Current Affairs Palestinian Elections

[BigMick]

Digressing to the Israeli elections, it's great to see that Ra’am, aka the United Arab List, confounded their critics and passed the electoral threshold to earn at least 4 seats in the Knesset. I can't say I agree with all of their conservative Islamist policies but I'm delighted for their leader, Mansour Abbas, who bravely took his party out of the Arab List, which had 15 seats in the last Knesset, but only 6 this time.

Most pundits felt Abbas had committed political suicide by breaking away but the result justifies his stance on actively co-operating with other parties and being willing to enter a coalition government of whatever persuasion. However, it's been obvious for a while that an increasing number of Arab voters, particularly the young, have grown weary of seeing their politics consumed by the Palestinian cause, and would prefer their representatives to concentrate instead on the domestic agenda, and the many problems felt by the diverse Arab communities.

An opinion poll in February foretold what has happened:

87% of Israeli Arab voters were in favour of either joining the government, or supporting one from the outside (not voting against it in any vote of confidence).

46% were happy to see an Arabic party join any government to be formed after the elections, while 18% said they would only support joining a centre-left coalition.

21.3% said they would support an Arabic party supporting the government from the outside in exchange for benefits for the country's Arab sector, while only 13% said that they would not support an Arabic party joining the government or supporting it from the outside under any circumstances.

58.6% said that the most important issue in the election is the implementation of a government plan to combat violence in the Arab sector, currently suffering a horrific crime wave.

An overwhelming majority of 82.5% are in favour of Arab women playing a central role in the political arena, which is reflected in the relatively historically high placement of Arab women in both Arab and left wing Jewish parties.

Just 9% believe the Palestinian issue should be the top priority for Arab MKs.

That last figure does not mean that they don't believe in a Palestinian State, but that their MKs are not the ones responsible for the establishment of a Palestinian state - they believe that’s the job of the Palestinian Authority. Many Arab citizens have long accused their MKs of spending more time and effort defending the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza than helping their own constituents. They feel that being in a government would enable them to be constructive contributors to peace-building between Israel and the Palestinians, eventually leading to a peaceful agreement that would yield a Palestinian state to end the suffering and conflict. That is preferable to standing on the outside, opposing everything and making a lot of noise but achieving nothing.

The bad news from the election, as @Blue 1 rightly says, is that two ultra-right wing Kahanist parties joined together to collect enough votes to also pass the threshold. Ra'am have immediately said they will not be a part of any coalition with them (and vice-versa).

There's still about 3% of votes to be counted but one thing is already clear: the United Arab List hold the balance of power.

An Islamic party have the power to boot Bibi out of Balfour Street!

Such is the wonderful unpredictability of democracy - no wonder so many countries try to avoid it!

Mr Abbas's phone is going to be very busy in the coming days. I trust he'll drive a hard bargain. And if he does make a deal with Netanyahu, make sure he gets it in writing, preferably tattooed on Bibi's forehead.

Don't get too excited, though; so flimsy will be any coalition's majority that there is almost certain to be another election within a year.

 

[Blue 1]

Thanks for your response which is a reasonable defence of Barghouti. We'll have to disagree on 'armed resistance' though.

Totally agree about the Kahanists though - there was a time when an Israeli PM would walk out whenever they spoke in the Knesset. One reason the electoral threshold was raised was to keep them out of the Knesset. Contrast that with today when if it wasn't for Netanyahu's interference, they wouldn't have passed the threshold to win any seats.

Cheers. Just to be clear, I'm not saying that I necessarily think that armed resistance is the path that the Palestinians should follow. They'll get crushed. I just think they have the moral right to should the choose that path. The more extreme settlers persecute Palestinians with impunity, they beat and murder them, they burn their olive groves, they shoot at and throw rocks and human excrement at children on the way to school, they drain their sewage into Palestinian villages and farms. And we haven't even got on to the IDF. Any population has the right to take up armed resistance against that kind of abuse.

I am of the belief that Israel as a Jewish state is heading into an existential crisis, bought about by turning a blind eye to, and tacitly encouraging the settlers for too long. The numbers of Jewish people making aliyah are a trickle these days, although it's picked up a bit the last few years it's a fraction of what it was up to the turn of the millennium. It won't be that long until the Jewish population is in minority rule. The population of the West Bank and Gaza is just below 5 million and the population of Israel is just over 9 million, 1.8 million of which are Arabs.

