Milan (AsiaNews) – Two new political movements have emerged in Palestinian and Israeli politics set to face an electoral challenge that could prove decisive for the future of the region. Both are embarking on a “new path" that can put decades of conflict, violence, and jihadi terrorism behind in order to build a world where there is truly a place for everyone.
Their starting point is a common goal, “dialogue”, to overcome divisions, breathing new life to the two-state solution, long relegated to the margins of the international political agenda and domestic debate.
How Israel’s Makom Lekulanu (A place for all of us), and Palestine’s Masar Jadid (New Path), will fare on 27 October and 28 November respectively will be decisive. The Israeli party includes Yonatan Zeigen, son of pacifist Vivian Silver, one of the victims of Hamas on 7 October 2023. The Palestinian party is led by Samer Sinjlawi, and will take part in the first Palestinian election in nearly 20 years.
A path to peace
Sinjlawi and his Masar Jadid party plan to run in the November election to reshape the political life of the region.
“We need to go into a new path,” he told AsiaNews, because the “old strategy, the old narratives, the old way of thinking, the old way of handling relations internally and externally is a broken strategy. We need something new. So, that's why we picked the name New Path.”
This represents a break with the past, but also the present, as evinced by the principles that inspire the party.
“Basically, we need to respect democracy, we need to respect accountability, [. . .] in the way we manage our internal issues,” he said. “The Palestinians need to go to the election boxes every four years. We need to respect this,” but this has not happened in two decades.
“If we are not able to respect internally the individual rights of each Palestinian, how can a leadership claim to have the agency to represent the collective rights of the Palestinian in front of others?”
“So, we start with respecting internal rights: freedom of speech, democracy, accountability. We need to show that we can build a system that is not corrupt.”
A key aspect of the new movement, an alternative to Abbas's old Fatah party (and Hamas, and its armed struggle), is the desire to set up an independent Palestinian state that lives in peace alongside its neighbours, including Israel, one that can cooperate economically, politically, diplomatically, on security matters, with a view to regional stability.
Women, youth, ordinary people, and civil society groups will play a central role, and will not be just symbols and slogans. The foundations of the future state are based on the so-called "4Ds": demilitarised, de-radicalised, democratic (respectful of civil rights), and developed.
Sinjlawi backs a two-state solution based on the 4 June 1967, borders and territorial link between Gaza and the West Bank, with East Jerusalem as the future capital.
Finally, regional cooperation and full diplomatic relations will be central, combined with the rejection of violence as a political tool.
“I am the head of this party,” Sinjlawi said. “But we have now a preparatory committee that will organise a founding congress for the party. We will vote for our leadership. It is a very modern, very transparent party.”
Israel and Palestine must talk
Sinijlawi is a former member of Fatah and chair of the Jerusalem Development Fund. Born on 1 August 1972, in the Old City, he graduated in business administration from Beir Zeit University and earned a master's degree in conflict resolution from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
At 15, he ended up in an Israeli prison, where he spent the next five years. After his release, he was elected head of the Fatah Youth. Over time, he held several prominent positions within the party, gaining international visibility (and credibility).
Today, he is a leading critic of Mahmoud Abbas, and founded a new party to reform Palestinian institutions along democratic lines, and promote the values of dialogue and coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians.
The only high-profile Palestinian politician to have visited the Gaza border area after the 7 October massacre, he is openly critical of Hamas.
His editorials have appeared in The New York Times, Newsweek, Le Figaro, The Toronto Star, The Atlantic, Israel Hayom, The Jerusalem Post, and Haaretz, among others.
“For us Palestinians,” it is important, “if we are able to provide hope to the public, if we are able to show that there is a leadership that can make the past stop every morning and see today is going to be better than yesterday, because now they wake up and they feel that today is going to be worse than yesterday.”
Dialogue “is a must. We need to focus on it. The more we are engaged with the Israelis, the more we can convince Israeli public opinion to support certain political horizons.”
For him, this can happen “only by building bridges, by reaching out to the other side, by engaging in dialogue with the Israelis, communicating with the Israeli media, with Israeli academia, with the Israeli public, with the political parties, with the different intellectual leaders”.
“We need to show Israel that it's time now to change direction, for both of us. The confrontation and war did not help anybody. It's time now for diplomacy. It's time now for searching common ground,” and to do this, international aid is also needed, but Italy, France or Germany, to name just a few countries, have not helped so far.
In Israel, too, some political movements have emerged that seek dialogue and renewed relations with the Palestinians, that oppose the violent, fanatical, and radical shift imposed by the government of Binyamin Netanyahu and his far-right ministers.
“We need to focus on” dialogue. “The more we are engaged with the Israelis, the more we can convince the Israeli public opinion to support certain political horizons.”
He has little to say about the future of incumbent leaders and does not know what might happen politically and personally to Marwan Barghouti, who has been in Israeli prisons for almost 25 years. “I have no idea if he will form a list for the election, if he will form a party, if he will stay in Fatah.”
What counts, which he repeats like a mantra, is “reaching out to the other side” to be the “acceptable voice” for Palestinians vis-à-vis the Israelis. “Why do we need to convince the whole world? If I can convince the Israelis, then I will have the support of the whole world.”
Monitoring the vote
The Palestinian elections on 28 November are not without critical issues and tensions, so much so that Sinijlawi has called for close monitoring and protection by the international community. Since “we have a date for the election now” we must ensure that the elections “actually take place and are not cancelled."
He hopes that they will be " free and fair," but warns of the dangers of interference by Palestinian intelligence, other parties, and candidates, who could ultimately undermine the vote.
“Now my own party, Masar Jadid, the new party, we have had a lot of disturbance from Palestinian intelligence. They are calling in people for interrogation, trying to block activities. [. . .] we are not allowed to be active until we register the list, which is only four weeks before the election. This is not fair since Fatah now is doing all the campaigning they need, four months ahead” of the vote.
Despite the difficulties, the commitment to a new page remains. Support for Hamas and Abbas is down. Palestinians are tired of the destruction Hamas brought to Gaza and the corruption under Abbas in the West Bank.
About “60 per cent of the Palestinians are looking for something else”, seeking new faces who “are more suitable, reflecting their needs and their hopes and their thoughts. So, it is going to be a very interesting election. And you know we are doing this election just around 30 days after the Israeli elections.”
With respect to Israel’s parliamentary election on 27 October, the Palestinian activist notes that “changes” are taking place there too, citing a post on social media by Yair Golan, the leader of the Democrats, who mentions 100,000 members registered for the party primaries.
“His party had less than 50,000 members when he took the leadership. So, he doubled the party in two years,” which “shows that Israelis are also desperate for a change.”
Addressing demands on both sides would usher in a "historic" phase in which "certain political horizons" would be overturned, bringing the word "diplomacy" back to the centre of the debate, rather than weapons.
Finally, for Sinjlawi, Palestinian society is going through a decisive phase. In his view, Palestinians are fed up, “looking for a better future,” seeking “job opportunities, quality of health services, quality of education services. They want to be connected and respected.” They don’t want to deal with “1,200 [Israeli] checkpoints.”
“In Gaza, there are two million people living in plastic tents. Palestinians are desperate to see a way out of this catastrophe. And I think it's a lack of leadership. We never had a leadership that is capable to provide solutions and options.”
When they vote on 28 November, Palestinians “will be looking for leadership they can trust. It can better their lives. And they will vote for it.”
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