The divided rival governments of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip are facing heavy pressures, with the Palestinians calling on them to immediately achieve full political and national reconciliation, otherwise the whole political system of the Palestinians might soon collapse.

Observers are increasingly slamming the two existing governments - one in the West Bank ruled by the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) and the other in the Gaza Strip ruled by Islamic Hamas movement - as the efforts to achieve an internal reconciliation between them have been going too slow.

Since 2007, the two governments have been working separately in running the Palestinians' daily affairs amid an obvious internal division, with each government establishing its own ministries that follow two different policies, strategies and attitudes.

A prominent Palestinian politician told Xinhua that "our political system is facing a real danger amid difficult choices ... Unfortunately, we are expecting more and we will pay a heavy price before the reconciliation is fully implemented."

In the West Bank, the caretaker government of prominent Palestinian economist Salam Fayyad is currently facing heavy criticism, due to corruption cases of two of its ministers, the government's attitude towards reducing the general budget as well as the significant increase of prices.

To get out of the crisis, Fayyad recently presented new plans to reduce the budget and to approve the law of early pension for more than 26,000 employees, in addition to amending the VAT tax law. However, these plans were heavily slammed by unions and corporations.

Concerned that the tax law may undermine local investments, Palestinian businessmen and private sector's representatives rejected the law, threatening to sue Fayyad's government in the Palestinian courts.

Fayyad argued that the tax law is meant to address severe fiscal crisis that troubles the PNA, revealing that his government suffered 800 million U.S. dollar deficit one week ago and has difficulties to pay salaries to its 148,000 employees.

Unlike the Hamas government, Fayyad's government functions in the West Bank which is still under Israeli military's occupation. The Israeli army is erecting more roadblocks between cities and towns, while Israeli settlers escalate construction of settlements.

After four of its ministers resigned, two of whom were sacked due to the involvement in corruption cases, Fayyad's government suffers a blow in its structure. What's more, a fifth minister has decided to resign, after he was strongly slammed for making impolite statements aired by local radio station.

Fayyad, an independent economist, took office in 2007 after President Mahmoud Abbas deposed the unity government headed by Hamas leader Ismail Haneya.

Meanwhile, the deposed government of Hamas in Gaza also faces fiscal problems, and is not able to fulfill its commitment to pay salaries to its 36,000 employees in the Gaza Strip.

Residents in Gaza are now publically criticizing Hamas government for imposing high taxes on goods smuggled through tunnels between the Gaza Strip and Egypt.

Israel has been imposing heavy blockade on the Gaza Strip. Although Israel in June 2010 relaxed the blockade, the coastal enclave's economy is still broken and needs to be renovated.

Ghada al-Zugher, executive director of the Coalition for Transparency and Accountability, told Xinhua that the Palestinians ' internal division is responsible for both governments' weakness.

"We can speak about a long list of political, financial and administrative corruption in the two governments, and this includes sacking employees for no reason, violations of the law and many other practices against the public and local organizations," said al-Zugher.

Rival Hamas and Abbas' Fatah Party agreed last May in Egypt's capital Cairo to end their internal division and form a transitional unity government that would prepare for elections within a year. So far, the rivals are still arguing about details of implementation.

Ahmad Rafiq Awad, political science professor at Beer Ziet University in the West Bank, told Xinhua that "We are standing in front of a complicated crisis that was an outcome of the absence of legal and institutional establishment to fix and rescue the Palestinian political system."

"We are in an urgent need for political discipline and at the same time to hurry up in achieving internal reconciliation," Awad said, adding that "more delays in implementing the reconciliation would certainly lead the two governments to more weakness and more criticism."