The settlements make any kind of Palestinian state unviable, anyone who thinks the two-state solution is currently alive is deluding themselves. At some point, if Israel wants to continue to exist as a Jewish state, it will have to dismantle a huge number of settlements or assimilate the population of the West Bank and Gaza. The world won't stand for minority rule, as history has shown.

I don't want this to happen. I have several friends in Israel and lived and worked with Israelis in the USA, and usually find them to be incredibly warm and engaging people. The national-religious settlers are a cancer at the heart of that country that have become too powerful to be dealt with.

 

[Blue 1]

I wanted to add to that that I was always a big admirer of the late Rabbi Menachem Froman, who was, ironically, one of the original religious settlers and lived in Tekoa. He counted Yasser Arafat as a friend and was one of the last people to see him alive, and his philosophy was that "Israel" and "Palestine" were human constructs and that both peoples believe that the land was given to them by God, so they should work together to make it a beautiful and peaceful place.

It led to him receiving regular death threats from other settlers :-(

He was a funny guy. I remember reading about a story about him, when he got married, before he migrated to Israel, his wedding invitations said that he and his wife would get married on the Temple Mount... then in the small print below.... UNLESS THE MOSCHIACH DOESN'T COME... then it will take place in Pavunitz, Poland lol

 

[BigMick]

I wanted to add to that that I was always a big admirer of the late Rabbi Menachem Froman, who was, ironically, one of the original religious settlers and lived in Tekoa. He counted Yasser Arafat as a friend and was one of the last people to see him alive, and his philosophy was that "Israel" and "Palestine" were human constructs and that both peoples believe that the land was given to them by God, so they should work together to make it a beautiful and peaceful place.

It led to him receiving regular death threats from other settlers :-(

He was a funny guy. I remember reading about a story about him, when he got married, before he migrated to Israel, his wedding invitations said that he and his wife would get married on the Temple Mount... then in the small print below.... UNLESS THE MOSCHIACH DOESN'T COME... then it will take place in Pavunitz, Poland lol

Yes he was a great man. My wife and her family met him on several occasions - she say's he always had a twinkle in his eye.

There are a lot of people from both communities still doing similar work, not least Eretz Shalom who took their inspiration from him. To say it can be disheartening at the lack of progress is an understatement but my optimism is always renewed whenever I talk to my wife's sister or our friends in Palestine and Israel. For now it's all about small victories, bringing people together, overcoming their mutual distrust, mutual hatred. it's an amazing thing to witness.

Strangely, coronavirus may have one positive outcome in Israeli society. Firstly, many of the Arab community have met members of the IDF for the first time without a gun pointing at them. They realise that they are human too. More importantly the crisis has brought home to many Jews just how important the Arab community is to Israel: 20% of doctors, 25% of nurses, almost 50 % of pharmacists are Arab, and that's with all the difficulties they have to overcome. Think how much better it could be in all walks of life if their shared identity as Israeli citizens could be nurtured.

I wouldn't say a wind of change is blowing through Israel, more like a faint breeze, but it is there - all it needs is for community leaders and politicians from all sides to fan it. That's why I think Ra'am's decision to be willing to take part in a coalition is a good thing - it's a start, and if it can help improve conditions for the community, particularly the crime epidemic they are going through, then even if the government doesn't last for long it will have been worth it.

 

[BigMick]

Nasser al-Qudwa, the nephew of Yasser Arafat, has launched his election campaign with the announcement of his new party, The Palestinian Democratic Assembly (PDA) and a very detailed 25 point plan in a 35 page document, which makes me think he's been planning his Fatah breakaway for quite some time!

His plan begins with a slogan, not quite as pithy as 'Get Brexit Done', but a simple three part Arabic slogan which roughly translates as "We want to change, we want to liberate, we want to build.”

After defining the PDA as “a democratic forum aimed at bringing Palestinians together using the democratic mechanisms,” Qudwa details the aspirations of the Palestinian people in all three locations: the state of Palestine under occupation, including Jerusalem; Palestinians who are living in the diaspora and especially in refugee camps, whose needs must be addressed within the PLO; and Palestinians who stayed in their land in what has become Israel and who are “part of the Palestinian people” even though their legal status and struggle is different.

The programme contains the usual vows to fight corruption, bring about national unity, and 'respect for the integrity and rights of citizens, rule of law, democracy and equality'.

