Palestinians have mixed feelings about their upcoming elections

Over the past week, the streets in Palestine have been buzzing with talk of something that many Palestinians thought might never happen again: elections.

On January 15th Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced that presidential and parliamentary elections would be held this spring and summer, 15 years after he was first elected for what was supposed to be a four-year term. 

According to Abbas’ presidential decree, elections for the long-defunct Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) will take place on May 22, followed by presidential elections on July 31.

Despite praise from the international community and foreign leaders “welcoming” the announcement as a “crucial step” towards Palestinian unity and democracy, the sentiment on the Palestinian street is a mixed bag, filled with everything from excitement and cautious optimism, to full-fledged skepticism and defiance. 

The last national elections in 2006 resulted in a huge upset by Hamas, who won the majority of the seats in the PLC. After a power sharing struggle between Hamas and Abbas’ Fatah party, the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) were plunged into civil war with Hamas maintaining its stronghold in the Gaza Strip, and Fatah maintaining control over the PA in the West Bank. 

Countless failed attempts at reconciliation between the two factions have pushed the prospect of elections further out of reach, and for months the topic of reconciliation and elections had been put on the back burner, as leaders focused on more timely issues like Israeli annexation and ongoing regional normalization

That’s why for many Palestinians, the sudden announcement that elections were to take place in just a few months, came as a surprise. 

“To be honest I was shocked when I heard the news,” 30-year-old Faris Zawahra, an activist in the West Bank told Mondoweiss. “This is something we never thought would happen.”

Zawahra said that while he’s excited to participate in elections for the first time in his life, the circumstances under which the announcement was made seem questionable. “We have been waiting for more than a decade, and Palestinian citizens have never stopped asking for it to happen,” he said. “But all of a sudden they just said there would be elections in May.”

“I do think there are pressures from the international community and especially the US to make this happen, which is why they decided to do it now and not 10 years ago,” he said. 

Zawahra’s speculation about American influence over Abbas’ decision to hold elections is one shared by many Palestinians, critics, and political analysts, who believe the elections are an effort to curry favor with the new Biden administration, and offer up a renewed sense of legitimacy for Abbas and his government. 

“This election was not a decision made by the people, but was a decision on part of the leadership because of outside pressure,” Zawahra said. “They want legitimacy in the eyes of the international community. And holding elections could give them that.”

Many Palestinians, like 47-year-old Ibrahim Msallam, who have become jaded after witnessing years of corruption and failed attempts at democracy in the PA, have serious doubts over whether Abbas and his government will even follow through with the elections come May. 

“This isn’t the first time they’ve said ‘okay we’re going to have elections’ or ‘we’re going to have national reconciliation’ and then things have fallen apart,” Msallam said.

 “I don’t know if they are going to follow through with the elections or not, but even if they do, it’s a symbolic gesture rather than a real chance for us to have democracy,” he continued.

“Elections should be about freedom and sovereignty, that’s why we need elections. Not to give legitimacy to the same people who have already been in power for decades,” Msallam said.

The same old faces

Many Palestinians have one principal concern in regards to the upcoming vote in May and July: would the election, if it goes through, be a true chance to make their voices heard, or is it just another facade of democracy on part of the PA?

A December poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research found 52% of Palestinians think elections held under present conditions would not be fair and free, and that if Hamas won, 76% thought Fatah would not accept the result and 58% believed Hamas would reject a Fatah victory.

Most people who spoke to Mondoweiss seemed to echo those same concerns, and wondered if the PA, a government rampant with corruption and nepotism, would truly be able to hold fair elections that gave Palestinians the opportunity for change, and to choose a different path for their future. 

Those fears were confirmed this week when the PA announced that 85-year-old Mahmoud Abbas will be the Fatah candidate in the presidential elections in July. For many Palestinians, regardless of age and gender, that announcement was confirmation that very little is going to change. 

“I’ve never voted in my life, and I was excited at the prospect of being able to participate in an election,” 26-year-old lawyer Ghaida Amira told Mondoweiss. “But our prospects are already disappointing,” she said. 

“To see the same leaders we’ve had for decades putting their names forward again is a huge disappointment,” she said, adding that she was hoping to see some newer, younger faces emerge as contenders for a new government.

“Of course it’ll be nice to have an election, but what’s the point if we have no new choices?” she asked. 

