Palestinians: What Real Education Means
by Khaled Abu Toameh • February 16, 2021 at 5:00 am
The result of the 2006 election showed that a majority of Palestinians fully supported Hamas's call for ending corruption in the Palestinian Authority, imposing Islamic law and, most importantly, continuing the armed struggle against Israel.
Hamas does not recognize Israel's right to exist. It seeks to replace Israel with an Islamic state.
Palestinians did not buy Fatah's talk about ending corruption: they saw how Fatah's leaders had enriched themselves after the establishment of the Palestinian Authority in 1994, thanks to hundreds of millions of dollars that were lavished on them without a shred of accountability by the US, the European Union and other Western donors.
The reason that Fatah, unlike Hamas, did not talk about the "liberation of all of Palestine" or promise to launch an armed struggle against Israel is because its leaders were afraid that the US and EU would halt financial aid to the Palestinians.
Any Palestinian, like Fayyad, who runs in the election on a platform that talks about peace and coexistence with Israel will lose.
Real education starts at home, not necessarily in the classroom.... Palestinian leaders need to tell their people that Israel has the right to exist. They need to tell their people that peace and normalization is good not only for Israel, but also for the Palestinians. They need to tell their people that cooperation with Israel is better than boycotts.
Under the current circumstances, in which anti-Israel sentiments are at an extreme high, one wonders whether it is a good idea to proceed with the plan to hold new elections. They are certain only to strengthen the radical camp among Palestinians even further.
The last Palestinian parliamentary election, held on January 25, 2006, resulted in a victory for Hamas, the Islamist movement controlling the Gaza Strip. The next parliamentary election is scheduled to take place on May 15, 2021, although the parliament, known as the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) was elected for a four-year term.
The Hamas victory in 2006 triggered a bitter dispute with Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction, effectively paralyzing the PLC and creating two separate mini-states for the Palestinians -- one in the West Bank and another in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas won the 2006 vote mainly because its candidates ran as part of a list named Change and Reform Bloc.
