Elections in Occupied Palestine: Control, resistance and contention

This chapter focuses on municipal, legislative and presidential elections held in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs) from the beginning of the Israeli occupation in 1967 to the present. It provides a historical review of three main periods of electoral mobilisation: the municipal elections of the 1970s, the first legislative and presidential elections of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) in 1996 and the 2005–2006 second round of PNA’s general elections that led to the polarisation of the Palestinian national movement. In doing so, this chapter describes the function and significance that elections had for the main actors involved, namely the Israeli authorities, the Fatah-dominated Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and its main rival Hamas. Assuming the overarching colonial paradigm defining power relations in the OPT, such historical review argues that these actors aimed at either stabilising, challenging, or contending in, the ruling political system. This chapter also questions the viability of democratic elections in a context of deep asymmetric colonial rule of one sovereign party over a non-sovereign society. Ultimately, it also addresses the significance of elections in the context of a deeply fragmented political arena such as the Palestinian one.