Making sense of Palestine’s local elections

Palestinians in Gaza have voted in an election for the first time in 20 years, some for the first time in their lives. Municipal elections took place last week across the West Bank but in only a single neighbourhood in the strip that had been less impacted by Israel’s two-year war. The inclusion of Gaza has been described as a mostly symbolic gesture by the Palestinian Authority to demonstrate there is political unity between the two territories. But the enclave remains in dire shape, with masses living in tents and amid rubble. Global attention has shifted to the Iran war, stalling reconstruction efforts promised under the terms of the ceasefire. In the West Bank, Israeli settlement expansions and land-grab policies are intensifying despite condemnations from the international community. The question is, how effective are local polls in the middle of these crises and could they serve as a litmus test for potential legislative elections, which have not been held since 2006? In this episode of Beyond the Headlines, host Nada AlTaher examines the political dynamics behind these elections and asks whether they could lead to any tangible change for the Palestinian people. She speaks to Abdaljawad Omar, writer and assistant professor at Birzeit University north of Ramallah, and Hamza Hendawi, The National’s correspondent in Cairo.