Palestine Authority
- noun
:
Autoridad Palestina
- In January of 2006, Hamas won the elections for the Palestine Authority (it had been allowed to run at the insistence of Bush, who, however, backed down in a cowardly way from 'democratization' when the Israelis insisted that the outcome was unacceptable).
- Palestine Authority President Yasser Arafat
Examples
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The Palestine Authority was established to manage the governance of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
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The Palestine Authority signed an agreement to enhance security cooperation with Israel.
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Recent elections led to significant changes in the leadership of the Palestine Authority.
Synonyms
1
6.4
A body that governs parts of the West Bank and Gaza with limited power under agreements with Israel
1
7.5
The body that governs parts of the West Bank and Gaza
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'an administrative/governing body for Palestine' follows directly from combining 'Palestine' (the territory) and 'authority' (a governing entity), so a B1 learner who knows both words can reasonably infer it refers to a governing organization. This noun‑noun naming pattern is common across languages, so while exact institutional details require background knowledge, the basic referent is compositionally transparent.
Etymology
Palestine Authority gets its name from Palestine, meaning the land and its people, and authority, meaning a group given power to run things. It was set up after agreements in the 1990s to let Palestinians 'govern' some parts of the West Bank and Gaza, so today it means the organization that runs those areas.