A dubious PA election could be the political opening Palestine needs
Omar H. Rahman writes in +974 on 10 August 2026:
For the first time in years, Palestinian politics is showing signs of life. On July 9, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas issued a decree calling elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) — the PA’s parliament, which he dissolved in 2018 — for Nov. 28.
Alongside a looser pledge to hold a presidential election in early 2027, Abbas has also moved to reconstitute the abeyant Palestinian National Council (PNC), the Palestine Liberation Organization’s parliament representing Palestinians both inside and outside the occupied territories. On June 4, Abbas issued a decree ratifying a new 350-seat structure: 200 seats for the occupied territories, to be filled by winners of an expanded, 200-member Legislative Council, and another 150 for the diaspora.
These announcements follow several other political developments earlier this year. In February, a provisional constitution for the State of Palestine was released for public review, the product of a drafting committee Abbas established in August 2025. Two months later, municipal elections were held across the West Bank and, amid the ruins of Gaza, in Deir Al-Balah. And in May, Fatah held its first general conference in nearly a decade, electing a new Central Committee.
Also worth noting, though not directly related: Hamas elected Khalil Al-Hayya as head of its political bureau on July 20, filling a position that had lacked a permanent leader for nearly two years.
Yet despite the unprecedented crisis Palestinians face, none of Abbas’ decrees are the product of an organic effort to revive a moribund polity or confront Israeli aggression. They are primarily a response to misplaced external pressure for “PA reform,” aimed at reviving the defunct two-state solution — pressure landing on an institution that is financially destitute and searching for a seat at the table where it no longer has one.
In response to the crisis sparked by October 7, several states, led by Saudi Arabia and Norway, have sought to revive the diplomatic peace process centered on Palestinian statehood, including by granting formal recognition. Abbas has latched onto this initiative, known as the Global Alliance for the Implementation of the Two-State Solution, as a political and economic lifeline. Abbas’ embrace of the initiative has included a commitment — half-hearted though it may be — to institutional reform and elections.