Statement on the Palestinian National Council Elections by the Madison-Rafah Sister City Project

The Madison-Rafah Sister City Project (MRSCP) congratulates the Palestinian people on the successful completion of the recent legislative elections in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Despite the obstacles presented by the Israeli occupation including hundreds of checkpoints, the wall, and the Israeli army, voters turned out in huge numbers, with 77% of eligible Palestinians participating for the first time in genuinely competitive, multi-party Parliamentary elections.

A very large number of impartial Palestinian and international observers have concluded that the elections were fair, transparent and completed with only minor irregularities in spite of having been held under some of the most difficult conditions imaginable.

All parties who support democracy, whether inside or outside Palestine, are therefore obliged to respect the outcome of these elections regardless of their opinion as to the desirability of the results.

In particular, as U.S. citizens, we call upon the U.S. government to conduct its relations with the people of Palestine on the basis of mutual respect for the democratic process.

We hope our representatives will resist the temptation to further isolate the people of the U.S. from the people of Palestine because they--or special interest groups whom they fear to offend--disagree with the Palestinian people’s democratic choice.

The Madison-Rafah Sister City Project is a non-partisan, humanitarian organization that takes no position regarding internal Palestinian politics and works exclusively to build “people-to-people” relationships with non-partisan, non-governmental and humanitarian partners on the Palestinian side. We are explicitly committed to non-violence and we oppose the use of violence to solve conflicts, whether from the Palestinian side or from the Israeli or U.S. side.

Only when Israel complies fully with international law, including returning all Palestinian lands occupied since the 1967 war, and stops its other illegal activities including assassinations, home demolitions, torture, collective punishment and construction of the “annexation wall”, will there be any way to bring a permanent end to the terrible cycle of violence between the Palestinian and Israeli peoples.

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