By: Prof. Dr. Mohsen Mohammad Saleh.
In recent days, Palestinians abroad have engaged in broad popular mobilization around the Palestinian elections and efforts to counter attempts by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) leadership and the Palestinian Authority (PA) leadership in Ramallah to circumvent the electoral process and national consensus through exclusionary policies, appointments and “pre-engineered” electoral colleges.
In this context, the General Secretariat of the Popular Conference for Palestinians Abroad (PCPA) held an emergency meeting in Istanbul on Friday and Saturday, 25–26/10/2026. The meeting focused on the need for genuine national representation based on broad popular will, rejecting appointments, exclusion and any measures that deprive the Palestinian people of their right to choose their representatives. It also underscored the need for sound, fair and transparent democratic mechanisms. Accordingly, the PCPA, which represents broad segments of Palestinians abroad, called for a campaign to mobilize against measures taken by the PLO leadership. It further expressed its readiness to work with all political and civil frameworks, organizations and national figures to build a broad-based national mobilization in pursuit of this goal.
The Palestinian National Authority for Popular Action (PNPA), in cooperation with the Conference of Palestinians in Türkiye, also organized the “Emergency Palestinian National Forum” on 26/10/2026. The gathering brought together about 350 figures from Palestine and Palestinian communities abroad, representing roughly 30 countries. Of these, 216 attended in person in Istanbul, while the remainder participated via Zoom. Many representatives of Palestinian organizations, institutions and communities spoke, reaffirming their rejection of the exclusionary and marginalizing policies pursued by the PLO leadership, as well as its selective, top-down appointments, as seen in Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain and as reportedly planned for other Arab countries, Europe and Palestinian communities elsewhere in the world. They emphasized that Article 5 of the Palestinian Basic Law grants all Palestinians who meet the relevant conditions the right to elect their representatives. At the same time, they stressed that if such elections prove impossible, Palestinians should reach consensus on an appropriate mechanism acceptable to all, one that comes as close as possible to ensuring fairness and accuracy while preserving the integrity of the electoral process.
Practical Proposals:
1. The “Digital Palestine” Initiative: The initiative calls for establishing a secure, well-governed digital platform to register Palestinians in Palestine and the diaspora and build a national database that could eventually serve as a Palestinian electoral register. This would greatly facilitate determining who is eligible to participate in selecting Palestinian representatives and help counter the “ready-made excuses” invoked by the PLO leadership to avoid genuine representation of the Palestinian people, particularly those abroad. At the same time, an initiative of this nature involves significant concerns regarding data protection, privacy and transparency. It therefore requires robust verification mechanisms and a qualified oversight committee committed to competence, integrity, and impartiality. The Emergency Palestinian National Forum endorsed the initiative and called for its support and implementation.
2. The “My Vote, My Decision… No to Appointments” Campaign: Launched at the Emergency Palestinian National Forum, the campaign seeks to collect hundreds of thousands of signatures, particularly from Palestinians abroad, affirming their right to elect their representatives freely and according to their own will through fair, transparent and genuinely representative mechanisms.
3. Launch a broad mobilization campaign involving popular organizations, unions, professional associations, civil society groups, Palestinian communities and prominent national figures, particularly abroad, to affirm Palestinians’ right to elect their representatives and reject appointments. The campaign should also reject the legitimacy of any “prepackaged” or artificially constructed elections, as well as selectively constituted electoral colleges, that “steal” Palestinians’ free choice.
4. Dr. Mustafa Barghouti and several Palestinian figures have called on Palestinians abroad to organize in countries where free elections are permitted and hold genuine elections involving the broadest possible representation of Palestinian communities, thereby selecting their representatives to the Palestine National Council (PNC). This, they argue, would place the PLO leadership before the realities on the ground and challenge the appointment and exclusion practices it has adopted.
An Existential Struggle and a Free People:
The meetings conveyed several important political messages, most notably:
• The Palestinian people are facing an existential struggle aimed at erasing the Palestine issue, denying their existence as a people, and depriving them of their inherent right to their land and holy sites. It also seeks to suppress resistance and dismantle Palestinian representative institutions, including those committed to the Oslo Accords. This situation calls for all political forces to coordinate their efforts and work together to confront the Zionist project.
• For more than a century, the Palestinian people have fought for freedom and dignity, rising up in dozens of revolts and uprisings and sacrificing hundreds of thousands of martyrs, wounded and prisoners. Through this long struggle, they have become a model for peoples around the world. Their freedom and dignity should therefore be protected by the leadership that represents them, rather than that leadership itself “stealing” their freedom, disregarding their will and overriding their right to make independent decisions.
• The Palestinian people possess a wealth of experience, talent and expertise, with hundreds of thousands of university graduates. They are among the most educated peoples in the world and among those most committed to achieving freedom and willing to pay its price. They therefore deserve leadership that rises to their level, rather than leadership imposed on them as though they were “minors under guardianship,” or leadership that underestimates their intelligence. If the Palestinian people have earned the respect of the world, then the Palestinian leadership should be the first to recognize their worth and uphold their rights.
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Finally, if elections are the natural means of expressing the will of the Palestinian people, the proper foundation for doing so is to ensure that their free will can be genuinely expressed through free, fair and transparent elections, using mechanisms that represent them equitably… and are worthy of the sacrifices of those killed, the wounded, prisoners, refugees, those living under siege, and those enduring the hardships of occupation and life in the diaspora.
Al-Zaytouna Centre for Studies and Consultations, 5/10/2026
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