April 23, 2015 | Policy Brief

Hamas Triumphs in Election at Flagship West Bank University

April 23, 2015 | Policy Brief

Hamas Triumphs in Election at Flagship West Bank University

The Hamas-dominated Islamist Bloc emerged victorious in student elections at Birzeit University near Ramallah on Wednesday, defeating the secular Fatah faction – which had won all but one student election over the last decade – by a margin of 26 to 19. The surprise results at Birzeit – the Palestinians’ oldest university — are the only discernible manifestation of democratic elections in Palestinian politics today. Though Fatah won its student elections contests in other universities, some Palestinians will view the Birzeit election as a broader referendum on Hamas’s popularity in the Fatah-controlled West Bank.

Student groups have historically served as a springboard to positions of leadership in the Palestinian national movement. Indeed, to rise among the ranks in a Palestinian political party typically requires years of service rallying support on campuses across the West Bank and Gaza. The fact that Fatah – which dominates the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank – just lost an election to its arch-rival at a campus mere miles from Ramallah could be significant.

The fact that student elections now serve as a major event in the Palestinian political arena underscores how fractured the political system remains. The framework for the Fatah-Hamas reconciliation of 2014 included the formation of a unity government and a proposal for a new round of presidential and parliamentary elections. Since last summer’s war between Israel and Hamas, however, both Palestinian factions shifted their focus to reconstructing Gaza. But that reconstruction has stalled, with neither side willing to move past the blame game in order to prepare for elections. And now, with this week’s Hamas victory at one of the West Bank’s leading institutions, Fatah is not likely to rush to the polls.

The Birzeit election comes amid a crisis of confidence in the West Bank. Palestinian President and Fatah faction chief Mahmoud Abbas’ tepid diplomacy with Israel has failed, and it is unclear whether his strategy of internationalizing the Palestinian cause at the U.N. or the ICC will succeed. Meanwhile, the PA finance minister’s resignation and rumors that the prime minister might also follow suit are also destabilizing the leadership in Ramallah. A Hamas victory on a prominent West Bank campus – which its leaders have already hailed as a “message” to Fatah – will undoubtedly be viewed as a sign of further weakness.

For its part, Fatah has called for a task force to investigate the results. The task force, however, is unlikely to conclude what most Palestinians already know: that the Hamas-Fatah unity agreement exists on paper only, and that campuses may be the only safe space left for Palestinian democratic expression.

Grant Rumley is a research analyst at Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Follow him on Twitter: @GrantRumley

Issues:

Palestinian Politics