1976 West Bank local elections

Last updated

Local elections were held in the West Bank on 12 April 1976, on the order of Israeli military authorities and under the 1955 Jordanian municipal elections law. About 63,000 voters cast their ballot, a voter turnout of 72.3%. [1] The result was a victory for supporters of the Palestine Liberation Organization. [2]

Contents

Background

The holding of elections was the idea of Shimon Peres, who hoped to establish moderate local leadership in the West Bank that would accept his idea of autonomy. [2]

Electoral system

The elections were held under an amended version of the 1955 Jordanian electoral law, which granted the right to vote to all Palestinians over the age of 21, [2] the law having previously restricted the franchise to male property owners. [3] [4] The changes in the franchise were opposed by Jordan, citing the Fourth Geneva Convention, which stated that an occupying power should maintain the status quo in any occupied territories", although the PLO supported the reform. [5]

Results

The elections saw a change in demographic of the elected politicians; 67% were under 50 compared to 40% in the 1972 elections. [6] The proportion of white-collar workers also increased from 20% to 40%. [6] Fourteen of the 24 elected mayors were new to office. [5]

CityElected mayor
Beit Jala Bshara Daoud
Beit Sahour Hanna Atrash
Bethlehem Elias Freij
al-Bireh Ibrahim Taweel
Gaza Rashad al-Shawa
Halhul Mohammed Milhim
Hebron Fahd Qawasmi
Jenin Ahmed Camal A Sadi
Jericho Abdul Aziz Swaiti
Nablus Bassam Shakaa
Qalqilya Amin Nasser
Ramallah Karim Khalaf
Tulkarm Hilmi Hanoun
Source: Lukacs, [6] JTA, [3] ARIJ [5]

Reactions

The election results shocked the Israeli government. Peres's initial statement, the night of the results, was that "This is not a day of mourning for Israel. I see it as a national challenge with which we will now have to grapple," however, he warned the newly elected candidates against using their position to speak on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. [7] Minister of Welfare Zevulun Hammer, on the other hand, claimed that the election "proves that if we return the West Bank to Jordan or so‐called moderates, it will pass immediately —in a matter of hours—into the hands of the P.L.O." [7] Infighting over the election would soon develop within the cabinet, with other ministers, particularly Minister of Foreign Affairs Yigal Allon, accusing Peres of having failed to predict the nationalist victory and accusing Peres of sabotaging plans to gradually cultivate a pro-Israeli local leadership in the West Bank. [8]

Elected Mayor of Ramallah Karim Khalaf said of the results, "Could the message be more clear? The vote shows the whole world that the West Bankers are Palestinians who want to establish their own national entity and put an end to the Israeli occupation." [7]

Aftermath

The election of nationalist mayors and city council in 1976 would become a significant flashpoint in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

In May 1980, following a Fatah attack that killed six yeshiva students, the Israeli government arrested and deported Mayor of Halhul Mohammed Milhim and Mayor of Hebron Fahd Qawasmi for being members of the PLO Executive Committee. The two mayors were not implicated in the attack. [9] [10] In June 1980, extremists Israeli settlers attempted to assassinate three of the mayors, resulting in Shakaa losing both his legs and Mayor of Ramallah Karim Khalaf losing one leg. [11] [12] Later that year, the Israeli government announced that it would indefinitely block further local elections from being held in Palestine, claiming that further elections would "cause damage to the peace process." [13]

In March 1982, the Israeli government ordered the city council of Al-Bireh immediately disbanded and mayor Ibrahim Tawil removed from his post, accusing them of refusing to cooperate with the Israeli Civil Administration. [14] A week later, the government ordered Mayor of Nablus Bassam Shakaa and Mayor of Ramallah Karim Khalaf immediately expelled from their positions, accusing them of "general agitation, nonrecognition of the Israeli civil administration, and repeated attempts to disrupt public order." [15] The expulsions of the three mayors triggered one of the largest outbreaks of Palestinian unrest since the start of the Israeli occupation in 1967. [16] [17]

More elected Palestinian mayors and city councils would be expelled later in 1982. On 30 April, the Israeli government ordered the dismissal of Anabta Mayor Wahid Hamdallah, citing alleged security violations. [18] On 15 June, it ordered the disbanding of the Nablus and Dura city councils, accusing the councils of supporting the PLO. [19] On 6 July, Mayor of Jenin Shawki Mahmoud, citing a refusal to meet with Civil Administration head Menahem Milson. [20] On 9 July, Mayor of Gaza City Rashad al-Shawwa. Al-Shawwa, widely considered a moderate, and the Gaza City council had refused to work in the city hall since the general strike, working from home instead in a symbolic protest, and had refused to sign an order from the Israeli military forbidding them from making political statements. [21] On 14 July, Mayor of Deir Dibwan Rashid Hijazi, the eighth Palestinian mayor to be forcibly dismissed in five months, with Israeli officials claiming that Hijazi had led a work slowdown since the general strike. [22]

