayyad has condemned violence against Israel as detrimental to Palestinian national aspirations, stated that Palestinian refugees could be resettled not in Israel but in a future Palestinian state, and suggested that this state would offer citizenship to Jews.
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Salam Fayyad condemned the 2023 Hamas invasion of Israel, expressing grief for the hundreds of Israeli civilians killed.
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Salam Fayyad expressed grief for civilians in Gaza killed by Israeli airstrikes.
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Salam Fayyad won international and domestic approval for his management of the West Bank.
30.
Thomas Friedman, an American columnist, praised Salam Fayyad for trying to build functioning institutions of a Palestinian state, and not focusing on Israel.