The Palestinian Authority (PA) has issued a decree to hold legislative elections next November, with presidential elections to follow at the beginning of next year. It is worth noting that this is not the first time the PA has announced elections, preoccupied the public, and then canceled them. This is because the decision to hold elections is not in its hands, but rather in the hands of America and the Jewish entity. Without their approval and sponsorship, there will be no elections, just as happened with the local (municipal) bodies’ elections.

Ironically, the Palestinian Authority portrays the elections as a right that will achieve something for the people of Palestine, while in reality, they are a mirage that the thirsty mistake for water. The undeniable truth is that the PA’s dark record will not be whitewashed by ballots cast under American sponsorship.

The elections announced by the Palestinian Authority are not a "national democratic" right, as it claims; they are far from it. The PA does not act in the interests of the people of Palestine; rather, it is the PA that has betrayed them and their cause, burdened them, and plunged them into misery and hardship.

These elections, if they are held and concluded, are nothing more than a requirement for "reform" dictated to the PA. European countries have demanded that it undertake "reforms" in various areas, including "political reform," after its own backers pointed to its corruption. Elections are among these reforms. Trump's 20-point plan also stipulated "reform," through statement that conditions might finally be available for a credible path toward Palestinian self-determination "when the Palestinian Authority's reform program is implemented faithfully." As for the PA, it is an opportunity to renew its eroded "legitimacy," which has been riddled with corruption and reached the point of public contempt, and to reaffirm its dependence on its backers.

These elections were not designed to bring about change, as they claim. Rather, they were designed to involve the PA with others, dragging the people of Palestine and with them the factions in the name of elections, into the lizard’s hole they entered in Oslo and the calamities that emerged from it, and to bear with them the burden of failure that will be repeated, and betrayals that may pass, and to ensure readiness for any stage that requires more concessions and downfall. Especially since it had stipulated in a previous law, as an electoral condition, that the candidates recognize the PLO agreements and they abide by its obligations. That is, it stipulates on them the path of surrender, betrayal, concession and failure that it took, under which the people of Palestine tasted its bitterness and under which their cause was lost, and it is no secret that this is a great sin in the sight of Allah and participation in the crime, whether by candidacy or election.

On the ground, on what and where will the Palestinian Authority establish its "legislative authority," and on which land, when it has been devoured by settlement outposts and the bulldozers of the entity?! And over which people, when they are crushed by killing, pursued by hunger, and haunted by plans of displacement?! An Authority that does not provide employees with their rights, under a systematic policy of destroying educational and health institutions, and is even incapable of providing relief to a house besieged by settlers, or opening a road blocked by one of their herds with stones, and does not have any control over a water tap! So, what kind of sovereignty, will, and elections will the PA conduct under the “boots” and guns of the occupation?!

In conclusion, the people of Palestine must beware of participating in these elections, individually and collectively, as candidates and voters, for wherever they turn them, they find evil in their corners. The first evil is acknowledging the crime of surrendering Palestine and implicitly participating in the great betrayal committed by the PLO. The second evil is separating the cause of Palestine from its Islamic doctrinal dimension. The third, but not the least, evil is following in the footsteps of those who slaughtered the people of Gaza and aided in their slaughter, and who continue to besiege them, disarm them, and hand them over to the Jews under the name of the Peace Council. The matter is greater than mere absurdity and distractions; rather, it is a crime that brings nothing but sin and the stigma of shame upon its perpetrator, and from which no good is gained in this world, but rather disgrace and regret on the Day of Resurrection.