Some of the more interesting points are:

the need for “Hamas to give up its unilateral control over the Gaza Strip and to agree to return to the unified Palestinian political and administrative administration.” He also calls on Fatah and the leadership of the PA to “accept true partnership with Hamas within the context of the Palestinian National Authority and the PLO.”

On the Oslo Accords, the program states that “it is not wise for the Palestinian side to be responsible for the cancellation of the agreement.” Instead, it says that the proper approach would be to “continue with some aspects of the agreement, such as the presence of the PA, and the customs and tax exchange.” (Israel currently collects VAT, income tax, and insurance on behalf of the PA).

The struggle of independence of Palestine on the 1967 borders is given special attention as the plan rejects the idea of “trying the frantic push to control all Palestinians lands and thus help establish greater Israel.”

He would set up "a governmental agency that will work on protecting and defending the land and ensuring Palestinian presence while giving support to areas that are adjacent to Israeli settlers and the wall by making it attractive to citizens to move there."

The rights of families of martyrs, prisoners and the injured must be adhered to, (Not sure if this a reference to the much criticised 'pay to slay' scheme).

There are detailed plans for the development of the educational and health care sectors. Cultural education, women, the youth, the elderly and the environment are all dealt with extensively.

Qudwa is well known internationally as a former envoy to the UN and foreign minister. It's the most impressive and comprehensive programme to be presented so far but his chances of success in the election probably depend on his ability to attract either or both of Mohammed Dahlan and Marwan Barghouti to his slate.

 

[BigMick]

Mohammed Massad ,a Palestinian peace activist, has become the first person to announce his candidacy for Palestinian presidential elections. The major candidates will wait for the outcome of the legislative (parliament) elections in May before deciding whether to run. The presidential election is scheduled for July, although it always possible that Mahmoud Abbas will cancel them if his polling isn't good.
Without the backing of a major party, Massad has absolutely no chance of winning but by announcing early he will be hoping to generate some much needed publicity for his cause: that there is another way other than violence or the threat of violence to achieve a satisfactory settlement with Israel. He has announced seven priorities for his campaign. This is my rough translation of them!

1. To hold accountable the corrupt Mahmoud Abbas, his sons, and all the corrupt people around him who plundered the people and stole the nation’s goods.
2. To fight terrorism and hold to account 'the terrorists who traded in the blood of the Palestinian people, destroyed our present and wasted the future of our children'.
3. He cannot promise to liberate Jerusalem and make it the capital of Palestine but will 'prevent all the conflicts and clashes that destroy our sons and destroy our people and serve foreign agendas that are not concerned with the interest of our people'.
4. He will negotiate with the Israelis in their parliament, in their homes, streets and factories, and vows to make the Palestinian economy equal and unified with the Israeli economy.
5. He will free all female prisoners and prisoners from Israeli prisons, and will not allow a single Palestinian to remain imprisoned by the Israelis. A Palestinian security and judicial system will be established to hold accountable all those who endanger the security of the Palestinian and Israeli people.
6. We will make real peace with the Israelis through our partnership with them in everything. We will not allow anyone on our side or on their side to incite or corrupt us, and we will not allow any external party to come between us.
7. Security, the economy, education and health are his first priorities, and eradicating terrorism and corruption are the most important tasks.

There have been numerous threats to his life, partly because of his fascinating back story, so here's some of it.

Born 1975 in Burqin near Jenin. When he was 6 years old a member of the PLO assembled the young children from the neighbourhood and bought them sweets, taught them games. He also taught them anti-Israeli songs and with every IDF vehicle that passed by he would tell them how Israel wants to kill them and steal their land.

When the first intifada began,Mohammed and his friends began throwing Molotov cocktails and grenades at IDF vehicles and burning tires. His uncle was a Fatah leader and wanted by the IDF, giving him a status in the whole region. "The fact that he was my relative gave me status as well. I wanted to be like him."

Consequently, Mohammed joined up with the founding members of the Jenin branch of the Black Panthers. In 1991, at 16½, Mohammed and 4 members of his squad hijacked an Israeli car and drove around looking for an Israeli soldier to abduct to exchange for Palestinian prisoners being held in Israel. They were spotted by Israeli security forces and forced to abandon the car and run back behind the border.