Related Research Articles

The Golan Heights Law is the Israeli law which applies Israel's government and laws to the Golan Heights. It was ratified by the Knesset by a vote of 63–21, on 14 December 1981. Although the law did not use the term, it was considered by the international community and some members of the Israeli opposition as an annexation of the territory and illegitimate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bassam Shakaa</span> Palestinian mayor

Bassam Shakaa was mayor of Nablus from 1976 to 1982.

Akram Haniyah was a Palestinian journalist and Fatah member. He served as editor-in-chief of the Palestinian newspaper al-Ayyam. He also served as an advisor to Yasir Arafat and a member of the Palestinian delegation to the 2000 Camp David Summit.

Karim Hanna Sama'an Khalaf was a Palestinian attorney and politician who served as the mayor of Ramallah from 1972 to 1982.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine</span> Palestinian Marxist–Leninist organization

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine is a secular Palestinian Marxist–Leninist and revolutionary socialist organization founded in 1967 by George Habash. It has consistently been the second-largest of the groups forming the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the largest being Fatah.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1980 Hebron attack</span> Terrorist massacre of Jews in 1980

On 2 May 1980, six Jews – three Israelis, two American Israelis, and one Canadian – were killed, and another 20 Jews were injured at 7:30 pm on a Friday night as they returned home from Sabbath prayer services at the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron. Five of the six killed were yeshiva students aged 20–21. They were attacked with gunfire and grenades from the rooftops around a small alley.

Zafer al-Masri was the Israel-appointed Mayor of Nablus, for a brief period of two months. He had taken office in January 1986 as mayor in Nablus, the largest Arab town in the West Bank to replace an Israeli army officer who had served as an Israeli-appointed administrator for Nablus for the previous four years (1982-1986) after the removal of Bassam Shakaa the former elected Arab mayor of Nablus in 1982 for the latter's pro-PLO positions.

Hilmi Hanoun was a Palestinian businessman, journalist and politician. He served as the mayor of Tulkarem between 1963 and 1998.

Fahd Qawasmi (1934–1984) was a Palestinian agricultural engineer and a member of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). He was the mayor of Hebron between 1976 and 1980. During his tenure he was among the most significant mayors of Palestine along with Hilmi Hanoun, mayor of Tulkarm, and Karim Khalaf, mayor of Ramallah. Qawasmi was expelled by the Israeli government from Palestine due to the killing of six yeshiva students during the conflict between the settlers and the Palestinians in Beit Hadassah, Hebron, in 1980. He was assassinated by the Fatah opponent groups in Amman, Jordan, on 29 December 1984.

The June 1980 West Bank bombings were a series of bombings carried out by Israeli settlers against Palestinian mayors of West Bank cities on 2 June 1980. Three car bombs were detonated, severely wounding the mayors of Nablus and Ramallah.

The December 1986 Birzeit University protests were a series of protests led by students at Birzeit University in the West Bank in December 1986.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spring 1987 West Bank unrest</span> Period of unrest in the Palestinian West Bank

The Spring 1987 West Bank unrest was a period of heightened unrest in the Palestinian West Bank from mid-March to mid-April 1987. The period was marked by a series of interconnected events, including a hunger strike by Palestinians in Israeli custody, the killing of Israeli settler Ofra Moses by Palestinian militants, anti-Palestinian riots by Israeli settlers, and the forced closure of the Palestinian Birzeit University.

The November–December 1981 Palestinian protests were a wave of protests and unrest across the Occupied Palestinian Territories in late 1981 over moves by the Israeli government to impose an Israeli civilian administration on the territories. A wave of widespread protests first broke out in the West Bank in November 1981, followed by a two-week general strike in the Gaza Strip in December.

The March 1982 Palestinian general strike was a general strike and wave of protests in Palestine and Israel in March 1982, in opposition to the forced dismissals of Palestinian city councils and mayors.

Birzeit University in Palestine was forcibly closed by the Israeli military fifteen times between 1973 and 1992.

