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Palestinian vote promises change
Palestinians want a change. There is not much about their lives that is changeable - after all, they have lived under an Israeli military occupation since 1967 - but 10 years after they first elected a legislature they are voting again, and all the signs are that they want their votes to count.
In 1996 Fatah, the faction at the heart of the PLO that was created and led by Yasser Arafat, won an overwhelming victory in the first elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council.
The difference then was that Hamas, the Islamist movement, did not stand. This time it is contesting the elections, and opinion polls put it neck and neck with Fatah.
The elections 10 years ago were one of the first fruits of the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians that started with secret talks in Oslo in 1993 and collapsed into violence and mutual recrimination in 2000.
By then Palestinians and Israelis who had hoped it might change their lives were deeply disillusioned - and those who said it was flawed all along simply had their views confirmed.
Oslo's legacy
But by the time the polls close on Wednesday, politics, not just in the occupied territories but across the Middle East will have changed profoundly.
Hamas, the movement that refused to accept the PLO's recognition of Israel, that condemned the peace process as treachery, will have bought into part of Oslo's legacy.
Every Palestinian accepts that constructing a state while under occupation and sometimes direct attack from Israel was impossible.
But the popularity of Hamas in the opinion polls shows clearly that Palestinian voters also believe that Fatah's leaders could have done more, despite all the difficulties. For them, the occupation is not an excuse.
The Legislative Council should have been allowed to flourish. Instead, it was ignored. It was supposed to have been one of the key building blocks of a Palestinian state-in-waiting; if Palestinians are eventually to have a state, it still must be.
Fatah failures
Part of the reason why Hamas is popular is what Palestinians call the "armed struggle" against Israel.
More
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4642554.stm
The difference then was that Hamas, the Islamist movement, did not stand. This time it is contesting the elections, and opinion polls put it neck and neck with Fatah.
The elections 10 years ago were one of the first fruits of the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians that started with secret talks in Oslo in 1993 and collapsed into violence and mutual recrimination in 2000.
By then Palestinians and Israelis who had hoped it might change their lives were deeply disillusioned - and those who said it was flawed all along simply had their views confirmed.
Oslo's legacy
But by the time the polls close on Wednesday, politics, not just in the occupied territories but across the Middle East will have changed profoundly.
Hamas, the movement that refused to accept the PLO's recognition of Israel, that condemned the peace process as treachery, will have bought into part of Oslo's legacy.
Every Palestinian accepts that constructing a state while under occupation and sometimes direct attack from Israel was impossible.
But the popularity of Hamas in the opinion polls shows clearly that Palestinian voters also believe that Fatah's leaders could have done more, despite all the difficulties. For them, the occupation is not an excuse.
The Legislative Council should have been allowed to flourish. Instead, it was ignored. It was supposed to have been one of the key building blocks of a Palestinian state-in-waiting; if Palestinians are eventually to have a state, it still must be.
Fatah failures
Part of the reason why Hamas is popular is what Palestinians call the "armed struggle" against Israel.
More
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4642554.stm
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Candidates retreated to their homes or headquarters after campaigning officially ended on Monday, many speaking to journalists who have converged on the occupied territories.
It is believed that as many as 1000 journalists and foreign correspondents have arrived in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with many focusing on the rivalry between Fatah and Hamas.
In Ram Allah, residents mourned a 13-year-old Palestinian boy who was killed by Israeli troops on Monday.
Elsewhere in the West Bank, Israeli troops arrested nine suspected resistance fighters overnight.
Early on Tuesday, one Palestinian man was killed in the northern West Bank town of Nablus by masked gunmen as he was pasting up posters for a Fatah candidate.
Pre-election violence
The gunmen are believed to be affiliated to Fatah's armed wing, the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades.
The Nablus incident, an exception in a largely violence-free campaign, could undermine Fatah's image there, one of the largest towns in the West Bank, in the closing hours before the elections.
Meanwhile in Gaza City, disgruntled residents involved in a family feud that has claimed the life of at least one person lit tyres in front of Mahmoud Abbas's house to protest against the security lapse ahead of elections.
In Khan Yunus, a similar feud which has been going on for three months and which has paralysed life for many residents threatens to be a stumbling block for voters.
Last night, armed men from one of the clans broke into a shop belonging to the rival family, shattering windows and destroying merchandise, witnesses said.
More
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/157F5F3F-D2F2-4C16-A78F-9C47EF86C111.htm