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Illusion of democracy: The Palestinian Elections

Saree Makdisi 23 January 2006


With about 80 percent of eligible voters registered, and more than 700 candidates running in a hotly contested campaign, the stage is set for what is being packaged as an impressive exercise in democracy when Palestinians in the occupied territories. But writes EI contributor Saree Makdisi, the talk of elections is part of an attempt to impose a sense of normalcy on a highly abnormal situation: not just the endless occupation, but the unresolved future of the Palestinian people, two-thirds of whom are excluded from the electoral process because they do not live in the occupied territories but rather in refugee camps or in the diaspora, or as second-class citizens of the state of Israel. 

Palestinian legislative elections: A vote for law and order

Maureen Clare Murphy 23 January 2006


Palestinians in the occupied territories are gripped to see who will enjoy the majority of the seats in the council — the ruling party Fateh or the Islamist opposition movement Hamas. Fateh has lost a great deal of support after ten years of failed negotiations with Israel, a drastic deterioration of the severe humanitarian situation endured by West Bank and Gaza Palestinians, and widespread corruption in the Palestinian Authority (PA) and failure to uphold the rule of law that has spilled out into the streets with sharpened lawlessness and vigilantism. 

Palestinian Elections: Second day voting of the security forces

22 January 2006


On Sunday, 22 January 2006, early voting of Palestinian security forces for the Palestinian Legislative Council continued for the second consecutive day. Voting of security forces started on Saturday morning, 21 January 2006, and will end on Monday evening, 23 January 2006, in accordance to the amendments to article 73 of the Elections Law No. 9 of 2005, which allow security forces to vote on three days preceding the official date of election. According to the Central Election Commission (CEC), 49.6% of security personnel in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip voted on the first day. By 15:00 on the second day of voting, 75.9% of security personnel had voted. 

Palestinian Elections: First day voting of the security forces

20 January 2006


On Saturday morning, 21 January 2006, early voting of Palestinian security forces for the Palestinian Legislative Council commenced in accordance to amendments to article 73 of the Elections Law No. 9 of 2005, which allows security forces to vote on three days preceding the official date of election. These days were decided on as 21, 22 and 23 January 2006. According to the Central Election Commission (CEC), the number of security personnel who have the right to vote in polling centers throughout the West Bank and the Gaza Strip is 58,705, including 36,091 in the Gaza Strip. Elections are held in polling centers specified and fully supervised by the CEC. 

Severe Restrictions on Movement in the West Bank Impact the Election Campaigns

17 January 2006


Israeli forces have imposed additional restrictions on the movement of Palestinian civilians in the West Bank. Since the beginning of this year, Israel has separated the north of the West Bank from other Palestinian communities. These measures have coincided with the initiation of the campaigns for Palestinian parliamentary elections. Since the beginning of this year, Israeli forces have operated Qalandya checkpoint between Ramallah and Jerusalem, and have transformed Za’tra checkpoint, south of Nablus, into a crossing. 

Palestinian Elections: PA vehicles used in election campaign

22 January 2006


Election observers noticed on the first day of voting by Palestinian security forces, Saturday, 21 January 2006, that some security vehicles were used by security services during campaigning activities for Fatah. Electoral posters and banners for Fatah were stuck on the bodies of security vehicles, while some security officials were also seen raising Fatah flags. These activities violate Election Law No. 9 of 2005, whose article 59-3 prescribes that “the Executive Authority and all the bodies affiliated thereto shall maintain an impartial position during all of the phases of the election process and shall not perform any electoral or campaign activity that might be construed as favoring one candidate or electoral list over another.” 

Weekly report on human rights violations

19 January 2006


This week, Israeli forces killed four Palestinians, including a woman and her son. One of the victims was extra-judicially executed in Jenin. Israeli forces wounded 18 Palestinian civilians, including ten children. Israeli forces conducted 54 incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank. Houses were raided and 94 Palestinian civilians, including 11 children, were arrested. Israel turned six homes and a ship into military sites. An Israeli army dog bit an elderly woman in Kufor al-Dik near Nablus. Israel has continued to impose a total siege on the occupied territories. Israel imposed severe restrictions on movement and has disrupted the election campagns. 

Palestinian Elections: The need for social justice

Rami Almeghari 21 January 2006


Some 30 meters away from election campaigning by the largest Palestinian parties, the ruling Fatah and Hamas, in the refugee camp of Maghazi, central Gaza Strip, the house of Kamal Taha, 55, is located in one of the camp’s alleys. About 400 Palestinian candidates in the West Bank, Gaza and Occupied East Jerusalem are competing in an election campaign that began on January 3 and would end by January 24, to be elected as members of the Palestinian Legislative Counci. Kamal had used to work in Israel as a porter prior to the outbreak of the al-Aqsa Intifada in September 2000, and since then he has been unemployed due to closure by Israeli authorities of the occupied Palestinian territories. 

No reduction in medical care for refugees, says UNRWA

18 January 2006


The UN Relief Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) refuted accusations that it had reduced the quality of medical care for Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, following reports of deteriorating health services. “UNRWA has reduced neither the quantity nor the quality of medical care,” said Hoda al-Turk, assistant public information officer at UNRWA. “On the contrary, it has signed an agreement with a hospital that offers first class medical care at a very reasonable cost.” BUH is situated 40 km and 75 km respectively from the southern camps of Sidon, and Tyre. More than 60 km separate it from the northern camps of Tripoli, and 75 km from the camps of Baalbak in the east. 

Ring Around the Rosy, Pockets Full of Palestinians

Sam Bahour and Michael Dahan 19 January 2006


The 38-year Israeli military occupation of Palestine and 57 years of ongoing Palestinian dispossession at the hands of the State of Israel has brought us to a point of total despair. Today, in 2006, Palestinians have been condensed into pockets of caged-in communities, taking on varying shapes and forms. Over 50 percent of the Palestinian population lives in exile and squalid pockets called refugee camps. Having being forced out of their homeland, they eke out a meager existence in the land and countries surrounding Israel and yearn to return home. All of the political activity in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip completely ignore these pockets of people living outside of Israel/Palestine. The end result will be that the majority of Palestinians, those living as refugees and in exile, will not be part of any organized process of governance, and thus the chance for any stability at all has been reduced dramatically.