Palestinian elections: Gaza & West Bank youth launch independent list in rejection of factional politics
Tareq S. Hajjaj reports in Mondoweiss on 24 September 2026:
A group of 25 young civil society figures from Gaza and the West Bank have formed an independent electoral list to contest the Palestinian legislative elections scheduled for November 28 — the first legislative vote in two decades — positioning themselves explicitly outside the factional politics that have dominated Palestinian public life since the Oslo era.
The list, currently unnamed, brings together doctors, engineers, journalists, human rights workers, and civil society professionals, aged 24 to 45. Its organizers say they are building something they believe is largely absent from Palestinian electoral politics: a youth-led platform centered on people’s immediate needs rather than partisan affiliation or political ideology. Its members — six are women, two have disabilities, one is Christian — reflect the diversity, inclusion, and independence of which the list boasts.
The initiative is led by Fadi al-Sheikh Youssef, 39, a media activist and civil society figure who attempted something similar in 2021, when Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas called for legislative elections before postponing them weeks before polling day, citing Israel’s refusal to allow voting in occupied East Jerusalem. Al-Sheikh Youssef’s 2021 list — called Hulum, or “Dream” — was approved by the Palestinian Central Elections Commission and prepared to contest the vote before the postponement ended the effort.
Now, with elections set for November 28 and the nomination period due to open on September 26, he’s trying again. The context, however, has changed dramatically.