Journalist, El Mundo

Historic elections

Javier Espinosa
Gaza, 2016
Dimensions: 100 mm x 210 mm

This notebook is one of those I used to cover the historic legislative elections held in the Palestinian territories in 2006, which resulted in a victory for Hamas and marked a strategic shift in the conflict. During that event, I was able to interview several leaders of the Islamist movement, from the number one of their list, Ismail Haniyeh, to the Christian MP Husam al-Atawil, who was elected in alliance with the Islamists.

Hamas’s victory sparked a revolt by Fatah militias, supposedly under the orders of the president of the Palestinian National Authority, Abu Mazen, who was asked to resign after the Palestinian parliament was stormed.

Although all international observers certified that the elections had been conducted with complete impartiality, the Western community decided to impose sanctions on the Gaza Strip, which from that date on faced numerous restrictions that still persist today.

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