WEST BANK: Palestinian Americans struggle to vote

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Sam Bahour waited months for his absentee ballot to arrive at his home in Ramallah, but it never came. The reason: a side effect of Israel’s 41-year occupation of the West Bank.

‘Our postal system is as occupied as our streets are,’ said Bahour, a 44-year-old Palestinian American business consultant who moved to the West Bank 15 years ago.

Postal service on the West Bank exists, but just barely. All mail coming and going passes through the Israeli mail system -- which with security checks and general delays usually adds up to three months to the delivery time. That delay left many Palestinian Americans in the West Bank struggling for ways to make their voices heard this election year.

Bahour, a Youngstown, Ohio, native, finally contacted the the Trumbull County registrar’s office online and was able to vote by sending in a fax.

‘I know Ohio is a swing state. That’s one of the reasons I went that extra mile,’ Bahour said.

But many counties in the U.S. don’t accept faxed ballots and require something in the mail. And Bahour worries that many of his fellow U.S. citizens simply gave up after their ballots didn’t arrive.

The U.S. government has no permanent presence in the West Bank, but the American Consulate in predominantly Arab East Jerusalem sends in teams once a month to handle passport renewals and visa issues.

A consular official estimated that there are 30,000 U.S. citizens living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, counting Israeli settlers. For the Gaza residents, there were very few voting options unless they were able to route their mail through an international organization.

Things were a little easier for West Bank residents. They could have dropped off their ballots at the local United Nations office or crossed through the security barrier built by Israel to vote at the East Jerusalem Consulate.

Three of Bahour’s relatives went to the Consulate but were turned away by the long lines. And many Palestinian Americans on the West Bank are living on long-expired tourist visas, so they avoid leaving for fear that the Israeli government won’t let them back in.

-- Ashraf Khalil in Jerusalem