Harrison Healy, Ramallah
In East Jerusalem in the days leading up to the Palestinian election you could be forgiven for not knowing that there was an election going on. You could not find a single poster in the city. There was no information on candidates, who to vote for or how to vote. The Israeli government banned Palestinians from campaigning in the lead-up to the election.
The vibe on the streets of Ramallah was a different story. The buses were shrines for various political groups. They were covered inside and out in stickers and posters. Flags and political murals decorated roofs of vehicles. Different buses and taxis played different songs supporting various factions.
You could barely find a single shop that didn't have a candidate in the window (sometimes 10). Cafes, hardware stores, mainstream clothing shops and video outlets all presented their candidates. Banners hung every few metres across the streets.
Houses down back streets were used as campaigning centres, with people setting out from them to promote their material. Newspapers were handed out on the streets, as well as pamphlets saying what the candidates were about.
In the city square, the ruling Fatah party was holding a rally of about 150 people, while only a few blocks away the Islamic resistance group Hamas organised a marching band of about 60 young people, mostly aged around 6-15 years. Even in some of the smaller West Bank towns, such as Bil'lin (made famous for its anti-apartheid wall demonstrations), there were more posters around the place than you would see in the most intense of elections in Australia.
On election day — January 25 — I was at the largest polling stations in East Jerusalem. All the polling stations in Jerusalem were at post offices, because the Israeli government won't recognise Jerusalem as being part of Palestine. Palestinian people cast their "postal absentee votes" at the post offices, which were counted elsewhere in the West Bank.
There were hundreds of Palestinians surrounding the polling station, as well as international observers — from former US president Jimmy Carter to various NGOs and peace groups — making the crowd outside number well over 1000. Teens handed out election material, which was in violation of election regulations. People were ecstatic and several people were chanting.
The area is a stronghold of Fatah. However people I talked to were planning to vote for individual candidates rather then a list from a particular party. A man showed me a voting card for Fatah with six names in Arabic. He said, "Of these only two are good. The rest are corrupt."
The crowd grew even more as the Palestine Peace Coalition staged a 100-strong rally outside the polling booth. The rally was non-partisan, but criticised the Israeli government for only allowing 6300 Palestinians in East Jerusalem to register in this election.
A woman was applauded for waving the Palestinian flag, which is illegal in Jerusalem under Israeli law. Yet the police stayed at bay. There was a large police presence about 500 metres away. A Zionist rally of 20 people congregated with Israeli flags, claiming the land was Israel's and that the Palestinians had no right to vote for the PA if they wanted to live in Jerusalem. When I approached to ask why the rally was so small, an organiser told me that there were only 20 people because the police said they could only have that number. Yet it didn't look like they had any supporters nearby and they packed up early.
Later that night I was in Ramallah and people were all talking about the election and debating the outcomes. As results came in, Hamas and Fatah supporters drove around firing rifles in the air.
One person said they voted for Fatah because if Hamas won, the US and Israel would not accept it. However another person pointed out that Israel wanted the Palestinians to elect Mahmoud Abbas — which they did — and there has been no progress, so now they plan to do the opposite.
A Palestinian activist commented on the level of participation on polling day: "Hopefully this will mean more people will come to the [anti-wall] demonstrations."
[Harrison Healy is a member of the Australian socialist youth organisation Resistance, and is currently working with the International Solidarity Movement. Visit his blog at <http://www.palestinepal.blogspot.com>.]
From Green Left Weekly, February 1, 2006.
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