What happens after the elections are postponed?

author

Mohsen Abu Ramadan

It has become certain that President Mahmoud Abbas will issue a decision in the next few days to postpone the election date.

This came after meetings of a delegation from the Fatah Central Committee with representatives of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the Popular Front in Cairo.

It was agreed between the two communities to postpone the elections date until the summer of 2027, provided that the elections be simultaneous for both the presidency and the Legislative Council, and that there be a consensus to elect or select members of the National Council.

The opposite of what happened was the state of confusion in the Palestinian arena and the absence of setting priorities.

If the priorities lie in confronting the occupation attacks, then the agenda of priorities must be determined, provided that the elections come in the context of national priorities and with the goal of state unity, and they must be aimed at electing the Parliament of the State of Palestine as part of the National Council, and not be employed towards reproducing the transitional phase that the fascist right-wing government of the occupying state ended.

If there is awareness about the difficulty and obstacles of holding elections, why was a decision issued regarding it so that everyone was preoccupied with it at the expense of other priorities?

The issue of elections passed through stages, including elections for the National Council and for the Parliament of the State of Palestine as part of it. Then, after international demands, the elections became for the Legislative Council only, provided that there was agreement on the membership of the National Council, which reflected a state of absence of priorities and clarity of the compass.

One of the justifications for the postponement was the occupation and its practices of aggression and settlement in the West Bank, in addition to the completion of the operations of ethnic cleansing and genocide in Gaza, despite the passage of a year since the announcement of a ceasefire through a plan.Trump.

One of the justifications was also the failure of the American administration to ratify this, as well as the occupation government’s prevention of the Central Elections Commission from reaching the Gaza Strip, which means preventing the entry of logistical materials necessary to hold the elections, in addition to preventing Jerusalemites from participating in them and threatening members of Hamas or those close to it or from other resistance factions of arrest if they nominated themselves on electoral lists.

If we look at the political scene in the Palestinian territories, we find that the occupation government is racing against time to implement the settlement plan in the West Bank and supports terrorist groups of settlers with attacks on farmers, accompanied by the continuation of the policy of confiscating lands, building settlement outposts, Judaizing Jerusalem, and dividing the West Bank into ghettos and Bantustans.

As part of electoral propaganda, Ben Gvir announced a plan to dismantle the Authority, expel it from the West Bank, and arrest its members.

On the other hand, the Gaza Strip is still exposed to operations of genocide through launching attacks, increasing the rate of strikes and assassinations, continuing to reduce aid, and maintaining the occupation of 70% of its area.

It has become clear, one year after the announcement of the Trump plan, which was adopted by Security Council Resolution No. 2803, that the peace council that was formed under Trump’s presidency was nothing more than a trick to mislead public opinion and provide cover for Netanyahu and his government to continue the plan hostile to our people in the Gaza Strip.

Netanyahu obtained the Israeli hostages, living and dead, and rejected the road map plan that addresses the issue of weapons in conjunction with the withdrawal of the occupation army, which remained in control of large areas of the Gaza Strip. The entry of the technocrat committee into the Gaza Strip was rejected.The sector to begin implementing early recovery and reconstruction operations.

It is clear from the statement of the Peace Council resulting from Trump’s plan on the occasion of the three-year anniversary of the October 7 operation, which condemned the resistance and did not refer to the thousands of martyrs and wounded Palestinians against whom genocidal operations were carried out by the occupation army, that it is a council employed to serve Netanyahu and the occupation government with American cover, which requires serious thinking about transgressing by heading again to the Security Council or the General Assembly of the United Nations under the clause of uniting for peace to issue another resolution obligating the occupation to stop the killing. And withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and calls on the international community to provide protection for our people, including their inalienable rights to self-determination and return.

Therefore, after confirming the decision to postpone the election date, it became necessary to begin ending the division and setting an agenda of national priorities in confronting the policy of racial discrimination and genocide.

We have multiple cards of strength, most notably unified popular field work, legal and diplomatic struggle, mobilizing the broadest international popular solidarity movement, activating the boycott and divestment campaign, imposing sanctions on the occupying state, and resubmitting a proposal to the United Nations General Assembly that equates Zionism with racism, as the Green Party in Britain did recently. Likewise, emphasizing the unity and preservation of the political system with all its components and preventing the separation of the Gaza Strip from the West Bank by bypassing the so-called peace council as a guardianship and colonial legislative council.

Holding an inclusive national meeting under the banner of the Palestine Liberation Organization, and perhaps by calling for an emergency meeting of the Central Council with the participation of representatives ofThe establishment of the State of Palestine under occupation is announced, which has been internationally recognized by approximately 159 countries, supported by the advisory decision of the International Court of Justice, which affirmed the unity of geographical, legal and political jurisdiction over the territories. The Palestinian state consisting of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and Jerusalem according to the borders of June 1967 will contribute to seizing the initiative again and move the Palestinian people from reaction to a state of proactive national action.

The policy of staying silent and waiting has not worked, and the issue of adapting to international requirements, whose goal has become reforming the authority instead of ending the occupation, will not work.

We need to rearrange the equation on a basis that guarantees the right of our people to liberation and independence through the unity of the national movement through the Palestine Liberation Organization, which expresses the comprehensive Palestinian national identity in which everyone must participate in a democratic manner.

We must put the elections within the framework of their national function, which aims to take steps to embody the idea of ​​a Palestinian state on the ground by electing the parliament of the State of Palestine and at the democratic level by giving the right to the people, as the source of authority, to elect a representative office and to guarantee the right to participation and political pluralism.

We must deal with the elections as one of the forms of struggle against the occupation and its procedures and as a right of our people instead of waiting for the occupation to agree to hold them, as this will contribute to further isolation of the occupation, through which it will become clear how hostile it is to democracy if it prevents it, in contrast to its misleading claims.

I finish .