He was now wanted by the IDF and on the run. One night, though, he returned home and went to sleep, only to be awoken at 2:30 am, to find Israeli soldiers surrounding him. He was arrested and tortured, which included sleep deprivation, no access to a shower, being kept in a room the size of a closet, and being forced to stand all day with his hands tied to a pipe above his head so that his arms were in the air. The ceiling was a grate that kept him exposed to the rain and sun and he had nothing to protect him from the cold of approaching winter. The Israelis did not beat him – “there were a few slaps, nothing serious”. They cursed and humiliated him, but he expected this as "they were the enemy and that is how the enemy is expected to behave."

"As they became harsher, I gave them even less. Their harsh treatment only increased my resolve. This helped me keep my secrets." After 45 days of interrogation, he admitted, in his words, to 2% of what he had done, activities that were, in any case, known to all: “I gave them what they already knew.”

He was sentenced to 7½ years in prison. To the prosecution this was too light and they appealed. About two years after his arrest, however, before the appeal, he was released as part of the Oslo Accords in 1993.

Upon his release he was invited to join the Tanzim, the military arm of Fatah. "I was responsible for my village and served as a bridge between the local villages and the high ranking leaders of the movement." While the Oslo Accords brought Massad’s release from Israeli prison, it was not long before he became disillusioned with what was happening in the name of resistance to the Israelis.

From the beginning he was opposed to the leadership brought in by the foreign-directed peacemaking deal. “I did not give anyone power of attorney to sign a deal with Arafat on my behalf,” he said. He witnessed many gangs operating in the PA, each gang on its own. There were those who collected money supposedly for the purposes of freeing the land. They would write a receipt with a sum and then go to shop owners and ask for the money written on the receipt. Anyone who did not contribute was accused of being against the PA.

Massad began to protest, and in 1996 was arrested on trumped up charges. Each day of interrogations in the PA was harder than all 45 days in prison in Israel. Harder, more humiliating, more torture.
"People from the Tanzim that I knew conducted the interrogation. They beat me with anything that came to hand. They hurled curses insulting my family. I expected the Israeli enemy to curse my family, but the ones who I brought into the land over the dead bodies of my friends, that I made my government, I did not expect them to humiliate me or my family. There is psychological injury, in addition to physical injury. Before the Israeli interrogator applies any physical pressure, he must get permission and make sure the person can tolerate it and it is according to the law; but in the PA, it is a mafia.

I would sit in my cell, waiting, and hear them beating others. And they would cry and beg them to stop and I felt sorry for them. Many people were executed in that way. Even children, 15, 16, 18, they took them to the woods, not even to the police station and began beating them all night, put out cigarettes on their skin. They want to stop the suffering. So if interrogators say, you killed 20 people, he will say he killed 22, just to put a stop to the torture. After that, they execute him and claim he confessed.
I saw children crying over the father who was executed and I felt bad for these children. Our squad was against the Israeli soldiers not against our own people."

Massad kept his wits about him. He was accused of murder but when the murders were supposed to have been committed, he was in prison in Israel. They asked him about the weapons he used when he was in the Black Panthers. Massad told his PA interrogators that the Israeli Shabak asked him the same questions:

"…and I did not answer them. Are you the new Shabak, I asked them? Who are you interrogating me for?"

Massad understood that they were using him to show anyone who thinks about protesting against the PA that they will be suspected of being agents of the Shabak, as traitors. In the end, his interrogators were forced to admit they had nothing on him.

After his release, he could no longer tolerate living under the PA leadership. He entered Israel illegally and worked in construction. Massad worked 20 hours a day and advanced from being a labourer to having his own illegal workers. Every 6 months he was hauled in and questioned by the Israelis.

For many years since then he has been working to help develop the foundations of the democratic free society that he anticipated would arise when he was a Black Panther fighting Israel and that he hopes will still arise. When he was a Black Panther terrorist, he was fighting for truth and justice as he saw it. He is still doing that now but his understanding of truth and justice has changed.

He co-founded the Palestinian Workers’ Organisation, based in the West Bank. He is official spokesman and is the voice opposing exploitation by the PA. Today the organisation has around 70,000 members. Two years ago he attempted unsuccessfully to get Israel to respect the basic human rights of Palestinian workers in Israeli employ and not transfer the taxes and social benefits collected from them at source to the PA which will merely embezzle these funds.

"We don’t want a Palestinian country ruled by corrupt and terrorist leaders. We tried to build a country and the leaders brought in from outside stole the country from the people, abused the people. When the PA falls, Israel won’t find itself without someone to talk with. We don’t want to hurt Israel, for one thing, because that causes us harm: We kill one Jew and that leads to 1000 deaths on our side, then we have closures and destruction that take us back years. Also, we saw what happened in Gaza and we will not make the same mistake. Security and the economy are indivisible for both sides; if you hurt one side in either security or economy, all of us suffer, Israelis and Palestinians alike".

