AL-MAZRAA, the West Bank In the spring, Hamas aims to get a big boost of support from Palestinians in the West Bank after a bloody 11-day fight with Israel that left many people dead. It will be one of the first tests this week to see if the militant group’s gains will last.
The vote for city councils and mayors is the first election in the West Bank in nearly five years. It comes at a time when there has been a lot of violence on the streets of the region, which has angered the Palestinian Authority, which is in charge here. Support for Hamas has risen because Palestinians are fed up with the party that runs the government, Fatah, because of corruption, public safety, and ties with Israel.
A 49-year-old man from a poor, rural village in the hills of the central West Bank says, “We need someone to take care of the roads, clean up the trash, and help plan the town.” Because they want our votes, we should ask for more.
Hamas, a group that has been called a terrorist organisation by both Israel and the United States, runs the Gaza Strip but mostly hides out in the West Bank, where it is boycotting the elections. As many as possible of these people are running, and they are seen as candidates for Hamas who aren’t on the Hamas side.
Gazan support for Hamas Aims to grew astronomically after the May conflict in which Hamas and Israel fired thousands of rockets at each other. The conflict came after a rise in tensions earlier this year. In both the West Bank and in Gaza, Palestinians praised Hamas’s will to fight against Israel, even though the violence killed 13 people in Israel and more than 250 in Gaza, even though Hamas was praised for its will. It’s been a little bit of a truce since.
People have been voting more for Hamas since then, and polls have shown that it has jumped ahead of Fatah by as many as 20%. When Hamas refused to share power with Fatah in 2007, they took over government offices in Gaza by force, killing and kicking out local Fatah politicians. Fatah hasn’t been happy about this for a long time.
After Hamas’s popularity rose in May, Israel became more alarmed, and in June, the new Israeli government took steps that were seen as strengthening the West Bank government and weakening Hamas’s grip on power, experts said.
However, there have been more and more public displays of support for Hamas in this area.
Thousands of people came out to see the funeral of a well-known Hamas member last month. Militants in full regalia held guns and Hamas flags in the air. People in the area who were loyal to Fatah quickly ordered the group’s flags to be lowered and fired security officers. This show shows how far Hamas has made in the West Bank.
Hamas’ green flags are still flying in small towns and villages across the West Bank, even though the government doesn’t want them. They are taped to telephone poles or painted on the walls of buildings.
The Palestinian Authority was set up more than 30 years ago as an interim mechanism for self-rule, but it is now often accused of authoritarianism. Many people think that supporting Hamas means that they don’t like the Palestinian Authority.
An election for Palestinian president has not been held since 2005, when it was last done In 2017, local elections were the last time they were held. Polls show that as many as 80% of people want the octogenarian Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, to step down.
A lot of Palestinians say that they don’t get basic services like trash collection or repairs for roads and sidewalks. There has also been a problem with the local justice system because there has been more violence on the streets.
He has been running a barbershop in Jenin, Palestine, since 1971. He has leather and chrome barber chairs from Egypt. He said that security has become a luxury for the rich and well-connected, which has made many West Bankers look to Gaza, where punishment is sometimes given out in public.
Mr. Abul-Hayyat said that even though they are in a bad situation, they have a system in place and are safe. In Gaza, the killer will be killed. In the West Bank, the killings happen in the daytime, and the crime will be solved over a cup of coffee.
The Palestinian Authority says it is committed to civil liberties, and that violations of rights are only a small number of times. The West Bank blames Israel for its economic problems and says that its military presence is a problem for local security forces because it makes it hard for them to do their jobs.
When the Palestinian Authority postponed presidential and legislative elections earlier this year, they said they were postponed because Israel wouldn’t let ballot boxes into the city of Jerusalem. Critics say the West Bank authorities pushed elections back because they didn’t want to lose to Hamas in front of the world.
Hamas itself says that it is becoming more powerful in the West Bank because it wants to keep things in order and isn’t afraid to fight back against Israel. A consulate that worked for Palestinians was closed by President Trump, who moved the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem and shut down the one that worked for Palestinians. Hamas, on the other hand, says that Israel is evicting Palestinian families from Jerusalem, which is their third-holiest city.
Khaled Alhaj, a member of Hamas, said that people trust Hamas because it promises to do something and then does it. Since he was released from prison in June, he has seen the popularity of Hamas rise in his home city of Jenin, where he was born.
“People want to fight back, and they like that Hamas fights and resists for them,” he said.
With violence on the rise, many people both in the United States and in Israel say that Palestinians have never felt as hopeless as they do now. They are squeezed by Israeli authorities, ignored by their own government, and mostly ignored by the rest of the world.
Minister for regional affairs Esawi Frej, who is one of the few Arabs in government, said: “The Palestinian Authority is on the verge of a complete breakup.” Isn’t able to do anything on the ground.
