From Election Postponement to National Salvation: Towards a Roadmap to Restore the Palestinian Initiative
The article calls for a Palestinian national salvation roadmap, starting from the crisis of election postponement and the absence of mechanisms for renewing legitimacy. It demands a time-bound national dialogue, the formation of a national unity government with a comprehensive mandate to govern the West Bank and Gaza, and the rebuilding of the National Council. It criticizes unilateral decision-making and calls for restoring the Palestinian initiative in the face of the Israeli project.
In an opinion article in Al-Ittihad newspaper, writer Jamal Zaqout analyzes the crisis of postponing Palestinian elections and calls for a national salvation roadmap. The writer sees that postponing elections is not a passing measure but reflects a deeper crisis characterized by the absence of binding mechanisms for renewing legitimacy and unilateral decision-making. He criticizes previous dialogues that lasted for years without implementation and demands an urgent dialogue with a binding timeline, based on the Beijing Declaration issued on July 23, 2024. The article calls for forming a national unity government with a specific executive mandate to manage the affairs of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, undertake immediate relief, reconstruction, and unify institutions. It also calls for forming a new preparatory committee for the National Council that includes factions and independent figures. The article points to the importance of the role of leader Marwan Barghouti in building national consensus. The writer concludes that what is required is to transform consensus into binding rules that prevent unilateralism and ensure institutions are subject to popular accountability, and to restore the Palestinian initiative.