Earlier than Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas postponed the Palestinian legislative elections, some observers thought that there could be fierce electoral competitors that might result in political change. Others argued that elections are the one option to obtain nationwide unity and finish the Palestinian inner rift between Fatah and Hamas, the 2 dominant political actions in Palestine.
However a more in-depth have a look at what was occurring within the electoral race betrays a distinct actuality. The election was extra more likely to produce a “shamocracy” that might keep the deep-rooted constructions of oppression, tyranny and fragmentation.
It’s because the 2 political forces which have dominated the Palestinian political scene over the previous 15 years and are vying for energy once more, have inflicted extreme injury on the Palestinian nationwide motion, depleted the nationwide liberation mission, and exacerbated vertical and horizontal fragmentation throughout the Palestinian society.
Because of this, over the many years, Palestinians have grow to be mere observers of their plight and trigger, unable to take part in political developments in their very own communities. Certainly, their feeling of alienation of their homeland and estrangement from their authorities is a type of oppression tantamount to that inflicted by the Israeli colonial occupation. Palestinians want a authorities that liberates quite than enslaves them.
When the elections are finally rescheduled, Fatah and Hamas will as soon as once more attempt to monopolise the vote. The worst the Palestinian voters might do is give them legitimacy once more by voting for his or her candidates. This is able to solely strengthen their positions and reinforce their authoritarianism, leaving Palestinians of their present predicament for years to return.
However this isn’t an inevitable end result. The elections, regardless of all their elementary shortcomings, can nonetheless be a possibility to remodel the Palestinian political system, if approached otherwise.
Political forces who want real change in Palestinian politics ought to search to steer the Palestinian public away from the disastrous alternative of the established order. They’ll encourage voters to punish the 2 dominant political powers and make area for the emergence of recent political management.
This is able to be step one to holding them accountable on the grassroots stage for undermining the Palestinian battle. The punishment drive doesn’t essentially require that Palestinians vote for different lists within the elections.
To reveal their rejection of the established order, they’ll simply solid invalid ballots that learn “neither Fatah, nor Hamas”, “no to a pathetic political regime”, “no to corruption”, or “no to division”. With such no-confidence votes, opposition voices can consolidate in an act of resistance to reveal ruling authorities and events and ship a transparent message: “sufficient messing with our nationwide mission and future”. This is able to additionally represent a elementary rejection of the Oslo Accords framework and the political and governance regimes it created.
Rejectionist, confrontational, and collective motion requires exposing the authorities earlier than the lots as a precondition for change. This electoral course of can be utilized to pinpoint to the general public the failings of the governing regime that they undergo from. It is a chance to alter the individuals’s attitudes and perceptions, which is able to essentially lead, eventually, to a change of their actions.
For instance, each Fatah and Hamas of their electoral campaigns are selling themselves because the “protectors of the Palestinian nationwide mission” utilizing both the “state-building” discourse or the “resistance” rhetoric. That is the time to reveal each the fallacy of the “nationwide mission protector” notion, because it serves solely as a pathetic coverup for all of the injury and hurt that each actions have inflicted on the Palestinians.
If a big quantity determine to vote “no” to the established order and solid invalid ballots as a press release of their unequivocal rejection of the present regime, we’d arrive at a crucial juncture in Palestinian politics. A brand new and efficient Palestinian management might exploit it to advance reforms and begin growing an inclusive, progressive, and emancipatory Palestinian political system.
There’s already some political work accomplished that might assist a brand new Palestinian political class emerge, unburdened by partisan affiliations or dependencies.
For instance, there may be the Era for Democratic Renewal, a youth-led organisation based in February this yr, which focuses on rebuilding the Palestinian political system on a democratic basis. The group can not contest the elections due to varied authorized restrictions so it has launched as a substitute a digital parliamentary listing of younger Palestinians who’re placing ahead a progressive political agenda.
Following Abbas’s announcement on the postponement of the elections, the youth-led group declared that it’ll proceed with their initiative, aimed to be an “train in how democracy and political participation needs to be”.
The Era for Democratic Renewal is just not the primary youth-led democracy-focused initiative. It was preceded by a number of others, which emerged in the course of the Arab uprisings in 2011-12, corresponding to Palestinians for Dignity.
The collective management and participatory mannequin of those youth-led actions, in addition to their imaginative and prescient for an efficient, respectable and accountable Palestinian management, are fundamentals that the incumbent political regime in Palestine lacks. The presence of such progressive concepts might assist mobilise the Palestinian voters away from the standard political forces.
It is very important level out right here {that a} true democratic transformation can’t be hurriedly applied. Political change in Palestine will likely be sluggish, and it might require a realistic plan of motion and sustained, incremental efforts to grasp it. It might be constructed from the bottom-up by means of standard consciousness and mobilisation.
This effort requires time, perseverance, sustainability, endurance and absolutely readiness to face counteractions, which in flip requires drawing classes from the experiences of previous youth-led initiatives, particularly with regard to dealing with deep-rooted authoritarian and repressive constructions.
Most of all, it requires a dedication by the Palestinian public to reject the political establishment. Such a dedication will be demonstrated by a “no vote” on the elections after they do occur. This is able to be a big first step down a brand new democratic path for Palestine.
The views expressed on this article are the writer’s personal and don’t essentially mirror Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.