The Palestinian Village Leagues were a group of rural leadership organisations in the Palestinian West Bank active between 1978 and 1984. Based on clan structures, the Village Leagues were created and armed with Israeli support as part a framework in which the Israeli government believed it could undermine the influence of the more urban, nationalist, and left-wing Palestine Liberation Organization. Widely considered among the Palestinian population as inauthentic and as collaborators, the Village Leagues were ultimately dissolved less than a decade after their creation.

Elections to the student council of Birzeit University are a high profile moment in Palestinian politics each year.

In April 1976, the far-right Israeli ultranationalist movement Gush Emunim held a two-day march through the occupied Palestinian West Bank. 20 000 Gush Emunim supporters participated in the march, proclaiming their right to settle in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The march triggered counter-protests by Palestinians, during which one Palestinian was killed by the Israeli military.

The May 1976 Palestinian unrest was a wave of unrest that broke out across the Occupied Palestinian Territories in May 1976. The wave began with demonstrations on 1 May to mark International Workers' Day, during which one Palestinian protestor was killed. The wave was followed by demonstrations against the Israeli occupation during the Israeli Independence Day celebrations, and a bombing by Palestinian militants in Jerusalem on 3 May to try and disrupt the celebrations that injured around thirty people, mostly with light injuries. The wave of unrest continued through mid-May, when three Palestinian protestors demonstrating against still-in-effect curfews were killed by Israeli forces in three days between 16 and 18 May.

References

  1. ↑ "Pro-plo, Communist Sweep in West Bank Elections: 72.3% of Eligible Voters. Including Women, Participate". Jewish Telegraphic Agency . 13 April 1976.
  2. 1 2 3 Yehuda Lukacs (1999) Israel, Jordan, and the Peace Process, Syracuse University Press, p141
  3. 1 2 Pro-plo, Communist Sweep in West Bank Elections: 72.3% of Eligible Voters. Including Women, Particip JTA, 13 April 2013
  4. ↑ "Background Information the West Bank Elections". Jewish Telegraphic Agency . 12 April 1976. Retrieved 25 January 2025.
  5. 1 2 3 40 Years of Israeli Occupation Applied Research Institute - Jerusalem
  6. 1 2 3 Lukacs, p144
  7. 1 2 3 "MILITANTS SCORE SWEEPING VICTORY IN WEST BANK VOTE". The New York Times . 14 April 1976. Retrieved 25 January 2025.
  8. ↑ "Recriminations in Cabinet over Elections on the West Bank". Jewish Telegraphic Agency . 6 May 1976. Retrieved 24 January 2025.
  9. ↑ Lukacs, p145
  10. ↑ Rubin, Trudy (9 May 1980). "Ousting of Arab mayors was blow for Palestine talks". The Christian Science Monitor . Retrieved 25 January 2025.
  11. ↑ Claiborne, William (3 June 1980). "Terrorist Bombs Maim 2 Mayors On West Bank". The Washington Post. Retrieved 14 October 2024.
  12. ↑ Shipler, David K. (3 June 1980). "3 WEST BANK BOMBS MAIM TWO MAYORS; JEWS ARE SUSPECTED; A THIRD ARAB OFFICIAL IS SAFE". The New York Times. Retrieved 14 October 2024.
  13. ↑ "Municipal Elections on the West Bank Postponed Indefinitely". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. 23 July 1980. Retrieved 14 October 2024.
  14. ↑ "The West Bank military government, in an unprecedented move..." United Press International . 18 March 1982. Retrieved 28 December 2024.
  15. ↑ Claiborne, William (26 March 1982). "Israel Fires 2 Mayors in West Bank". The Washington Post. Retrieved 7 October 2024.
  16. ↑ Claiborne, William (27 March 1982). "Israeli Campaign Marks Turning Point in West Bank Relations". The Washington Post. Retrieved 7 October 2024.
  17. ↑ Drysdale, John (27 March 1982). "Israelis in a colonial bind". The Straits Times . Retrieved 28 December 2024.
  18. ↑ "Arab Woman Wounded in Shooting Incident: Another West Bank Mayor is Removed from Office". Jewish Telegraphic Agency . 3 May 1982. Retrieved 28 December 2024.
  19. ↑ "Israel disbands two West Bank city councils". United Press International . 16 June 1982. Retrieved 28 December 2024.
  20. ↑ "West Bank Mayor Ousted by Israelis". The New York Times . 7 July 1982. Retrieved 28 December 2024.
  21. ↑ Shipler, David K. (10 July 1982). "Palestinian Mayor of Gaza Is Dismissed by the Israelis". The New York Times . Retrieved 28 December 2024.
  22. ↑ "50 Palestinian Students Arrested". Jewish Telegraphic Agency . 15 July 1982. Retrieved 28 December 2024.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.