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On the Palestinian Campaign Trail
(Jerusalem Post) Daoud Kuttab - A visible change occurred in the territories in the past week as the election due to take place on Jan. 9 moves into high gear. Palestinians woke up this week to huge signs of the leading candidates replacing the posters of martyrs and intifada graffiti. The posters of Tayseer Khaled, the candidate of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, focus on Jerusalem with slogans like "No peace without Jerusalem which is the jewel of the nation." Traveling from Ramallah to Jerusalem, you are greeted by the face of Bassam Salhi, the candidate of the People's Party (formerly the Communist Party), with Jerusalem in the background, and the slogan "Jerusalem is ours." Unlike in 1996, this time Palestinians in Jerusalem seem much more interested in voting. In one closed meeting with 160 businessmen in Ramallah, Mahmoud Abbas said there must be a clear end to the intifada. The writer is director of the Institute of Modern Media at Al Quds University in Ramallah.