Gaza’s youngest voters hope Palestinian elections will move forward, amid reports saying the vote will be delayed due to disarray within the ruling Fatah party and a dispute with Israel around Jerusalem. “We are waiting for the elections to happen and want the local and international community to respect the results, to refute the argument of not having a unified Palestinian government,” Hind Judah tells Mondoweiss. The current division, she said, prevents “establishing the Palestinian state.”
The prospect of holding long awaited legislative elections in Palestine is quickly slipping away, as Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas is expected to announce that the elections, which have been 15 years in the making, will be delayed. The move comes as internal rifts continue to grow within Abbas’ Fatah party, with multiple contenders challenging the official slate presented by Abbas and his inner circle.
Mouin Rabbani interviews Wafa Abdel-Rahman on the upcoming Palestinians elections, which she argues “reveals Fatah’s internal divisions in all their glory.”
Hamada Jaber writes that the Palestinian left needs to realize that the Hamas-Fatah rapprochement reflects a crisis and not the alleged unity needed to face Palestinians’ challenges. Given that, the upcoming legislative elections present an opportunity but the left needs to decide its goal — to become an effective force in the Palestinian political system, or merely to survive.
The Palestinian people need elections that will bring them closer to self-determination. Haidar Eid writes that the current election plan only promotes further fragmentation, and the interests of Israel.
As Palestinians gear up to cast ballots in presidential and legislative elections for the first time in 15 years, many in Gaza hope that a change in government will ease economic woes.
After more than a decade of political strife, rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas have agreed to hold elections for the first time in Palestine in nearly 15 years.
Fatah and Hamas reached consensus in July to hold municipal elections on October 8th. The agreement came about amid reconciliation efforts aimed at ending internal Palestinian political divisions. Hani el-Massri, a Palestinian political analyst based in Gaza, believes this election cycle is the last best chance to settle the division.
Western governments and mainstream media outlets hold and promote a reductionist and racist understanding of Hamas, its actions, and its position in Palestinian society.
This post is part of the series “Roots of Resistance: 25 year retrospective on the…