Building the Palestinian State With Salam Fayyad
About this episode
Klein interviews former Palestinian Authority prime minister Salam Fayyad about why the state-building project he led fell short and what should happen now. Fayyad describes his 2009 plan's theory: instead of waiting for a negotiated deal, Palestinians would build a state from the inside — collect taxes, maintain security, reform finances — so the world would have to recognize it. He recounts replacing Arafat-era patronage with systems-based budgeting, Hamas's 2006 election win, and the 2007 split, and argues Israel chose not to reward nonviolence: settlement expansion continued, Area C stayed closed to development, and military incursions into Palestinian cities never stopped. He says he voluntarily resigned in 2013 and now advocates an expanded, inclusive PLO committed to nonviolence, a reconfigured Palestinian Authority, and an immediate end to the Gaza war.