Elections, Sovereignty and Getting in the Way

Arabic news services announced that the registration of voters in Gaza has begun today. Felesteen, a local Palestinian news website reported that the election committee arrived in Gaza yesterday, headed by Dr. Hana Nasser. Al-Jazeera, a Qatari media company, told that the committee had already registered 650 thousand Palestinian voters and had an expectancy of registering 350 thousand more in the West Bank.  Al-Quds, a newspaper that prints in Jerusalem wrote that the work of the election committee signifies achievements of the reconciliation talks of Fatah and Hamas.

In all three articles another piece of information was added – The State of Israel has denied access to the West Bank of three officials of the election committee. This denial is a direct testimony to the problematic status of the Palestinian people.

In the very recent Israeli elections I sat in a polling station so that I could guard the just process of voting. This is my second time sitting at a polling station and after both occasions I came out with a realization that the voting process is a complicated and difficult one to execute.

If the State of Israel wishes to allow the Palestinian people to create their own just leadership it needs to strive to remove its hands from all inner doings. Every time an Israeli directive affects inner-Palestinian works another vote is cast for violent struggle against Israel.

I can only hope that the three detainees were in fact a security risk.