Palestinians took a step towards long-delayed elections this week with Hamas agreeing to a proposal put forward by President Mahmoud Abbas.
Hamas head Ismail Haniyeh said that the group would join elections in a bid to end the schism with Mr Abbas’s Ramallah-based Fatah party. Hamas and Fatah cut ties after the former won an election to run Gaza and pushed Mr Abbas’s party from the enclave in bloody battles between January 2006 and May 2007.
There have been no Palestinian elections since 2006.
The international community has been trying to bring the two sides together in a bid to hold legislative and presidential elections but previous reconciliation talks have derailed or achieved little.
Mr Haniyeh said that Mr Abbas needs to call a national dialogue to discuss and finalise the terms of the election but the group has agreed in principle to holding a vote.
Chairman of the Palestinian Central Elections Commission Hanna Nasser visited Gaza this week to secure Hamas consent and left on Wednesday saying he had obtained it.
However, further complicating the matter is Mr Abbas’s desire to hold the vote in not only the West Bank and Gaza but also Jerusalem. Including the divided city complicates the matter as it will require the consent of Israel.
Tel Aviv is likely to try to block any expression of Palestinian national identity in Jerusalem.
Palestinian officials have called for European nations to pressure Israel to allow the election in East Jerusalem.
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said on October 31 that, “We [Fatah] are keen to have elections. We have two impediments about elections. Two problems. One is that we need Hamas to agree so that Gaza will be part of it. Second, we need Israel to agree so that Jerusalem is part of it."
There have been numerous attempts since 2006 to reconcile Hamas and Fatah. In 2018 the two sides came close to formalising a return to normal relations to pave the way for a vote.
However, the talks broke down when a roadside bomb targeted the motorcade of then Palestinian prime minister Rami Hamdallah during a visit to Gaza.
Mr Hamdallah was spearheading the reconciliation process and despite Hamas condemning the attack, the Palestinian Authority said it viewed the incident as an attempt to prevent implementation of a unity agreement signed in October 2018. The Palestinian Authority also held Hamas responsible, although it stopped short of accusing the group of directly carrying it out.
