ABSTRACT
One political dilemma confronting the Palestinians after the official annexation was whether or not to take part in the first Parliamentary elections following the establishment of the Union in 1950. In view of the extent of the Palestinians' participation in the first elections, the Communists and other groups which boycotted them had to change their position. They faced the dangerous possibility of losing what was viewed as an important channel of political influence. For their part, the refugees were generally great believers in Pan Arabism, and did not see any contradiction between participating in this process of 'decision making' and maintaining their rights in Palestine. Political instability and competition in the parliamentary elections between refugee and non-refugee, Christian and Muslim, was largely avoided since the Christians there were granted sectarian representation, each religious community being allocated one seat. This allowed the urban Muslim refugees to secure parliamentary representation at no expense to the town's Christian community.
