Yes, Even Under Occupation

By Jerome Segal

There are many proposals for elections floating around. Prime Minister Shamir wants elections to select Palestinians who will administer the institutions of autonomy. Defense Minister Rabin is reported to favor elections to determine Palestinian partners for negotiations. And a year ago, shortly after the intifadah began, leading Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza identified free municipal elections as one of the steps that would create a climate within which a successful international conference could proceed.

Thus, the issue is not "elections: pro or con?" It is a matter of the kind of elections: Who is eligible to run? For what institutions or offices? Who initiates and supervises the process? What questions are on the ballot?

On moral grounds, people have a right to select their own leadership.

Broadly speaking, we should be positively inclined toward elections. On moral grounds, people have a right to select their own leadership. Elections are an aspect of the larger process of self-determination. Secondly, a democratic state of Palestine is not only desirable for its own sake; it is part of the foundation for a long-term peace between Israel and Palestine.

Palestinians should not allow themselves to be painted into the corner of being opposed to elections. It is important that any specific proposal not be rejected out of hand. Even under occupation, elections can play a useful role. Two ideas of particular merit are:

An internationally supervised referendum on whether or not West Bank and Gazan Palestinians wish to be represented by the PLO or another organization. Both the Israelis and the PLO should agree to abide by the results. If the PLO wins, it should appoint the specific individuals to compose a negotiating team. (Direct election of specific individuals to carry on negotiations is not a practice followed by any government in the world).

It is true that the Arab world has already decreed that the PLO is the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinians, but the value of such a referendum is that it would provide the world with a basis for reaching a determination on who legitimately represents the Palestinians. It might be a useful step in paving the way for Israeli recognition of the PLO and would certainly strengthen the case for recognition by the US.

Elections that are initiated by the Palestinians themselves. Just as the Palestinians proclaimed the existence of the state of Palestine without asking for Israeli permission, it is possible for them similarly to announce elections without permission and confront the Israeli authorities with a choice: either they allow democratic Palestinian forms to emerge or they take the opprobrium that goes with attacking people who have lined up to cast a ballot.

Several types of unilaterally proclaimed elections might be desirable: a referendum of the sort discussed above; elections to municipal offices; or elections within the national structure of the Palestinian state (either to a future Palestinian Parliament or to the Palestine National Council).

Elections are an essential source of legitimacy, and they are a universally powerful symbol. Palestinians should identify the kind of elections that they do favor, and they then should push ahead with them.

Jerome Segal is a research scholar at the Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy at the University of Maryland. He is the author of Creating the Palestinian State—A Strategy for Peace (Lawrence Hill Books),- available through AET.