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- Opinion: Not only Israelis need elections, Palestinians are calling for one too
Opinion: Not only Israelis need elections, Palestinians are calling for one too
A change in leadership on both sides is our only hope for peace, stability and prosperity
![Samer Sinijlawi](https://cdn.i24news.tv/upload/image/1352b9caa849f9325c12157cf9dfc47bc0e3c73e.png?width=36&height=36)
![A Palestinian woman casts her vote at a polling station during municipal elections in the West Bank village of Kifl Haris, December 11, 2021.](https://cdn.i24news.tv/uploads/4d/ad/27/2c/10/97/61/77/4f/a3/8c/a5/96/c2/3a/cf/4dad272c109761774fa38ca596c23acf.jpg?width=1000)
Palestinians, as in any other society, can never be democratic if respect for democracy does not prevail internally.
In the Palestinian case the surest way to have democracy held in high esteem internally is to have it respected by the international community and Israel first.
The Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research published its Public Opinion Poll No (84) at the end of last month showing a significant drop in support for the Palestinian leadership, and a similar drop in support for the two-state solution.
This was accompanied by an obvious support to “confidence building” measures with Israel, and showed that the largest percentage of West Bankers oppose armed attacks.
All findings proved a strong will and desire among Palestinians to have elections, and a need to change the current leadership. In addition to increasing tendency towards a non-violent strategy in dealing with the occupation.
* 71 percent call for presidential and legislative elections in the near future.
* 73 percent express dissatisfaction for (Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud) Abbas and the current leadership
* 86 percent consider Abbas corrupt
* 77 percent want Abbas to resign
* 59 percent consider the Palestinian Authority a burden on Palestinians
* 48 percent support resorting to non-violence
The poll showed that if Palestinian elections happen today and Abbas runs facing (Hamas leader) Ismail Haniyeh the former will lose with 33 percent, versus 55 percent for Haniyeh - with the participation rate as low as 49 percent.
While if Marwan Barghouti were to run facing Hamas' Haniyeh, then the results would be 61 percent for Barghouti and 34 percent for Haniyeh, with a participation rate as high as 66 percent.
Yet in open elections the results will be 30 percent Barghouti, 16 percent Haniyeh, 6 percent Mohammed Dahlan, 4 percent Yahya Sinwar, 3 percent Hussein Al-Sheikh and 34 percent still undecided.
These numbers prove again and again that a united Fatah without Abbas is the winning choice of Palestinians in any coming elections and that the fear among Israelis and the Americans of Hamas winning these elections is out of lack of understanding of the Palestinian people who are in general moderate and liberal.
![Mohamed AL-HAMMADI / PPO / AFP](https://cdn.i24news.tv/uploads/2e/eb/0c/3a/8e/28/e6/a1/ce/9f/5d/1e/ff/31/02/ff/2eeb0c3a8e28e6a1ce9f5d1eff3102ff.jpg?width=750)
When Israelis decided to go for their fifth elections in four years, their neighbors, the Palestinians, are just wondering why do Israelis have the right to resort to elections whenever they need, while they remain the main force preventing a single Palestinian election for the last 17 years?
This situation reminds me of a beautiful saying from Martin Luther King Jr:
"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied to a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”
This is true in general, but more true in describing the delicate Israeli and Palestinian societies connectivity and strong impact upon each other.
In Israel/Palestine now, Israel controls millions of Palestinians alongside millions of Israelis. Israelis enjoy citizenship, free movement and the right to vote. Palestinians enjoy none of these.
The Palestinian Authority is not a government. It is the subcontractor of the Israeli occupation.
Then how can Israel and the international community justify denying Palestinians their right to democracy; especially since the current Palestinian leadership puts as a condition for any upcoming election Israeli pre-approval of the ballot in accordance with the Oslo Agreements on Jerusalem?
And how do we expect that any Palestinian leadership, like the current one, that doesn’t defend democracy and the rule of law, can have credibility to represent Palestinians with the international community and in any potential political process with Israel?
We -- Palestinians and Israelis -- are on different sides of a conflict but this does not mean we are not connected when it comes to the mutual need for democracy.
We definitely need to maintain the respect of each other's need to elect the most representative leadership possible, and that no one side should have the veto power over the other side's right to choose its leadership.
In 2006, the Palestinian elections were carried out only because the Americans forced it on the Palestinian leadership and encouraged the Israeli government - headed by then Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon - to allow it.
The New York Times on the 21 of September 2005 announced that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged Israel to allow Palestinians to carry out their elections in January 2006. Sharon accepted the American request and his government announced its decision to allow the Palestinian elections in accordance with the Oslo agreements, including in Jerusalem.
Today we have a more liberal American administration in Washington DC, and a less right wing Israeli prime minister. We have a better Palestinian elections law that allows a proportional representation and will not surprise us with unexpected results like in 2006. We have a new Palestinian generation where 56 percent of eligible voters aged 18 to 36 have never experienced the pleasure of casting their votes, and all are eager for a positive change.
Today following years under Abbas' leadership, we are witnessing the end of the era of the Palestinian old guard and the rise of a young local leadership, that is more representative, more accountable and more pragmatic than ever.
If the Israelis needed their fifth elections in less than four years, it is the Palestinians who need more their first elections in 17 years.
It is time for the Americans to force it, and for the Israelis to respect their neighbors’ will and allow a vote parallel to their own election in November.
A change in leadership on both sides is our only hope for peace, stability and prosperity in Israel/Palestine and in the whole region.
Samer Sinijlawi is the head of international, Israeli and diplomatic relations for the Fatah Shadow Leadership and chairman of the Jerusalem Development Fund