Participación política en la sociedad palestina

Resumen

The Palestinian political life entered a new era after signing the Oslo Accord and the establishment of the PNA; as the PNA and its institutions have become in direct and daily contact with the Palestinian people and legitimacy to represent the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The legitimacy of its political system underwent a transformation from a revolutionary legitimacy upon which political system was based to the democratic-pluralist legitimacy and was based on majority rule and electoral system. The elections system were considered clear change in the nature of the Palestinian political system, which was previously dependent on the system of revolutionary legal system in obtaining political legitimacy. In these elections, the Palestinian political system was transformed into a system based on popular participation, in which the political legitimacy was received at the polling boxes Therefore, this study will be devoted to investigating the political participation of Palestinian society, and try new topics: forms, motives and obstacles of political participation of Palestinian society in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. For that, this study considered an important contribution in order to create a society that is built on an effective political participation of its citizens so that they can influence the Palestinian political system that was established after the creation of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA). Understanding and analyzing the political participation of the Palestinian people is highly essential because it provides a good explanation and a good indication of the actual behavior of the Palestinian citizens towards political life. In addition, it is an important factor that allows us to better understand the influence of the Palestinian society in the political process, and their role in putting frameworks and modes of expression of their interests and demands. Moreover, better understanding and analysis of the Palestinian political participation provides a good indication about the effectiveness of the processes of mobilization and recruitment of the different sections of society, in addition to the modes of organization and frameworks that people use in order to voice their concerns, express their aspirations, defend their interests, and have leverage on the political life. The present study used the descriptive quantitative and qualitative approaches since both of them are considered to be the most suitable research approaches to study the political participation in the Palestinian society; And the study population consists of all the Palestinian citizens over 18 year old (who can vote in the election) in West Bank and Gaza Strip in the year 2010; The study sample consists of (384) Palestinian citizens; (239) in West Bank and (145) Gaza Strip, selected by random stratified method; The present study used the approach of sampling survey, and the questionnaire, as tools for data collection. Based on literature review in order to examine the political participation in the Palestinian society. This study concluded that the extent to which citizens may participate in the political action depends mainly on the citizens¿ attention, the political and general conditions; socially, ideologically, and materialistically. The nature of the present phase the Palestinians are in set on by structural crises, social and political failures which were compounded by the doubly devastating Occupation and then the foundation of a national authority (the PNA) with beleaguered authority, together constituting an obstacle for a robust political participation. This study concluded that the current situation indicates that political participation in the Palestinians society was moderate; this may be due to reasons related to the psychological, social, economic, cultural, and political dimensions. And the weak democratic climate, the prevalence of non-democratic traditional values such as patriarchalism, allegiance to clan or tribe, imposed beliefs, the occupying of citizens to earn a living, all these have doubled the consecutive economic crises, the dominance of incumbent parties, the constant suspensions of the elections, and the geographic and political division between the West Bank and Gaza. Additionally, political division in the judiciary, military, administration, and organizations, will never, provide an opportunity for citizens to be active participants in the political process. The Palestinian people's effective political participation has also been affected by factors such as the collective punishment people face as a result of their democratic choice, the subsequent political fragmentation, crippling the role of the Legislative Council, the postponement of legislative and presidential and local elections, the failure of the negotiations with the Israel, the continued blockade imposed on Gaza isolating it from the outside world and turning it into a big prison, the increase of poverty, the inability of the PNA to pay salaries for employees, the continued Israeli occupation and its arbitrary actions against the Palestinian people.