A brave man.

 

[BigMick]

Good news for Mahmoud Abbas! While it's impossible to know what such a secret organisation is actually going to do, there are persistent rumours that Hamas will not nominate anyone for the presidential election. Various reasons have been put forward, the latest being that they accept a Hamas president would be unacceptable to the rest of the world and would therefore be a disaster for the Palestinian people. By the same logic, surely a Marwan Barghouti presidency would be equally disastrous.

Meanwhile, Fatah have offered Barghouti $2million and 10 seats on their party list for his supporters in an attempt to persuade him not to join another list, or form his own, for the legislature elections - this according to Reuters.

That's a lot of money sloshing around - I wonder where they get it from?

Don't know whether it's true but it sounds like a typical Abbas tactic to nullify his potential opponents.

I doubt if Barghouti needs the money, though, because while being banged up in prison absolves him from the corruption associated with most of the political establishment, he comes from one of the most powerful families in the West Bank, especially in the Ramallah area. Look anywhere in Palestinian politics, or positions of power, and you don't have to search too hard to come across a Barghouti.

It would be wrong to suggest that it's the equivalent of going to public school over here but coming from such a family is definitely an advantage. Clans and powerful families still exert a lot of influence in Palestinian society, for better or worse, mainly the latter.

Yasser Arafat cunningly used them to consolidate power around himself and the PLO elite that returned from exile, largely from Tunisia, in 1994. He instituted a ‘tribalisation’ of politics so as to weaken the West Bank and Gaza based leadership which, although linked to the PLO, represented a threat to the ‘Tunisians’ because of their superior everyday, grassroots authority in West Bank and Gazan society. In order to undermine them he enacted policies that strengthened the politics of personality, family and patronage. Because of that, Fatah became the party of choice for the clans and elite families - they always support the party that enables them to flourish.

The current political impasse and the PA’s inability to impose its rule in all the areas under its control have allowed the clans to prosper and the last few years have seen a surge in violence between rival clans and families in the West Bank; in 2020 the area witnessed a 42% increase in murder crimes compared to 2019; many of these were caused by inter-family feuds, others involved drug and arms dealing.

Although his motives lay elsewhere, one bi-product of Abbas switching to a PR voting system is that it removes power from individual clans and families which frequently acted as kingmakers, ensuring that their favoured candidate was elected.

Many westerners only interest in Palestine is in its conflict with Israel - look at the news coverage - but for those actually living in the West Bank and Gaza it is important that the election of a new unified PA government will enable it to act with enhanced authority in the areas it controls, as well as in its dealings with Israel and the international community.

 

[BigMick]

Following on from yesterday's post it appears that Marwan Barghouti has turned down Fatah's offer and intends to form his own list to run in the elections, which has to be submitted today, deadline day.

So far 25 lists have been submitted, including Hamas, whose list consists of 132 candidates – the number of the seats in the Palestinian parliament. This time they will run under the name 'Jerusalem is Our Goal'. At the last election they ran under the name, 'Change and Reform', but that would be laughable this time as after 15 years in power the only change they've managed is for the worse and the only reform is to turn Gaza into a poverty stricken military enclave.

Barghouti's decision, if he follows it through - in 2005 he formed a separate list but ultimately returned to the main Fatah slate after his demands were met - is a huge blow to Fatah and Mahmoud Abbas. It has the potential to blow apart the fragile coalition that is Fatah, especially if Abbas kicks him out of the party as he has threatened to do to anyone standing on a separate list. As I said yesterday, the Barghoutis are an extremely powerful family.

If Barghouti does run on his own list there is speculation that Abbas will postpone or cancel the elections, using the Israelis as an excuse, as I predicted in my opening post on this thread. It's no coincidence that within hours of the Barghouti news breaking, Fatah spokesmen starting casting doubt on the elections taking place due to the Israelis refusing to allow voting to take place in East Jerusalem.

Actually, the Israelis have said nothing about their intentions, with a new government to be formed shortly following their election. Sheer coincidence then that the possibility of cancelling the elections should be mentioned on the same day as Barghouti issues his threat!

And such a statement contradicts what had previously been said in February when Hanna Nasser, head of the committee for the 2021 elections, stated that East Jerusalem Arabs with Israeli residency would be able to vote in booths located in the villages on the outskirts of the city, or, due to the coronavirus pandemic, they would all be able to use postal votes if they wished.

