Yair Rosenberg has routinely described Palestinian leaders as terrorists and antisemites and characterized Palestinian resistance to occupation as stemming from ancient historical hatred of Jews. He is now ensconced at the Atlantic spreading his misunderstanding of the world into American opinion, for years to come.
To say the current Palestinian political crisis is simply a Hamas-Fatah split is to ignore a history of division that cannot be solely blamed on Palestinians.
The Palestinian Authority has announced a new move to limit freedom of expression for Palestinians already living under Israel’s occupation. The PA’s decision comes on the heels of the torture and murder of activist Nizar Banat, and a wave of arrests and intimidation of activists, journalists, and the employees of legal assistance and human rights organizations. Mahmoud Abbas is hoping to extinguish criticism from inside and outside the PA and Fatah, but these repressive policies will generate even greater hostility from Palestinians whose dreams of freedom are being smothered by a corrupt and brutal authority.
On June 26, 2021, Fatah loyalists from Mahmoud Abbas’s faction, some of which identified as undercover Palestinian security personnel, attacked Palestinian demonstrators with sticks and stones as they made their way to Palestinian Authority headquarters in Ramallah, West Bank. Protesters marched following the extrajudicial killing of prominent opposition activist Nizar Banat by the Palestinian Authority in Hebron three days ago.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ April 30 decision to postpone elections, which would have been the first in 15 years, will deepen Palestinian division and could potentially signal the collapse of the Fatah movement, at least in its current form.
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.”
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.
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. Yumna Patel talks to Palestinians about their thoughts on the vote and many share the same concern — will they be a true chance to make their voices heard, or is it just another facade of democracy on part of the PA?