President Mahmoud Abbas: Do Not Rescind Your Most Popular Decision or Extinguish the Last Glimmer of Hope
By: Samer Sinjilawi
“New Path” (Masar Jadeed) List for the Legislative Elections
Voices within the Palestinian leadership are increasingly calling for the postponement of the legislative elections scheduled for this coming November 28, citing complex realities and difficult circumstances. Yet, on the other hand, millions of Palestinians cling to the glimmer of hope ignited by the presidential decree calling for elections to be held on schedule.
Allow me to be the voice of all those unable to make their voices heard by you: the voice of the youth awaiting a chance to shape their own future; the women demanding their rightful place in public life; the people of Gaza seeking an end to war and destruction; and the people of the West Bank, Jerusalem, and the diaspora who have grown weary of division, stagnation, and a lack of influence.
Since the decision to hold elections was announced, nearly two million Palestinians—representing close to 90% of eligible voters—have responded with great hope and registered to participate. While opinion polls may indicate that a vast majority of Palestinians (nearly 80%) disapprove of the incumbent Authority’s policies and demand change, another fact is equally clear: the overwhelming majority of our people stand firmly behind your decision to hold the elections on schedule.
This may well be the most popular decision—garnering the greatest public support—of your entire political and national career. It is not because it guarantees a specific outcome for any particular party, but rather because it restores the decision-making power to the people, granting them the right to choose their representatives, hold them accountable, and renew their mandate.
Holding elections is neither a mere administrative procedure nor a routine protocol in the life of a political system. It is a historic event capable of uniting a people torn apart by long-standing division, revitalizing Palestinian politics, and opening the doors of its institutions to new blood and to generations long denied the opportunity to participate.
History will record that you were the president who made this decision during one of the most difficult and complex phases of the Palestinian cause. You will be the president who addresses the newly elected Legislative Council at its inaugural session and tasks it with forming a new government—a national unity government we have long lacked; a government that will undertake the reconstruction of Gaza and restore human dignity to its people, who are bracing for a third winter amidst tents and rubble.
Palestinians need a government that offers more than mere slogans: a government that improves their lives, protects their rights, restores global confidence in them, paves the way for financial and political relief, and rebuilds their institutions on the foundations of the rule of law, accountability, and popular legitimacy.
You have recently succeeded in overseeing local elections and enabling the Fatah movement to hold its conference and elect its Central Committee; the Fatah youth movement was also given the opportunity to elect its own leadership. I was one of those young members when I first met you after your return to Ramallah in the 1990s. Just as those previous milestones succeeded, you are capable of safeguarding the most important milestone and bringing it to fruition on schedule. As for the influential voices currently advising a postponement of the elections—citing prevailing circumstances and striving to propose alternative scenarios and “Plan B” options—they are, in many instances, the very same voices that offered this same counsel in 2021. The elections were indeed postponed back then, yet none of the promised alternatives materialized. While the Palestinian “Plan B” amounted to nothing more than empty promises and delays, other plans were being hatched out of sight—plans that ultimately exploded in all our faces on October 7, 2023, exacting a catastrophic price from our people.
The most dangerous course of action today would be to repeat that same mistake: abandoning the political process without offering a credible democratic alternative, thereby allowing the void to widen until it is filled by forces of extremism, chaos, and violence. For when ballot boxes are closed, the doors to despair are thrown open, and…
التاريخ 13-9-2026
