Israel recently made an understandable decision to disallow Palestinians who live in East Jerusalem - land they annexed - from voting in the upcoming Palestinian elections. The stated reason is that they don't want to allow Hamas on the ballot; the underlying reason is that they view East Jerusalem as sovereign, non-negotiable territory and will not give it up. It's an indefensible position, of course, in any court of international law, but Israel's idea of international law has more to do with the size of one's tanks than with legal niceties.
Given the realities, what's a vote-hungry Palestinian politician to do? Begging the Americans to intervene is bad; begging the Israelis to reconsider is worse. Asking for outside Arab or European help would be dangerous (i.e., Israel might crack down hard) and/or ineffectual. Being beholden to your opponent in a dispute really narrows the options.
My advice: forget due process and go for maximum publicity. On election day, start holding elections in East Jerusalem as normally as possible. Make sure turnout is high, and get the Western, Arab, and Israeli press on the scene with cameras rolling. That forces the Israeli security state to make the decision of whether to forcibly break up the democratic process or to back down on their threats.
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