The Bethlehem alternative information centre is one of
the most balanced voices in the Middle East dealing
with Palestinian issues.
Additionally, from a gender and migration studies
perspective, one of it key member's is an
Austrian-Palestinian feminist activist, who you can
read about at the bottom of this mail.
Best, Eugene Sensenig-Dabbous
www.genderlink.com
================
BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and
Refugee Rights Press release, 27 January 2006
(E/02/06)
Hamas' Election Victory - a Call for Good Governance
and Respect of Palestinian Rights
Hamas is now challenged with finding ways to respond
to the legacy and the multi-facetted public
expectations of its victory and new leadership role.
The Palestinian vote has correctly been described as a
political earthquake or tsunami that poses deep
challenges to the Palestinian body politique,
including the secular forces of the Palestinian left.
The ball, however, is in the court of the
international community - diplomats, governments, and
civil society - who will have to show whether they are
able and willing to hear and engage based on the
message of Palestinian voters in the occupied
Palestinian Territory (OPT).
The 25 January elections to the Palestinian
Legislative Council (PLC) were conducted
democratically and peacefully with a voter turnout of
almost 78%. This is a remarkable success, especially
because of the inherent contradiction between
democratic election and military occupation and
colonization: Israeli military checkpoints in occupied
eastern Jerusalem blocked free access to ballot
stations in the outskirts of the city, while voters in
town had to go through a cumbersome procedure of
casting their votes in Israeli post offices surrounded
by Israel security and border police. Therefore, voter
turnout in Jerusalem was low (41%). Some two-thirds (6
million) of the Palestinian people live in exile and
their right to participation is denied under the terms
of the Oslo Accords. Palestinians did not elect their
representatives to a parliament and government of an
independent and sovereign state, but to a Palestinian
Authority with very limited powers over small parts of
the OPT.
Palestinians in the OPT chose their representatives in
the 132-seat parliament by casting two separate votes,
one for a country-wide party list (66 seats) and one
for individual candidates running on the district
level (66 seats).
Although a strong showing of Hamas in these elections
was expected, the sweeping victory came as a surprise
to all. In common times, Hamas enjoys a stable support
of some one-third of the Palestinian population in the
OPT, and nobody - neither Palestinian voters,
pollsters, local and international analysts, nor
Israeli intelligence or even Hamas itself - had
expected that its country-wide list 'Reform and
Change' and individual Hamas candidates combined would
take 75 of the 132 seats in the new Palestinian
parliament. Fatah was left with 44 seats, Palestinian
secular and democratic forces who had formed four
separate lists achieved a combined result of 9 seats,
and 4 seats went to independent candidates, most of
them also supported by Hamas.
What made Palestinians opt for Hamas in the second PLC
elections? The answer has both an internal and an
external component. A major internal factor is a
general public fatigue and disgust of the Fatah-led
Palestinian political leadership which - as the
Palestinian Authority - has ruled Palestinian
political life since the 1993 Oslo Accords. The vote
for Hamas is a vote for change, for ending a situation
where lack of good governance and commitment to
serving the public, in-fighting, corruption and
arrogance of the rulers have resulted in an
ever-deteriorating situation. And Hamas has a proven
record, as elected head of municipalities and local
councils, of being a more credible, impartial and
committed civil servant than the old guard of notable
and Fatah-affiliated communal leadership.
Moreover, the Palestinian vote for Hamas is a vote
against the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority whose
commitment to fundamental rights and principles of the
Palestinian national struggle is widely doubted. The
Palestinian Authority has become both a prisoner and
indispensable partner in endless diplomacy whose
purpose is to cover up the fact that nothing is done
to bring about a just and lasting peace, and it has
failed to take action against those from its own
ranks, who publicly undermine the national consensus
and struggle for freedom from occupation, the right of
return of the refugees and self-determination. None
of the Fatah candidates known for corruption or
involvement in the Geneva Initiative, for example,
were elected on the district level due to their
personal record, while 45 of the 66 seats went to
locally respected individuals affiliated with Hamas.
Palestinians voted for an end to this status-quo and
for a new leadership that will lead the Palestinian
struggle with determination and clarity.
Finally, the Palestinian vote for Hamas is a message
to Israel and the international community. It is a
vote against external efforts to set the rules for
Palestinian democracy, a signal of protest against the
massive interference in the election process by
western governments and the European Union, who
repeatedly threatened to withhold economic aid and
political support should Hamas join the Palestinian
Authority. It is a message to the international
community, in particular the 'Quartet,' that
Palestinians are no longer willing to accept the
approach to peacemaking which holds that Palestinian
'reform', rather than ending Israel's occupation and
colonization, is the way to resolve the conflict. It
is a call for ending Israel's impunity and for respect
and enforcement of Palestinian rights under
international law.
For now, Hamas is heavily challenged with finding ways
to respond to the legacy and the multi-facetted public
expectations of its victory and new leadership role.
The Palestinian vote has correctly been described as a
political earthquake or tsunami that poses deep
challenges to the Palestinian body politique,
including the secular forces of the Palestinian left.
The ball, however, is in the court of the
international community - diplomats, governments, and
civil society - who will have to show whether it is
able and willing to hear and to engage based on the
Palestinian call for change towards good governance
and a principled stand in the struggle for freedom,
justice and peace.
--
BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and
Refugee Rights
PO Box 728, Bethlehem, Palestine
Telefax: 00972-2-2747346
info@??? -
www.badil.org
=======================
http://www.lau.edu.lb/centers-institutes/iwsaw/raida101-102/main-with-8275.html
Institute for Womens Studies in the Arab World
Al-Raida: Non-Arab Women in the Arab World
Volume XX, No. 101-102 Spring/Summer 2003
Ingrid Jaradat Gassner: An Austrian Media Activist in
Palestine p.67
========================================
http://www.lau.edu.lb/centers-institutes/iwsaw/raida.html
Institute for Womens Studies in the Arab World
Al-Raida
A quarterly journal in English, established in 1976,
which pursues the following goals:
To spread knowledge about social, economic and legal
conditions of women in the Arab World.
To help establish links and networks between Arab
women and women all over the world.
To promote communication among individuals, groups and
institutions concerned with Arab women.
To contribute to the educational and outreach efforts
of the Lebanese American University.
__________________________________________________
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