Missing the opportunity for the Palestinian elections?!

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On September 22, I published an article about “the necessity of Palestinian elections,” in which I appealed to the Palestinian elite not to waste the opportunity to decide to enter the battle of the presidential and legislative elections. The reason for this is that running in elections is an important part of exercising sovereignty; The world is witnessing democratic features and introducing new generations that have gone 22 years without choosing their leaders who adhere to the Palestinian destiny. “Opportunity” here means seizing a position that allows the Palestinian people and leadership to establish some of the foundations of the state that the Palestinians seek and which was ratified by 157 countries in the world that recognized a state that did not exist and the world did not see for it institutions and a legitimate political system in whose name the world speaks.

Postponing the elections until September 2027 does not help with the Israeli obstacles from the beginning of Jerusalem to the difficult conditions in Gaza and the West Bank. But the Palestinian leaders knew this when they set a date for the elections on November 28, which falls after the American midterm elections on November 4 and before the Israeli elections on October 27. The occasion meant using the current period of international public opinion approaching the Palestinian issue and urging it to show this in ways that would allow elections to be held.

The past period since October 7, 2023, and the heavy price paid by the Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, and Israeli prisons; It pushed the Palestinian personality and its symbols, including flags and keffiyehs, to various capitals of the world. Instead of seizing the opportunity, disappointment was the return that supporters of Palestinian rights received after the Palestinian leaders decided to postpone the elections. The Palestinian people have become exposed to a major test after traditional political strategies failed to fulfill their promises. The Fatah movement promised that diplomacy and negotiations would lead to independence. As for Hamas, it promised that armed resistance would liberate Palestine. But time and sacrifices did not bring us closer to the goal of an independent state. The Palestinian Authority has failed to establish an accountable system of government that does not justify what was proposed to the Palestinian people by seeking elections and then abandoning them. Gaza was subjected to catastrophic destruction, while the West Bank remains under occupation, and settlement expansion continues.

These facts are known to the Palestinians, but admitting failure is not easy when national identity has been formed around strategies that have come into question. The repetition of obstacles preceding the elections is as if they are new discoveries. There is absolutely no indication that anything will overcome these obstacles or stimulate their effectiveness. Elections have other benefits as they stimulate a national dialogue about the past stage and what will come after it. The elections are in their form a review of what came before; Israeli peace activist Gershon Baskin concluded an article in which he said that the fundamental question facing the Palestinians today is not whether they will continue the struggle for freedom, but rather whether they are prepared to rethink the nature of this struggle, the means it uses, and the goals it seeks to achieve.

Quoted from “Al-Masry Al-Youm”