Whatever happens, the majority of Palestinians want the elections to go ahead. The latest opinion poll shows that 65% believe elections should nonetheless take place and that East Jerusalemites should be allowed to vote in places in the Jerusalem district just outside the city limits; just 27% oppose that and demand the cancellation of elections if Israel does not allow East Jerusalemites to vote inside the city.

 

[BigMick]

At least 28 lists have been submitted to the elections commission for the legislative elections, with 13 accredited so far, the rest to come in the next few days.

The disappointments for me are the decision of moderate groups such as Wasatia not to submit a list - in their case because their voice would be drowned out by other parties parroting the same hard-line stance, so they would sooner spend what money they have on practical measures in the community. Additionally, it appears as though the half dozen or so left-wing parties have failed to unite under one banner, choosing instead to run independently, other than two that are running as the United Left. This will result in some of them failing to get enough votes to pass the electoral threshold, whereas if they'd run as one list their votes would be tallied together and they would have had a much more influential role in the new legislature, especially given the decline in support for Fatah and Hamas.

My favourite party at the moment has to be the 'Fed Up' party, consisting of representatives of youth movements and people with disabilities. Their policies focus on peoples' struggle to make a living and corruption.

The most dramatic news came with the merger between Marwan Barghouti's supporters and those of Nasser al-Qudwa to form one list called Al-Huriyya (Freedom) - an appropriate name given Barghouti's current incarceration. Qudwa will be number one on the list with Barghouti's wife, Fadwa, at number two. Hani al-Masri, a prominent Palestinian political analyst, is amongst 60 names on the list and he says that he hopes the list will "contribute to much-needed changes in the Palestinian political system.”

This means that Fatah has split apart and will now face major challenges from the Barghouti/Qudwa party, Mohammed Dahlan's party and another formed by former Prime Minister Salam Fayyad called Maan Qaderoon, which translates as the Obama-esque 'Together We Can'.

It's also reported that major differences erupted as Fatah attempted to compile their own list, resulting in several important figures withdrawing their support.

It's become clear that this election is not so much Fatah versus Hamas but Fatah vs Fatah, with Hamas the likely beneficiaries despite their own plunging popularity. The 'first Fatah', the establishment, consists of the 'Tunisians', the PLO leadership during the exile. Most of them moved to the Palestinian territories after Israel’s withdrawals under the 1994 Oslo Accords, where they established the Muqata, Arafat’s administrative centre in Ramallah.

The “second Fatah” is made up of the Palestinians in the West Bank who weren't part of the exile and lost out when the PLO returned in triumph, thanks to the machinations of Arafat as I mentioned yesterday. Most of the current challenges to Fatah come from this group, notably Barghouti. The stumbling block for him was probably Fatah's insistence on a quota of two-thirds of their list being reserved for “representatives of the history of the national struggle,” - Tunisians, with just a third given to locals, which would include his supporters.

It's a power struggle that has been simmering for a long time with who knows what consequences, firstly for the presidency and, ultimately, for the future of the Palestinian people.

 

[BigMick]

Tonight in Israel a remarkable event took place: an Arab politician gave a speech that was so eagerly awaited that it was shown live on all the TV stations and covered by all the top political journalists.

The speech was given by Mansour Abbas, leader of the conservative Islamic Ra'am party, who risked political oblivion by breaking from the Arab block and going it alone in the election, where he was rewarded by winning 4 seats, enough to make his party the kingmakers in Israeli politics. Effectively, he will decide who is to be Israel's next prime minister.

In his speech tonight he didn't reveal who he would be backing, Benjamin Netanyahu of Likud or Yair Lapid of Yesh Atid - or even someone else. Instead, he gave a perfectly pitched speech which set out his position and urged Israeli politicians to extend an olive branch to his faction, intimating that a new reality had been created in Israeli politics - one in which Arab Israelis could play an active role in decision-making.

"My name is Mansour Abbas, a proud Muslim and Arab, and a citizen of the state of Israel. I am the leader of the largest and most senior movement in Arab society,” said Abbas, referencing the Islamic Movement in Israel, with which Ra’am is associated.

“Reality is changing, and we are refusing to recognise that. Israel has changed its face, but she refuses to open her eyes.
Now is the time for change.”

