‘Cautiously optimistic’: Palestinian factions unite on elections

Gaza City – Fatah and Hamas reached a deal on Palestinian elections at the Palestinian Consulate in Istanbul last week, raising hopes the factions can unite after years of animosity as Israel continues to threaten annexation while it normalises relations with Arab nations. The proposal for parliamentary, presidential and national council elections is set to be discussed among all Palestinian factions in a leadership meeting this week, after which a presidential decree to officially announce election dates is expected. Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas will hold a meeting on Saturday and he is expected to set three dates for Palestinian legislative, presidential, and Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) national council elections. “The atmosphere domestically is now very accommodating to hold elections. It enjoys national consensus, including from Islamic parties,” Wasel Abu Yousef, a member of the PLO’s Executive Committee and leader of the Palestine Liberation Front, told Al Jazeera. “The consensus is to conduct elections on the basis of proportional representation and with a time frame of six months. We start from parliamentary elections, then presidential, and national council elections.” Senior Islamic Jihad leader Nafiz Azam said his movement sees the recent Hamas-Fatah meetings as a breakthrough. “These are certainly positive steps that should be built upon,” he told Al Jazeera. “We should intensify our efforts to solve all the remaining issues of dispute between the two sides.” Senior Islamic Jihad leader Nafiz Azzam said his movement sees the recent Hamas-Fatah meetings as a breakthrough [Walid Mahmoud/Al Jazeera] ‘Cautious optimism’ However, Azam explained the Islamic Jihad will only participate in the national council elections that are representative of the diaspora and not connected to peace accords with Israel. The PA and its legislative council are both products of the Oslo accords between Israel and the PLO, and the Islamic Jihad does not recognise the Oslo agreement. “Palestinians can only be optimistic towards elections as a pathway to ending the destructive phase to our cause that fragmentation and division produced,” Basim Naim, a senior Hamas leader and former minister of health, told Al Jazeera. “However, this optimism is very cautious given the amount of obstacles we face on the path to holding elections.” Naim added: “Palestinians had a bitter experience with 14 years of continuous efforts and meetings in many capitals of the world, where several agreements were reached but haven’t been successfully implemented.” All interviewees pointed out, however, what is different this time is the unprecedented level of danger the Palestinian cause now faces, especially after the latest normalisation agreements between Israel, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain. Bassim Naim, a senior Hamas leader, said the optimism is a cautious one, given the number of obstacles in holding elections [Walid Mahmoud/Al Jazeera] ‘No option’ According to the Palestinian Central Elections Commission, 2.2 million Palestinians have the right to vote. “My optimism regarding the possibility of holding elections this time stems from the fact that Hamas and Fatah have no option this time but elections,” Majida al-Masri, senior leader of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, told Al Jazeera. “It’s a compulsory passage to stand up to the negative developments we’re facing regionally, internationally and on the ground.” Azam said the threat from Arab nations making agreements with Israel “necessitates a unified Palestinian action”. “It’s clear that Arab states have let the Palestinians down, that the current US administration is the most biased towards Israel, and that Israel won’t give the Palestinian authority anything. This has pushed Palestinian leaders to reconsider their internal affairs.” Abu Yousef explained the tripartite assault on the Palestinian national project – represented in the Trump administration’s so-called Middle East plan, Israel’s accelerated and escalated de facto annexation, and the Israeli-Arab normalisation – has united Palestinians on the ground in the face of those challenges. However, he added, what is needed next is “genuine institutional and geographic unity between all Palestinian territories that revives the central role of the PLO as the sole representative of the Palestinian people”. This, Abu Yousef argued, can be achieved through elections. style="width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute; top: 0; bottom: 0; right: 0; left: 0;">