Kim Bullimore
In a stunning victory, the Islamic Palestinian resistance group Hamas claimed 76 of the 132 seats in the second Palestinian Authority (PA) election on January 25. This was the first election for the Palestinian Legislative Assembly held in almost 10 years. Hamas decisively defeated the ruling Fatah party, which retained 43 seats. Hamas, which campaigned against corruption and for improved social services, was expected to do well in the election, but not to gain enough seats to take control of the PA in its own right.
Hamas won the majority of seats in all 16 Palestinian constituencies in the West Bank and Gaza and won four of the six seats allocated in occupied East Jerusalem. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine won three seats, while Badil, a coalition of small Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) factions, won two seats. Human-rights campaigner Mustafa Barghouti's group, Independent Palestine, won two seats, as did the Third Way party led by the former PA finance minister. Four independents were also elected, three of whom had Hamas support.
Hamas boycotted the 1996 PA elections, refusing to recognise the validity of the 1993 Oslo peace accords between Israel and the PLO that established the Palestinian Authority. While also abstaining from the January 2005 election for PA president in the wake of former Palestinian president Yasser Arafat's death, Hamas stood candidates in local council elections throughout 2005. Hamas won control of the majority of councils in Gaza and a number in the West Bank.
Hamas's election campaign played on the strengths of the militant organisation, while also playing up the weaknesses of the ruling Fatah party. Hamas, which was founded in 1987, has for many years run pre-schools, youth clubs, health clinics and other social services that the ruling Fatah party has not been able to provide. Fatah is also seen as corrupt and unaccountable by many Palestinians.
The continuing brutal military occupation of Palestine by Israel also contributed to the Hamas victory. Fatah's inability to deliver promises of statehood and peace in the wake of the failed Oslo "peace" process has caused a decline in Fatah's support. Oslo and subsequent "peace processes" strengthened the brutal 39-year-old Israeli occupation and led to an abysmal deterioration in Palestinian living conditions. In addition, even more land has been confiscated by Israel for the building of illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) and Israel has continued to pursue its construction of the illegal apartheid wall.
In the two months before the election, Israel tightened its grip on the OPT. In December, the Israeli occupation forces sealed off the northern parts of the West Bank, further restricting the movement of 800,000 Palestinians living in Nablus, Jenin and Tulkarem. Palestinians were prevented from travelling south of the Za'atar checkpoint, located near the illegal Israeli settlement of Tapauch. During the elections, candidates were not able to travel freely and Israel only conceded days before the election to allow Palestinians in Occupied East Jerusalem to vote in the elections by postal vote. Despite Israel's much touted Gaza pull-out, the Israeli military continued to invade and control the movement of Palestinians within the Gaza.
In the wake of the ballot, senior Hamas official Mahmoud al Zahar said that prior to the election Israel had made no movement towards real peace. Zahar told Israeli media, "we have no peace process ... we are not going to mislead our people to tell them we are waiting, meeting for a peace process that is nothing". Zahar, however, went on to say that Hamas would maintain a ceasefire if Israel did the same. "If they are going to continue commitment to what is called quietness, then we will continue ... but if not, then I think we will have no option but to protect our people and land."
Officials from the Fatah party have ruled out forming a coalition with Hamas to retain governance of the PA. However, Fatah officials have indicated that they may be willing to form coalitions with the smaller parties and independents that also won seats in the elections.
Reactions to the election results by Israel, the US and Britain were predictable. Israel's acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said that Hamas was "not a partner" in the peace process, while US President George Bush said that the US would not deal with Hamas unless it renounced violence and recognised the right of Israel to exist.
[Kim Bullimore is a member of the Socialist Alliance and lived in the Occupied Palestinian Territories in 2004, where she worked with the human-rights organisation International Women's Peace Service. <http://www.iwps.info>.]
From Green Left Weekly, February 1, 2006.
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