Barb O, with the Madison-Rafah Sister City group offers this:

By now you are probably all aware of the results of the Jan. 25 parliamentary elections in Palestine–a stunning victory for the Islamic Resistance Movement, or Hamas, and an equally stunning defeat for the Fatah party of President Mahmoud Abbas.

The elections have been hailed by ALL observers as a model of participatory democracy, with only minor irregularities reported and an overall voter turnout of 77 percent, and even higher in Gaza. (Rafah had one of the highest voter turnouts of all.) The actual results were:

Hamas won an outright majority and, although it has requested that Fatah join in the government in some capacity, it does not need any other party to form a government.

President Mahmud Abbas, a Fatah leader elected last year in a separate Presidential election, continues in office if he so chooses.

Hamas is considered a “terrorist” organization by the U.S., the E.U. and Israel , so there is great confusion as to what will be the consequences of these developments. An enormous contradiction is emerging between, on the one hand, the demand that Palestinians and other Arab peoples adopt western-style democracy and, on the other hand, western objections to the Palestinian people’s democratic choice. The U.S. and Israel are moving rapidly to cut off all revenues–both aid and taxes that Israel collects for the Palestinian Authority–in an obvious attempt to punish and bully the Palestinian society for choosing the “wrong” party .

The Madison-Rafah Sister City Project has issued the statement below on the elections. I have also attached a few very excellent background articles and commentaries on the election and its implications.

MRSCP has set up a special section at our website for additional articles.. Please visit www.Madisonrafah.org and click on “Palestinian Elections 2006” in the current issues section if you would like to read more.

We are also planning a series of educational discussions on the elections, both Palestinian and Israeli, as well as the significance of the “disengagement” from Gaza and the implications of these developments for our “people-to-people” efforts. These will be held on Sunday nights from 7-9 pm on the following days: Feb. 19, Feb. 26, and March 5. Further information will be forthcoming soon.

Finally, please mark your calendars for April 25-27, when Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi, human rights activist, former Palestinian presidential candidate and representative of one of the Independent groups which won parliamentary seats, will be visiting Madison. More details will be announced soon, or check our website.

As always, thank you for your support.

Barb O.
for MRSCP

ps–While the world focuses on the elections and the debate over Hamas, Israel has sealed off the Karni crossing, the only commercial outlet from Gaza to the world, for close to three weeks, causing incredible hardship for Palestinian farmers as their products are literally rotting in the fields and at the checkpoints at the height of harvest season. For a complete account, go to the following link: Gaza closure choking Palestinians.

______________________________________

Statement on the Palestinian National Council Elections by the Madison-Rafah Sister City Project

The Madison-Rafah Sister City Project (MRSCP) congratulates the Palestinian people on the successful completion of the recent legislative elections in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Despite the obstacles presented by the Israeli occupation including hundreds of checkpoints, the wall, and the Israeli army, voters turned out in huge numbers, with 77% of eligible Palestinians participating for the first time in genuinely competitive, multi-party Parliamentary elections.

A very large number of impartial Palestinian and international observers have concluded that the elections were fair, transparent and completed with only minor irregularities in spite of having been held under some of the most difficult conditions imaginable.

All parties who support democracy, whether inside or outside Palestine, are therefore obliged to respect the outcome of these elections regardless of their opinion as to the desirability of the results. In particular, as U.S. citizens, we call upon the U.S. government to conduct its relations with the people of Palestine on the basis of mutual respect for the democratic process.

We hope our representatives will resist the temptation to further isolate the people of the U.S. from the people of Palestine because they–or special interest groups whom they fear to offend–disagree with the Palestinian people’s democratic choice.

The Madison-Rafah Sister City Project is a non-partisan, humanitarian organization that takes no position regarding internal Palestinian politics and works exclusively to build “people-to-people” relationships with non-partisan, non-governmental and humanitarian partners on the Palestinian side. We are explicitly committed to non-violence and we oppose the use of violence to solve conflicts, whether from the Palestinian side or from the Israeli or U.S. side.

Only when Israel complies fully with international law, including returning all Palestinian lands occupied since the 1967 war, and stops its other illegal activities including assassinations, home demolitions, torture, collective punishment and construction of the “annexation wall”, will there be any way to bring a permanent end to the terrible cycle of violence between the Palestinian and Israeli peoples.

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