op-ed: Mr. President.. elections are people's widespread demand

I think we are living through a political phase that is one of the worst that our people have experienced over decades. Until we reached the painful conditions we are in and a dark future.. I feel, and I may be wrong, that the people live in one valley and the leaders in another, and that the people seem unable to change these conditions and that the leaders, as is clear and well-known, seem not interested in changing this reality, that serves their own factional interests.

The occupation devours what it can of the land, establishes settlements, plans for the next decades, and begins implementation immediately. Our leaders continue to issue statements of condemnation and absolute verbal rejection of these occupation practices. Then each commander goes to his base and home and prepares for the upcoming personal plans and writes the necessary speeches and statements on the public level, that no one in this country listens to or cares about anymore.

The only steadfast and strong glimmer of hope remains in our demographic presence on this land, while clinging to it and being careful as much as possible to work to protect it and prevent the occupation from stealing it. There are many cases where citizens succeeded in defending and protecting their lands from the oppression of the occupation, and we have strong evidence of this, which is the increasing Palestinian presence within the borders of what we call the Arabs of the interior, whose presence is considered a thorn in the side of the occupation despite all the difficulties and obstacles they face.

The big question facing us is what to do and how can we get out of this vicious circle? And I believe that the simple and easy answer is to hold presidential, municipal and rural elections so that the people can say their word and choose who represents them, and that these elections, if they happen, are not for one-time, but are repeated every four years, for example, or specify a time period for holding them and commit to that.

At the forefront of such elections are the real presidential elections, every four years, unlike what is happening with us in the current circumstances.