For for the first time in decades, the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Israel will hold legislative elections a few months apart. Many in the international community and in the media will see this as a joint exercise of democracy, but it is actually a window into the reality of a two-tier system that denies Palestinians the freedom and basic rights that many around the world consider guaranteed.
Drive along the winding West Bank roads this spring and you will see election posters interrupting the beautiful landscape of olive and almond trees. Upon closer inspection, you will soon realize that the announced candidate is not a Palestinian eager for a seat in parliament. It is likely that he is an Israeli candidate running for the Israeli parliament.
This raises a very valid question: why are Israelis campaigning in the West Bank, the territory designated by international law and consensus to become part of a future Palestinian state?
Israel occupies and controls the entire West Bank and in fact annexed large portions of it through the settlement of 650,000-750,000 Israelis on Palestinian land. According to the Rome statute of the international criminal court, such a settlement company is not only illegal, but also considered a war crime. However, these illegal settlers are able to run, campaign and vote in Israeli elections and have come to occupy the position of king makers in Israeli coalition policy.
Israel’s famous “democracy”, like its expansionist policies, does not stop or recognize the green line – if anything, it has dragged them into oblivion. In practice, Israel effectively exercises full control over the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.
Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem cannot vote for the regime that governs all aspects of their lives, although Israelis living in the same land do. These 5 million Palestinians vote for the PA, an administrative body that today has only partial control over 40% of the West Bank and depends on Israel for its survival. The PA was supposed to exist for five years while the Palestinians transitioned to statehood, but that state never came. Successive Israeli governments have ensured this, using settlements and annexations to transform the West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem into an archipelago of disconnected Palestinian population centers.
The AP legislative elections scheduled for May 22 come after years of political repression and a recent wave of anti-democratic laws that were introduced by the Palestinians presidential decrees and aim at the independence of the judiciary and civil society. Many consider the upcoming elections to be a rubber stamp for the division of power between the two governing parties, Fatah and Hamas, with which they can solidify the gains obtained in the last parliamentary elections of 2006. The reality is that in a society where the average age is 21, most, if not all, leadership positions are held by people with an average age of 70.
Despite the real hunger among young Palestinians to participate in a democratic process and choose representatives, the PA’s recent changes in electoral laws have made it virtually impossible to compete and break the monopoly of the dominant factions in the West Bank and Gaza. For example, the age requirement for candidates is 28, which is among the highest in the world and excludes many Palestinians from running. To enter the electoral list, candidates must pay a fee of US $ 20,000 (US dollars) and resign if they work in certain jobs, which is extremely difficult in an economy with very high unemployment rates. Finally, the election was announced just a few months in advance, under a new voting system based on proportional representation, which favors established parties with a strong national presence, rather than young political beginners.
In addition to these structural limitations, there is the overwhelming impact of military occupation on Palestinian political participation. Israel has systematically denied Palestinians the ability to hold elections in Jerusalem and has arrested elected members of parliament. Occupied Palestinians live under Israeli military orders and therefore have no civil rights; they have no freedom of assembly, association or expression, and it is illegal to found a Palestinian political party.
The history of these two elections is not one of democracy, but of giving a veneer of legitimacy to a system that maintains the supremacy and dominance of one people over the other. In this reality, Palestinians are deprived of sovereignty and the agency to shape their lives, their future and the ability to defy this oppression. This system cannot offer real democracy and, as such, must be dismantled. A new social contract must be built where each person can practice true self-determination and is free and equal.
Palestinians need an institutional vehicle to reenergize their national movement so that it can challenge the status quo. The way forward begins with a reformed political system that is democratic and representative and can give a voice to all 13 million Palestinians worldwide. The road to freedom begins with us.