Published: 20 December 2019
Last updated: 4 March 2024
ISRAEL AND THE PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY could find themselves holding election campaigns simultaneously in early 2020. But unlike Israel, which will hold its third Knesset elections in less than a year, the Palestinians will be going to the polls for the first time in 14 years.
While Fatah, which rules the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank from Ramallah, and Hamas in Gaza have agreed in principle on holding the election next year, there are a number of obstacles remaining.
The last presidential election, in which Mahmoud Abbas was elected as successor to Yasser Arafat, was in 2005. In 2006, Hamas won in the parliamentary election 74 out of the 132 seats on the Palestinian Legislative Council, however the PLC has barely functioned since then due to the tension between Fatah and Hamas, leading to the bloody coup in Gaza in 2007 when Hamas took over the coastal strip.
Since then, Mr Abbas has promised numerous times to hold elections in order to renew his mandate and establish a new parliament, but the two sides have been incapable of reaching an agreement on how and when to hold them.
But this time there are clearer signs that the election may actually be going ahead, including a number of meetings in Gaza between Hanna Nasser, the head of the Palestinian Authority’s election commission, and Hamas’s leadership.
FULL STORY Does Israel provide a useful excuse to stop Palestinian elections? (Jewish Chronicle)
Israel must set conditions for Hamas over Palestinian elections (Al-Monitor)
YOSSI BEILIN: Israel should agree to the Palestinian demand of enabling elections also in East Jerusalem, but it should not agree for terror group Hamas to participate in the electoral process
