Israelis have focused on the domestic implications of the high turnout among Palestinian citizens of Israel in the latest election. How has the balance of power shifted? Who can form a government? How much influence can the Arab parties exercise?
But another consequence crossed the separation wall and deserves greater attention. In the West Bank and Gaza, millions of Palestinians watched their fellow Palestinians go to the polls and turn their votes into political power, while their own opportunity to choose their leaders had once again been taken away.
The achievement of Palestinian citizens of Israel, particularly young voters, should not be underestimated. They demonstrated that participation can overcome a sense of powerlessness. A public too often treated by politicians as a problem asserted itself as a force that cannot easily be ignored in determining who governs.
The election did not settle the identity of Israel’s next government. It did, however, deny Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc a majority and bring the two Arab-led lists unprecedented representation. That distinction matters: Preventing a government from renewing its majority is an electoral achievement; replacing it still requires a political struggle.
The greater message of the election
Yet the message reaching us was clearer than the complexities of coalition negotiations. The Palestinian citizen whom ministers such as National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir sought to marginalize and incite against possessed, on Election Day, a vote that counted just as much as Ben-Gvir’s.
Racism did not disappear. Equality in everyday life was not achieved. But the ballot gave that citizen a means of holding those in power accountable and influencing who might govern next.
On the other side of the wall, Palestinians lack even that instrument.
Palestinian participation in democratic politics is hardly confined to Israel. Palestinians and people of Palestinian origin have reached elected office in very different political systems: Rep. Rashida Tlaib in the United States, Layla Moran in Britain, Fares Al Soud in Canada, Basem Abdo in Australia, Muna Duzdar in Austria, and Rima Hassan, elected in France to the European Parliament.
This does not mean that Palestinians everywhere enjoy equal political rights. Many face exclusion and statelessness. But the contradiction remains painful: Where Palestinians have citizenship and the rights accompanying it, they can vote, stand for election, and help shape public decisions. In the land where they seek to establish their own state, they cannot renew their own national leadership.
The problem is not Palestinians’ capacity for democracy. It is a Palestinian political system that no longer allows them to practice it.
Palestinian elections must happen without delay
On October 10, the legislative election scheduled for November 28, 2026, was canceled, and simultaneous presidential and legislative elections were set for September 11, 2027. This followed roughly two decades without national elections and the cancellation of the planned vote in 2021. An entire generation has reached adulthood without choosing its president or representatives in the Palestinian Legislative Council.
When that generation watches celebrations in Sakhnin, Umm el-Fahm, Taybeh, and Kafr Kara, its question is not simply what Israel’s next government will do. It is also why fellow Palestinians there can influence their future while the doors to polling stations remain closed in Ramallah, Jenin, Hebron, Rafah, and Gaza.
That question will become harder for the Palestinian leadership to answer as the impact of voting across the wall becomes clearer.
The stated reasons for postponement include movement restrictions, catastrophic conditions in Gaza, and obstacles preventing election staff and observers from reaching certain areas. Whether these reasons reflect unavoidable obstacles or serve as excuses for further delay, those who postponed the election remain responsible for publishing a plan to overcome them. Waiting for circumstances to improve is not an electoral strategy.
If there are technical obstacles, the independent Central Elections Commission should identify them, explain what it needs, and present alternatives.
When all of this is reduced to a Palestinian decision to move the date further away, the practical result is continued government without a renewed mandate.
More dangerously, the absence of elections changes the nature of politics itself. When citizens cannot reward success or punish failure, competition for public trust gives way to competition for proximity to power. Officials face fewer consequences for their failures, while society bears the full cost.
Young Palestinians who are asked to reject violence and pursue peaceful political action are entitled to ask how that action can change their lives. We cannot tell them that politics offers a way forward while closing its most important avenue. Opening the ballot box gives peaceful participation credibility by allowing it to produce a result.
The demand to bring elections forward is a national demand that extends beyond the interests of competing electoral lists. It offers trade unions, universities, civil society organizations, women, and young people a common objective: an earlier election, a published timetable, guarantees for freedom to organize and campaign, and independent scrutiny at every stage.
I propose holding elections no later than the end of March 2027. Preparations should proceed with urgency, with practical arrangements to secure participation across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza. The electoral rights of an entire people should not remain indefinitely dependent on Israel’s approval of one particular set of arrangements.
Securing Gaza’s participation must be a priority in recovery and reconstruction. Its people have the right to choose those who speak in their name and make decisions about their future. That right belongs at the heart of rebuilding public life.
I call on parliamentarians of Palestinian origin around the world, including Palestinian members of the Israeli Knesset, to contribute to this effort by mobilizing support for free elections and helping secure international observation and technical assistance.
States that recognize Palestine have a responsibility here as well. Recognition of Palestinian statehood should be accompanied by support for the Palestinian people’s right to choose their own institutions.
For Palestinians, the deepest lesson of Israel’s election is that a public subjected to marginalization recovered some of its power through voting. That is a message our own society needs after years of war, division, and concentrated political authority.
We ask the world to recognize the Palestinian right to self-determination. The first requirement of that right is that Palestinians determine who represents them.
How can we ask our people to believe in their future state while denying them a voice in the institutions that already exist?