Prominent Palestinian peace activist Issa Amro, who has been arrested by the PA over his social media posts in the past, took to Facebook to express his displeasure over the current trajectory of the elections, calling on Abbas not to run for President this time around. 

“Most of your people are secretly unsatisfied with the situation they are living, and not satisfied with the way things are being run in the organization, in power and even in the Fatah movement,” Amro wrote, addressing the President, who he asked to step aside and make way for the country’s youth. 

“We and our cause are at a crossroads, and the best way to change is free and fair elections whose results are respected by everyone,” Amro wrote.

Amro’s appeal to the president and to the Fatah movement seems to resonate with many Palestinians, young and old, who feel that by putting forward the same names and faces as the past few decades, the PA is merely keeping up a ruse of democracy, rather than giving its people an actual shot at it. 

“Hamas and Fatah are already putting forth the same leaders, and it’s already making people feel discouraged about the elections,” Faris Zawahra told Mondoweiss.  

“I think in general people are excited to have elections, but if we are only allowed to choose between the same faces we’ve seen for decades, we are not really getting the chance at democracy and change that we deserve,” he said. 

Ghaida Amira said that she, a longtime supporter of the Fatah movement, might not vote along the party’s lines if they are “just going to put forward all the same faces as before.”

“We need to see a new generation of leaders — people who can help us achieve our dreams for political freedom and change our economic, social, and political future,” she said.

Msallam echoed her sentiments, saying: “These leaders had a chance for 16 years  to stand and fight for us, but they did nothing to fight against the occupation.”

“With respect to Mahmoud Abbas, he is 85 years old, and I don’t think he is the best person to be president,” Msallam said. “Fatah has a lot of leaders in the new generation who are educated, cultured, and smart politically. We have to look to the new generation and give them a chance to represent us and fight for our rights.”

Fears of more civil unrest 

On the laundry list of concerns about the upcoming elections, is the fear that Palestinians could see a repeat of the violence that took over their communities in the aftermath of the 2006 elections. 

According to data collected by The Palestinian Independent Commission for Citizens’ Rights, it is estimated that over 600 Palestinians were killed in the fighting between January 2006 and May 2007, and that dozens more were killed in the following years as part of the conflict between Fatah and Hamas. 

“I think there is a fear that the election results could spark fighting between Fatah and Hamas and the factions,” Amira told Mondoweiss, adding that while she was very young at the time, she can still remember how the violence affected her community and city at the time. 

“We don’t want to repeat the mistakes of the past,” she said. “I hope that no matter what happens, people should accept and respect one another even if they have different ideologies.”

“At the end of the day we are a people under occupation, and we should have one common goal: freedom and liberty for us all.”

So, are you going to vote?

With all their concerns over democracy, legitimacy, and unrest clouding the upcoming elections, we asked Palestinians if, at the end of the day, they are planning to vote. This is what they said:

“Personally, I am going to vote,” Faris Zawahra told Mondoweiss. 

“Many young people like myself have never had the chance to experience having that blue dye on our fingers, symbolizing that we voted,” he said, “so that is quite exciting.”

But Zawahra said that he won’t judge the people who decide not to vote, adding that “even if they don’t vote, it doesn’t mean their opinions don’t matter.”

One of those people who says he has no intention of voting, is 47-year-old Ibrahim Msallam. 

“I’m not going to vote in this election for a number of reasons,” he said. “One of them is that our prisoners, our people in Jerusalem, and our people living in the diaspora cannot vote. These are some of the most important people who need to participate in the election, and they can’t.”

Back in 2006, Msallam said he was ecstatic to vote. “I felt like I was exercising my right to choose the people who could represent us and stand up for our rights and fight for our freedom from the occupation, release our prisoners from jail, and work to secure the right of our return for our refugees.”

“But now, I can’t bring myself to vote for the same leaders who have done nothing for us in 16 years,” he said. 

“Today we have settlements everywhere, and Israel controls everything about our lives. The reality on the ground is that we are not a real state or country with control over anything, so why should we have these fake elections?” he asked. 

“When we are a free country, with liberty and sovereignty, and our lives are not controlled by the occupation, then I will vote.”

If she doesn’t see any changes from now until May in terms of new names and faces, Amira said, she won’t vote in the elections. “If we see no progress, I think we should all refuse to vote, and refuse this facade of an election that is happening just for the benefit of the current leaders,” she said. 

“We have been waiting 15 years for our voices to be heard,” Amira continued. “And it is our right to demand that we have a real, fair election.”