At the beginning of October  2026, Israel refused to allow officials from the Palestinian Central Elections Commission and international election observers to enter Gaza to monitor preparations for the legislative elections. Israel continues to refuse such access in Jerusalem.

The Palestinian legislative elections scheduled for 28th November 2026 face a more complex situation than previous elections. The obstacle is no longer confined to Jerusalem, as it was during the 2006 elections and the attempted elections of 2021, but now extends to the Gaza Strip as well.

Gaza has around 1.24 million registered voters out of approximately three million Palestinian voters, a number that cannot be disregarded under any circumstances, quite apart from the overriding political consideration, which is as significant as the need to hold elections in Jerusalem.

Gaza has around 1.24 million registered voters out of approximately three million Palestinian voters, a number that cannot be disregarded under any circumstances, quite apart from the overriding political consideration, which is as significant as the need to hold elections in Jerusalem.

The obstacles encountered during the 2021 attempt also remain, namely the occupying power’s refusal to allow elections to be held in Jerusalem or an international election observation mission to oversee them.

Equally important, the United States’ public position today does not appear supportive of Palestinian elections, in contrast to Washington’s welcoming and supportive stance towards the elections held in 1996 and 2006. Washington did not pressure Israel in 2021 to allow elections to take place in Jerusalem, and its position appears even more complicated today given the situation in Gaza. Do current conditions and political dynamics permit elections to be held in the occupied Palestinian territory?

The most significant challenges facing Palestinians seeking to hold legislative elections today lie in Israeli restrictions on movement and access, in enabling Palestinian and international teams responsible for organising and overseeing the elections to operate in Jerusalem and Gaza, and in guaranteeing that voters and candidates can participate in a democratic and fair electoral process encompassing the entire Palestinian territory.

READ: Israel refuses entry to Palestinian election commission to Gaza, Jerusalem

A comparison of the conditions that enabled elections to take place in 1996 and 2006 with those prevailing in 2021 and today may provide an answer to the question raised above. Foremost among these conditions was Israel’s willingness to allow elections to be held in Jerusalem and Gaza and international observer missions to be present to oversee them. Most important, however, was Washington’s determination to see Palestinian elections take place, by pressing the Israeli government to facilitate them.

The first Palestinian elections, held in 1996, took place under arrangements that had been negotiated and agreed between the Palestinian and Israeli sides before polling day. The Interim Agreement (Oslo II), signed on 28 September 1995, explicitly provided in its Protocol on Elections for the participation of Palestinians in Jerusalem in the electoral process and established a special mechanism allowing them to cast their ballots through Israeli post offices in the city. These arrangements governed Jerusalem’s participation in the elections held on 20th January 1996 and had been settled nearly four months beforehand.

As for international observation of the 1996 elections, the Interim Agreement assigned the European Union responsibility for coordinating international........

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