Freies Politikforum für Demokraten und Anarchisten

palestina libera · Beiträge: 1665

As Palestinians in the Occupied Territories begin preparations for local elections which are scheduled for next October, division and factionalism are rearing their ugly head.

Palestinian political platforms and social media are abuzz with self-defeating propaganda: Fatah supporters attacking Hamas’ alleged failures, and Hamas’ supporters doing the same.

What is conveniently overlooked by all sides is that the performance of Palestinian municipalities is almost entirely irrelevant in the greater scheme of things.

In the West Bank, local councils are governed by strict Israeli-PA arrangement. Aside from very few chores, village and town councils cannot operate without a green light: an endorsement from the Palestinian Authority itself conditioned on a nod from the Israeli Occupation authorities.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/08/11/divide-and-rule-how-factionalism-in-palestine-is-killing-prospect-for-freedom/

Hamas, Fatah no longer the only candidates in Palestinian elections
This is the first time that left-wing factions run in Palestinian elections as part of a unified list. In the previous Palestinian legislative elections in 2006 these factions ran in separate lists, such as the list of Martyr Abu Ali Mustafa affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the Alternative list affiliated with the coalition of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), the Palestinian Democratic Union (FIDA), the Palestinian People’s Party (PPP) and the Independent Palestine list affiliated with the Palestinian National Initiative (PNI).

In a July 28, 2015, interview with a PFLP-affiliated website, Kayed al-Ghul, a member of the PFLP's political bureau, said, “The five left-wing factions — the PFLP, DFLP, PPP, FIDA and PNI — agreed to form a unified list consisting of figures affiliated with the democratic current to participate in the Oct. 8 local council elections.”
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/08/palestine-left-wing-united-local-council-elections-october-8.html

The race to replace Abbas: Jordan, Egypt push Palestinian succession plans

Jordan and Egypt have been contacting Fatah officials to begin planning for the era that will follow the leadership of current Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Middle East Eye can confirm.

Confirmation from Palestinian and diplomatic sources comes after MEE revealed the existence of a plan by Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt that would see Abbas’s Fatah arch rival Mohammed Dahlan oust him.
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/succession-abbas-dahlan-jordan-egypt-pa-palestinian-rjoub-2055273061

Is Gaza facing an opioid epidemic?

Addiction to Tramadol, a drug that affects the central nervous system and is used primarily to treat severe pain, is yet another symptom of the plight that so many Gazans face after nine years of living under closure, since June 2007. It appears that abusing Tramadol has become a way of dealing with the absence of any hope for change in the foreseeable future.
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/08/tramadol-gaza-strip-pain-killer-siege-israel-hamas.html

Islamic Jihad takes drug enforcement into own hands in Gaza

the Islamic Jihad’s military wing, Al-Quds Brigades, released a video claiming to show that it had raided a number of drug stashes and seized large quantities of the narcotic Tramadol in Rafah, in southern Gaza. Tramadol is an opioid painkiller that has become popular in Gaza over the past nine years and has been smuggled through tunnels on the Egyptian-Gaza border.
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/05/gaza-islamic-jihad-seizes-tramadol-drugs.html#