Palestinians are gearing up to vote in coming months in legislative, presidential, and national council elections although they may be postponed over occupied East Jerusalem. Presidential adviser Nabil Shaath said if Israel continues to ignore the Palestinian application to conduct elections in the holy city “the electoral process will be postponed.”

According to the Oslo Accords of 1993 and 1995 signed by the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and Israel, a token number of Palestinians was allowed to vote in Palestinian-conducted elections in Israeli-run post offices in East Jerusalem. This provision provided recognition of the Palestinian presence in the eastern sector of the disputed city, conquered by Israel in 1967, annexed illegally, and claimed as its exclusive capital even though its fate is, and was, meant to be decided in negotiations.

In previous legislative elections in 1996 and 2006, Israel adhered to the provisions of the Oslo Accords and the vast majority of Palestinian East Jerusalemites were compelled to vote in Palestinian-operated polling centres in the occupied West Bank and Gaza. Since 2006, however, Israeli politics have lurched to the far right, notably under the premiership of Binyamin Netanyahu. He, his party and coalition partners are determined to erase the Palestinian physical and political presence in East Jerusalem.

Israel has a long-term strategy for accomplishing this goal through deportation, denial of building permits, levying heavy taxes on businesses, and closing Palestinian offices and cultural centres. Between 1967-2020, Israel revoked East Jerusalem residency of 14,701 Palestinians on the pretext that they did not maintain their connection with the city. Israel refuses to grant Palestinians permits to build homes, business premises, and other structures and demolishes buildings without permits. Israel imposes taxes on shops, hotels and businesses but does not provide services equal to those given to Jewish enterprises. Israel has also raided the Edward Said Conservatory of Music and the Yabus Cultural Centre and closed the Palestinian education office fixing curricula for East Jerusalem schools as well as the Palestinian television office.

The Israeli authorities connive with extremist Jewish groups seeking to demolish al-Aqsa mosque, the third holiest Muslim site, and the splendid Dome of the Rock, and replace them with a Jewish temple. They claim the Haram al-Sharif, mosque compound, is located on the ground occupied by the temple destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD during the Jewish rebellion against Roman rule.

Following the 1967 war when Israel occupied East Jerusalem, there was an agreement with Jordan, the custodian of Muslim and Christian holy sites in the city, that Jews could enter but not pray in the Haram al-Sharif. In recent years, this agreement has been continuously violated by groups of extremist Jews who enter the compound under the protection of armed Israeli police.

This has created constant tension between Israelis and Palestinians and is seen by Jordan as a challenge to its custodianship, which was guaranteed in that country’s peace treaty with Israel.

Considering the fact that Israel has for decades challenged the very existence of Palestinians and their holy places in East Jerusalem, it is ironic that the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority should issue a threat to postpone the first elections in 15 years over the right of a few hundred Palestinians to vote in East Jerusalem. Until Donald Trump recognised Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in 2017 and shifted the US embassy there, the Authority largely ignored what has been happening to Palestinian residents over the past 54 years. The Authority responded to his actions by condemning Trump and cutting relations with the US. East Jerusalem was suddenly on the agenda of the Authority.

Faisal Husseini, scion of a leading Jerusalem family, who assumed the defence of the city documented Palestinian ownership of land and buildings and did his utmost to prevent Palestinian homes from being demolished and Palestinians being deported from the city. But, after his untimely death in 2001 and the Israeli closure of his Arab Studies Centre in Orient House, the Authority and the PLO lost interest.

This being the case, it is hardly surprising that clashes have erupted during Ramadan between Palestinian youths and Israeli extremists, chanting “Death to Arabs,” outside Damascus Gate in the walled city and elsewhere in the occupied territories. Disturbances began when Israeli police denied access to Palestinians who like to gather on the steps leading down to the gate and walk along the promenade around the Old City’s wall after Iftar. Palestinians were already seething because Israel, using the Covid pretext, had prevented them from partaking Iftar meals organised by the caretakers of the Haram al-Sharif. Gaza responded to the clashes by firing three dozen rockets into Israel, eliciting Israeli airstrikes on the strip.

The Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority has finally chosen to focus on East Jerusalem, Calling it “a red line” for Palestinians who claim this sector as the capital of their oft-promised-never- delivered state. If Israel refuses to grant even a limited number of Palestinian Jerusalemites their Oslo right to cast ballots in the city, the Authority can blame cancellation of the elections on Israel.

However, Hamas flatly rejects postponement while Fatah’s rivals and critics contend East Jerusalem is a pretext. They say President Mahmoud Abbas and loyalists fear the party will not win a majority of seats in the 132-member Palestinian legislature when voters go to the polls on May 22nd. Fatah loyalists are concerned that two dissident factions – one headed by Nasser al- Qudwa, the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s nephew; and the other by Muhammad Dahlan, former Gaza strongman, could deny Fatah control of parliament. Although it is unlikely that Hamas, which won by a landslide in the 2006 legislative election, will repeat this feat but Fatah remains haunted by that defeat.

Fatah also fears that since 93 per cent of eligible voters have registered, many if not most Palestinians may vote for change in their narrow, politically circumscribed landscape. Fatah’s 25-year reign been characterised by mismanagement, corruption, acceptance of Israeli diktats and promises of reform which have not been enacted.

Instead of restoring Palestinian democratic legitimacy after a decade and a half of no popular consultations, the declared goal of the 2021 elections, postponement, would grant Fatah an indefinite extension of its rule. This would be fine with external powers which favour a Palestinian government which excludes Hamas, rejects violence, recognises Israel and sticks to agreements.

Having held four inconclusive elections over the past two years, Israel is not keen to see the Palestinians reassert their legitimacy through the ballot box, conduct decisive elections, and form a government with staying power and popular backing with the aim of relaunching negotiations on Palestinian statehood. This is the last thing divided, rightist Israel wants.