NABLUS, Israeli-Occupied West Bank — In smoke-filled offices and coffee shops across the West Bank and Gaza Strip, onetime Palestinian guerrillas are struggling to remake their liberation movement into political parties capable of competing in elections.
Thursday's White House signing of the latest Israeli-Palestinian accord unofficially launched the first Palestinian campaign to elect a self-governing authority. The accord both extends Palestinian self-rule in the West Bank and lays out rules for holding elections in the West Bank and Gaza.
With elections expected within six months, guerrilla groups that for decades measured their strength in the number of gunmen they could command are now scrambling to select candidates to run for the 82-member self-governing council.
Before the Palestine Liberation Organization abandoned its pledge to liberate Palestine by fighting Israel and then signed a peace accord with the Jewish state two years ago, the refugee camps of the Middle East were the scenes of important power struggles among the PLO's many factions. The camps produced the angry young men who could be counted on to raise a faction's profile by carrying out murderous attacks on Israeli civilians and soldiers.
Now, the only struggle that counts is the one for the right to provide civilian services to Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza, and to participate in the final phase of negotiations with Israel due to begin in May.
Palestinians are acutely aware that the factions that boycott these elections--or make a poor showing once they decide to participate--risk becoming a footnote to history.
Everyone believes that Fatah, the largest, best-financed faction, will dominate the elections, and that Fatah founder Yasser Arafat will easily win election as head of the new Palestinian council. But smaller factions and independent candidates hope to secure enough seats in the council to stay relevant as Palestinians fashion a state out of the autonomy Israel has granted them.
"There is a lot of internal debate within most factions about the elections," said Mamduh Aker, an activist in Fatah. "Within this debate are emerging new, more realistic parties that are trying to form brand-new platforms."
