Tarek Chouiref
11 October 2026•Update: 11 October 2026
Palestine’s vice president hit back at Israel’s foreign minister on Saturday for criticizing the postponement of Palestinian elections, saying that in fact it was Israeli actions that forced the delay.
Hussein al-Sheikh accused Israel’s Gideon Saar of posing as a defender of Palestinian democracy while attacking President Mahmoud Abbas’ decision.
“Israel’s foreign minister now appears concerned about the future of democracy in Palestine after the legislative elections were postponed as a result of his crimes, measures, terror, and violence,” Al-Sheikh wrote on US social media platform X. “The one responsible for slaughtering our people every day now lectures us like a preacher.”
His remarks came after Saar accused Abbas of corruption and misleading the international community about the postponement.
Saar rejected Palestinian assertions that Israeli measures had created obstacles to holding the elections, calling them an attempt to evade “responsibility and accountability.”
Abbas on Saturday issued a presidential decree setting Sept. 11, 2027, for presidential and legislative elections, replacing an earlier date this November.
Nearly 2.97 million Palestinians are eligible to vote, including 1.59 million in the occupied West Bank, 1.24 million in the Gaza Strip, and 140,000 residents of occupied East Jerusalem.
Palestinians last held legislative elections in 2006, when Hamas won a majority of seats.