Palestinian factions including Fatah and Hamas agreed to hold a “national dialogue” before legislative elections in November, as a source told AFP on Thursday that they were seeking to postpone the vote.
Palestinian legislative elections are due to take place on November 28, a month after Israel’s own general election, but many Palestinians expect them to be postponed or cancelled, as happened in 2021.
If they go ahead, they will be the first in two decades.
“At the kind invitation of the Arab Republic of Egypt… a meeting was held with our brothers in Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the Popular Front” on Wednesday, Jibril Rajoub, secretary general of Fatah’s central committee and head of its national dialogue delegation, told AFP.
“Next week, a dialogue will take place. It will continue and evolve into a comprehensive national dialogue to reach common ground on political issues regarding a fully sovereign Palestinian state on the territories occupied in 1967.”
Rajoub did not specify the date of the meeting.
A source who took part in the meeting confirmed to AFP that “the four factions agreed on the necessity and importance of holding a comprehensive national dialogue session involving all factions and forces”.
The source added that “an agreement was reached to submit a recommendation to president Mahmoud Abbas and the PLO Executive Committee to postpone the elections, in order to allow time for national dialogue and Palestinian consensus”.
Fatah rivals including Hamas and the Democratic Reform Current, a Fatah splinter group, have said they aimed to create joint lists for the election.
An August poll by the Jerusalem Media and Communication Centre found that only 29 percent of Palestinians expected the November election to go ahead as scheduled.
The last legislative elections in the Palestinian territories were held in 2006, when Islamist movement Hamas won. They defeated Fatah, which dominates the Palestinian Authority in charge of areas of the West Bank.
As a result, the Palestinian Legislative Council, which is the PA’s parliament, has not met since 2007.
Abbas stayed on beyond the end of his term in 2009 and has since ruled by decree.
