Palestinians keenly await Egypt election results

Gaza  Palestinians are keenly interested in the results of the presidential election in Egypt this week as many believe it will have a direct effect on Gaza concerns as well as the Palestinian cause in general.

Palestine as a whole and the Gaza strip in particular have always been attached to Egypt historically, geographically and politically.

Dr Esmail Radwan a senior member in the Islamic movement Hamas said: “The Egyptians are going to pave a new path for Egypt, the Palestinian case and all of the Arab countries.”

Ever since Hamas took over Gaza in the year 2007, its relations with the regime of deposed president Hosni Mubarak faced a lot of tension.

Things however, have started to change after the Muslim Brotherhood won most of the seats in the Egyptian parliament and Hamas is hoping that Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mahmoud Moursi win the election.

“The Egyptian elections won’t affect them alone, but everybody around them ... we are optimistic that their choice will be better and open a new era of cooperation between Arabs [who] will serve the Arabs and Muslims.”

Ribhi Rabah, a senior member in Fatah said: “Part of the our interior problems between the Palestinians exist because of the theories and bids of identity of the next Egyptian president and what his agenda will be regarding the Palestinian case.”

After last year’s revolution in Egypt, both Fatah and Hamas movements signed several reconciliation agreements, but these have not been implemented.

“As long as Egypt is in the hands of a strongman, Egypt will be safe and the Palestinians will be too because Egypt is the strategic power for Arabs and the Palestinians in peace and war,” Rabah said.

Political analyst Hany Habib said: “Many countries tried to fill up the absence of the Egyptian political influence during the previous regime of Hosni Mubarak on the Palestinian movements, but none of them could completely cover that.

“The next Egyptian president will return the role of Egypt to the Palestinian case, but at the same time, I don’t think he will be able to eliminate the Camp David agreement with the Israeli state.”

The common people in Gaza are interested as well in the results of the presidential elections. People congregate in places where they can watch or hear radio and television broadcast of the election coverage in almost every street corner.

Some Gazans who have both Palestinian and Egyptian citizenship, went home to cast their ballots, believing that their participation can make a difference.

Mohammad Al Helo, 30, whose mother is Egyptian said: “My mother left from Gaza strip to Egypt last week to participate in these presidential elections and vote for her candidate.”