First Arafat Government

The First Arafat Government was formed in 1994, when Yasser Arafat returned to Palestine, settling in Gaza City and promoted self-governance for the Palestinian territories.^[1] The government was dissolved following the 1996 Palestinian general election.

First Arafat Government
1st Cabinet of Palestinian National Authority
Date formed	5 July 1994
Date dissolved	17 May 1996
People and organisations
Head of government	Yasser Arafat
Total no. of members	20
History
Successor	Second Arafat Government

Government Composition

Yasser Arafat's first government consisted of 20 ministries, 17 ministers (including one woman, Intissar al-Wazir). The positions of ministers of the Ministry of Public Works and the Ministry of Agriculture remained vacant, with a deputy minister appointed for each of them.

Members of the Government

S.No	Portrait	Name	Portfolio	Party	Remarks
1		Dr. Yasser Arafat[1]	President of the Palestinian National Authority and Minister of Interior	Fatah	Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization
2		Ahmed Qurei[2]	Minister of Economy and Trade	Fatah	Member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization
3		Nabil Shaath[3][4]	Minister of Planning and International Cooperation	Fatah
4		Saeb Erekat[5]	Minister of Local Government	Fatah
5		Riyad al-Za'noun [ar]	Minister of Health	Fatah
6		Freih Abu Madin [ar]	Minister of Justice	Fatah
7		Jamil al-Tarifi [ar]	Minister of Civil Affairs	Fatah
8		Zakaria al-Agha	Minister of Housing	Fatah
9		Intissar al-Wazir	Minister of Social Affairs	Fatah
10		Yasser Abd Rabbo[6]	Minister of Culture and Information	Palestinian Democratic Union	Member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization
11		Azmi Shuaibi [ar]	Minister of Youth and Sports	Palestinian Democratic Union
12		Samir Ghawshah[7]	Minister of Labour	Palestinian Popular Struggle Front	Member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization
13		Mohammad Zuhdi Nashashibi[8]	Minister of Finance	Independent	Member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization
14		Yasser Amr [ar]	Minister of Education	Independent	Member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization
15		Abdul Aziz al-Hajj [ar]	Minister of Transport	Independent
16		Abdul Hafeez al-Ashhab [ar]	Minister of Communications	Independent
17		Elias Freij	Minister of Tourism	Independent
18		Hasan Tahboub[9]	Minister of Waqf and Religious Affairs	Independent
19		Vacant	Minister of Public Works
20		Vacant	Minister of Agriculture