"I don’t want to be part of any political bloc - right or left. I am here in a different bloc - the bloc that voted for me to serve my people and gave me a mandate to ensure that that the needs of the Arab public, that for years were unmet demands, are turned into a genuine work plan and realised."

Notably absent from Abbas’s speech was any direct reference to the Palestinian cause by name. He did, however, reference Arab Israelis’ inability to realise “collective rights.”‘ He also repeatedly emphasised the importance of understanding the narratives of each other.

"I extend my hand to create an opportunity for coexistence in this land, which is holy to the three monotheistic religions and both nations.

Now is the time to understand one another, each other’s narrative. We do not have to agree on everything, and we will of course disagree on much. But we must give us and our children the opportunity, the right, to understand one another.

Every one of us has a name, a culture, a story, experiences and a narrative.

If we cannot find the way to defeat ignorance and beat racism, we will bequeath the next generation a complex and dangerous and impossible reality.”

I represent 20% of the Israeli public, dealing with all manner of problems - from the absence of personal security, and the lack a roof over their heads, all the way to the lack of personal and collective fulfilment.

We have an opportunity to initiate a change and create a civil society greater than its components.

What is needed at this moment is leadership and responsibility: Leadership that can bring the public to a better place, and responsibility that can create trust between the sectors so that we can stride forward to a better future.”

Abbas claimed his party sought to “respect every person for his humanity” and emphasised the common destiny of Arabs and Jews in the state of Israel.

“If the road in Wadi Ara is ruined, it won’t distinguish between Arab and Jewish passersby.
If there’s a bed lacking in Soroka Hospital, it can harm both those in Beersheba and in Rahat.

If there is crime and extortion, it doesn’t exclude this or that business because of the kind of store sign.
If my neighbour goes hungry, me and my family are in danger.
And if I don’t live in peace within the state, I won’t be able to seek peace with my neighbours.

This is the time to find the common ground, to create a different reality for all the citizens of the state.”

“My bloc gave me the mandate to transform the demands of the Arab community from what they were for years - mere demands - into a viable, workable plan.”

Abbas slammed violence against “any person due to their political views or religious or ethnic identity,” adding: “We have committed to sanctifying life and despising violence.”

He finished with:

“Renewal is largely about creating change in the climate. We all live in the same climate. This is the time for change."

I'm an optimist.

The faint breeze of change blowing through Israeli society has just been fanned - long may it continue.

 

[BigMick]

By midnight on deadline day a grand total of 36 lists were submitted to the electoral council for review, with a final announcement of those deemed acceptable due on 6th April. The total includes a number of new communal or tribal groupings that have not been known in the past for any political activity or have no links to any other party and have their own political programme. There now follows a short period when anyone can complain about a list or individual and try to get them barred.

The electoral threshold is set at 1.5%, and any list which passes the threshold is allocated a number of seats proportional to the total number of votes that it receives. The candidates of winning lists are seated in their sequential order. There are 132 seats, with 7 reserved for Christians. The system almost guarantees a coalition government.

The main lists are:

Fatah - Deputy Chairman Mahmoud Alloul, 71, is No. 1 followed by Suad Zalloum, the wife of a sniper who shot and killed a 10 month old baby; then Ahmad Hilles, 70, Fatah’s leader in the Gaza Strip, with Jibril Rajoub, who has close links with Hamas through his brother at 4. Three of the top 10 candidates on the Fatah list are women - a welcome change for them. 'Businessman' Munib al-Masri, from one of the most powerful families on the West Bank, made a late decision to merge his group with Fatah, a welcome boost after 9 candidates withdrew their names late on.

Jerusalem is Our Destiny List - Hamas - Khalil al-Haieh, 61, tops their list, which includes activists from both Gaza and the West Bank, and a number of Israeli prisoners, notably Nael al-Barghouti from Ramallah. Veteran Nizar Awadallah, who narrowly 'lost' to Sinwar in the recent leadership battle, is at 4.

Freedom - the Qudwa/Marwan Barghouti list. Led by Qudwa with Barghouti's wife, Fadwa, at 2. Barghouti himself seems likely to run in the presidential elections. 10th spot goes to another Barghouti, Fakhri, once imprisoned for stabbing to death an Israeli bus driver.

The Future - Mohammed Dahlan's list. Former Gazan Fatah leaderand key Dahlan aide Samir Masharawi is no. 1 with Jerusalem intellectual and former President of Al-Quds University Sari Nusseibeh at 2. The latter is a huge coup for Dahlan - here's an example of him speaking from 3 years ago:



Dahlan himself will be hoping to be allowed to run for the presidency.

