Voters in Gaza say jobs and security outweigh politics as Palestinians approach their first national elections in 20 years, now scheduled for Nov. 28, with many hoping the vote will open a way to rebuild after the war.
Ahmad Mohsen, 24, sells prepaid internet access cards from a shop in Deir el-Balah. Three years ago, before the war in Gaza began, he had drawn a different future for himself, he told Al Jazeera. He had graduated with a nursing degree and was completing the procedures for his professional license. He wanted hospital work, a master’s degree, specialized courses. The war pushed him onto this path instead.
President Mahmoud Abbas, 90, confirmed the election date in a pre-recorded address to the United Nations General Assembly last week, calling it part of internationally backed reforms, Reuters reported. A presidential decree issued July 9 set the vote for the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem. The last Palestinian legislative election, in 2006, was won by Hamas; the factional split that followed has left the movement running Gaza and Mr. Abbas’s Fatah in the West Bank ever since.
Doubts are thick. Reuters reports serious domestic skepticism that the vote will take place at all, and Palestinians have been let down before: Mr. Abbas called legislative elections for May 2021, then postponed them indefinitely weeks before the date. Opinion polls show Palestinians want elections held soon but doubt they will actually occur. Municipal elections this year were watched as a test of whether the machinery could work.
The war that destroyed much of Gaza is described by Al Jazeera as genocidal, an accusation Israel denies. Whatever is said of it, people such as Mr. Mohsen measure the coming election by simpler terms: a job, a measure of safety, a rebuilt life.
In Deir el-Balah, the Palestinian Central Elections Commission is already preparing for November. The registration lists, the polling stations and the count would have to function in a territory where entire neighborhoods no longer stand.