Time is quickly running out on the possibility of avoiding the unpredictable results of the upcoming Palestinian elections. Pressure is mounting on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to cancel or postpone a set of elections — legislative on May 22, presidential on July 31 and Palestinian National Council on Aug. 31 — that he had decreed on Jan. 13.

The Israelis are not interested in elections that will remind their own people and the world that there are Palestinians on the other side of the nearly erased Green Line. The United States under President Joe Biden has avoided making any decision on the Middle East giving climate change, Iran, Afghanistan, Russia and Yemen the priority on their foreign agenda. Jordan and Egypt are also worried about the upcoming elections although for different reasons. All those countries plus hordes of those Palestinians close to Abbas who are afraid of losing power or even sharing power are trying their hardest behind closed doors to get out of the risky business of elections, whose results are still hard to predict.

Officially, Palestine is all for elections. The PLO’s Executive Committee meeting on April 18, and the Fatah Central Committee meeting on April 19 both publicly stated that they are plowing ahead with the elections, and at the same time they are calling on Israel and the international community to honor signed agreements by allowing Jerusalemites to participate in them as they did in 1996 and 2006.

The participation of Jerusalem Palestinians was mandated in the Declarations of Principles, namely Article II of the 1993 Oslo I Accord and  Article VI of the 1995 Oslo II Accord. The accords allow a small number of Palestinians — 6,300 in the 2006 elections — to vote absentee, as the capacity allows for six Israeli-run post offices in East Jerusalem.