Together We Can - Former prime minister Salam Fayyad leads this list that includes Makram Abbas, former deputy director of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights in Gaza, and former education minister Anwar Zakaria.

United Left - combines the Palestinian People’s Party and Palestinian Democratic Union Party. Attempts to have a wider unity of all left-wing factions failed. Good to see a woman leading the list, Fadwa Khader, a longtime leftist activist from Jerusalem.

Democratic Change - Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine - Ibrahim Abu Hijleh, currently in an Israeli prison is first,

Pulse of the People - Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - Fittingly for an internationally recognised terrorist organisation their two leading candidates are both banged up in an Israeli prison, Ahmad Sa'adat and Khalida Jarrar.

Although the threshold is low the majority of other lists are likely to fall below, while others may do enough to gather 1 or 2 seats.

 

[BigMick]

Incidentally, anyone seriously interest in the Palestinians, rather than just using them as a stick with which to beat Israel - mentioning no names - could do worse than read Sari Nusseibeh's books. Two available in the UK.

Amazon product ASIN B006WV3CTM
Amazon product ASIN B006SHTDX4

 

[BigMick]

PA president Mahmoud Abbas has flown to Germany for a medical checkup. 'Routine' say Fatah, 'declining health' say his opponents. The 86 year old will also have a meeting with Angela Merkel while he is there.

Nasser al-Qudwa has grabbed the headlines with a fairly mild attack on Hamas and other Islamist parties, saying, "Everyone has problems with Islamic political movements or political Islam."

This earned him the wrath of Hamas via an official statement: "Al-Qudwa's remarks keep up with the American and Zionist resolutions aiming to tear up the Palestinians and expand the internal division. The Palestinians have a long resistance history based on political plurality with no hostility except with the Israeli occupation which has been working day and night to Judaise our holy sites, desecrate them, annex the occupied West Bank and impose a siege on Gaza."

Their close allies, and fellow Gaza residents, Islamic Jihad, said that the Palestinian movements do not seek, "fake authority, but national Islamic resistance to liberate Palestine."

I wonder whether Marwan Barghouti, will back up his new partner with one of his missives from his prison cell, or perhaps his wife, number 2 on the list, could do it on his behalf. Somehow I doubt it - Barghouti has eyes on the presidency when he will need every vote, Islamic or not. Simple rule of politics all over the world: Don't criticise the people you need to vote for you!

I suspect Mr Qudwa will not be visiting Gaza during the campaign.


Meanwhile Hassan Salameh, no. 13 on the Hamas list, has been disqualified from standing by the electoral commission. Sadly, it wasn't because he is the oh so brave man who planned a series of suicide bombings in Jerusalem and Ashkelon, leaving 46 dead and 91 wounded. He later explained that he believed, "what I did is a legitimate right my religion and all of the world gave me."
Instead he's been banned for technical reasons: his name doesn't appear on the voter registry.

He won't be missed.

The Elections Commission has stated that the number of candidates nominated for Legislative Council membership reached 1,389, including 405 women (accounting for 29% of all candidates). The demographic of candidates according to age group is as follows: 38.5% for ages 28-40, and 22.2% for 41-50, and 39.3% for candidates 50+.

Good to see the number of female candidates rising, while 28 is currently the minimum age requirement - hopefully that will be reduced after this election.

 

[summerisle]

 

[BigMick]

Think that was from a few weeks ago. Believe me, I could show you hundreds of similar incidents.

Don't think it's all one way though. This is from the UN two weeks ago:

At last week’s UN Security Council meeting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Tor Wennesland spoke both of Israeli violence against Palestinians and Palestinian violence against Israelis.
“In the last month, Israeli settlers and other civilians perpetrated some 25 attacks against Palestinians, resulting in five injuries and damage to property. Palestinians perpetrated 59 attacks against Israeli settlers and other civilians in the West Bank, resulting in eight injuries and damage to property.”

I've no doubt the figures would be reversed in other months.

Sadly, the Israeli police make very few arrests of their thugs, and the PA police make very few arrests of their thugs. That needs to change.

Hopefully, the election of a new unified PA government will enable it to act with more authority in the areas it controls, and use its enhanced legitimacy to put pressure on the Israelis to improve the situation on their side.

There are extremists on both sides. To pretend otherwise, as some in the west do, does nobody any favours.