The Election Section, Part 4 - The bit that's like a jumble sale. ('The louder you scream, the faster the ride')

Here's a snippet from an email I got this morning from G. a friend of mine in Nablus, who managed to become an official election monitor:

Unlike what one might expect from a group that is labeled as terrorist in most of the world, Hamas supporters here are largely detached from the "foreign affairs" aspect of Hamas. When questioned about their support for Hamas, the answer is nearly exclusively linked to corruption allegations with Fatah and the trustworthiness of Hamas. Actions such as suicide attacks in Israel are largely relegated to the backdrop as they are carried out by many groups other than Hamas. The only thing that matters in that respect, is that Hamas has not give up the struggle for historic Palestine. Whether this non abandoning of the struggle is through military or political means is a matter of preference…I personally get the impression Hamas is very close to abandoning the armed struggle.

There's certainly more to Hamas than meets the eye. I might do a post on it in a few days if I feel that way inclined.

And here's a link to an article by Chris McGreal of the Guardian who is in Rafah, Gaza. I had to laugh because the adjective I would use to describe the 'Hamas girls' here would be 'fearsome'!
Finally, a point that some of my readers might be able to throw some light on. Despite the fact that the Palestinian population in the West Bank and Gaza is 3.7 million (according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics), only 1.3 million Palestinians were registered to vote!? That's 35%, or about a third of the population. Now I know Palestine has a very bottom heavy population pyramid (lots of kids in other words), but surely not that many. What happened to everyone else?