The war between Hamas and IsraelDossierThe Islamist party won the 2006 parliamentary elections. However, no elections have been held since then, the last in 2021 being canceled a few weeks before the vote.
Guest on Sud Radio on October 13th, Nadir Kahia, presenting on, You have to try to be balanced. There is liability. Hamas was not born this way. Hamas did not come from outside. Hamas is above all a political party. We can call him a terrorist and discuss it, […] But at a certain point, Hamas is a party, it was elected by the majority of Palestinians. It’s a fact. So democratically we have to respect that.”
The second and last parliamentary elections in Palestine (Gaza Strip and West Bank) took place in January 2006. With a voter turnout of over 77%, these general elections were “open and well organized,” according to one report. by the European Union observation mission, which deployed 185 observers to the site.
In this election, almost 18 years ago, Hamas won after boycotting the 1996 elections. This meant that the Islamist party won 74 seats and Fatah (founded by Yasser Arafat) won 45 seats out of the 132 seats that make up the Palestinian Legislative Council.
Impossible coexistence
“If he manages to achieve the majority of votes, it will be thanks both to his achievements and to the fatigue caused by Fatah,” noted researcher Laetitia Bucaille in 2016 in “Etudes du Ceri,” published by Sciences-Po. It embodies the choice of armed struggle and nationalism: its leaders are proud of having forced the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza in 2005 thanks to rocket attacks, while Fatah is associated with the negotiating strategy that has disappointed the Palestinians – at best makes them sick, especially after Israeli oppression during the Al-Aqsa Intifada [2000-2005]. Furthermore, Hamas seems to be the guarantor of a certain level of honesty, […] Their image contrasts with that of the Palestinian Authority, which is often accused of corruption and nepotism.”
The Palestinian Authority’s executive branch has been occupied by its rival Fatah since its founding in 1996. It was chaired successively by Yasser Arafat until his death in 2004 and then, since his last election in 2005, by Mahmoud Abbas. With the arrival of Hamas in the government while Fatah retains the presidency, a form of coexistence occurs. But only for a very short time. In fact, relations between the two largest Palestinian groups will quickly turn into a bloody confrontation following the appointment of Hamas list leader Ismaël Haniyeh as prime minister in February 2006.
“A few months after the elections, starting in May 2006, there were more incidents between the two movements due to Fatah’s refusal to participate in a government of national unity,” notes Laura Bucaille. Members of Fatah and Hamas have become targets of intimidation, kidnappings and assassinations. These attacks set in motion a ceaseless process of reprisals.”
A conflict that will lead to Hamas’s takeover of the Gaza Strip and Fatah’s withdrawal to the West Bank in June 2007. “The Methods of the Executive [du Hamas] The attacks were often rapid, Fatah activists were sometimes murdered while being disarmed and/or injured, some were tortured or thrown from building roofs,” adds Laura Bucaille.
A national vote in 2021 has been canceled
However, the then researcher Jean-François Legrain (1) estimated in the Revue critique Internationale that “the partisan violence did not arise from Hamas’s victory in the parliamentary elections.” And by way of explanation: “Corruption for several years [fasâd]the anarchy [fawda] and the security debacle [falatân] fuel a dynamic whose result, the “civil war” [fitna], is known, feared and condemned by the population. Since no short-term political solution to the occupation was foreseeable, the parliamentary elections in January 2006 clearly demonstrated the popular will to put an end to this dynamic.” However, by preventing Hamas from exercising its mandate, “President Mahmoud Abbas, the “Fatah, Israel and the international community, each at their own level, contributed to turning the security debacle into a “civil war,” the beginnings of which began to manifest themselves in the summer of 2006.”
Note that the parliamentary elections were scheduled to take place in May 2021, but were ultimately postponed indefinitely three weeks earlier by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas under the pretext that Israel refused to set up electoral offices. Voting in East Jerusalem, occupied by Israel since 1967.
At the time, Hamas List leader Khalil Al-Haya told AFP that postponing the elections would “push the Palestinian people into uncertainty” and cause “great frustration among the population” that could lead to “serious” consequences Reactions”.
(1) retired researcher from IREMAM (Institute for Research and Studies on the Arab and Muslim World).