( CNN ) -- My eyes stung , I was coughing , my nose was running . Along with cameraman David Hawley and freelance producer Kareem Khadder , I had just been tear-gassed -- not for the first time last Friday -- during a day-long clash between Palestinian kids and Israeli soldiers in the West Bank town of Na'alin , on the West Bank . An Israeli soldier confronts Palestinian protesters during a demonstration Friday in the West Bank village of Jayyus . We had gone there to gauge the Palestinian view of Tuesday 's Israeli elections . Na'alin , and many other towns and villages like it in the West Bank , are in the forefront of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians . Here , it all comes down to the most basic element in the century-old conflict : control of the land . Na'alin is an old town , with factories and workshops , surrounded by olive groves . But in recent years neighboring Israeli settlements , built since the June 1967 war , have increasingly encroached on Na'alin 's farmland , and Israel , on grounds of security , has built its security barrier around the town . As a result , Na'alin residents say they have lost access to much of their land , their water sources , in short their livelihood . Beginning two years ago , every Friday they hold protests against Israel 's settlement expansion and barrier building . Most Na'alin residents are not ideological hotheads ; before the outbreak of the second Palestinian intifada , or uprising , in September 2000 , many worked in Israel . Most are still fluent in Hebrew and do business with Israelis looking for a good deal on car repairs and other services . For that reason I thought Na'alin would be a good place to see what Palestinians were thinking . What I heard was universal pessimism . No one I spoke with expressed the slightest hope that any of the leading candidates -- Likud 's Benjamin Netanyahu , Kadima 's Tzipi Livni , Israel Beitenu 's Avigdor Lieberman and Labour 's Ehud Barak -- would do anything to remove the settlements that are slowly closing in on Na'alin . As we sheltered from the tear gas behind a house , Na'alin resident Hani Khawaja told me , `` I do n't expect anything to come out of the elections that will please the Palestinians . Just killings , expulsions and land confiscations . '' Another man , Ayub Srour , had a slightly different approach . He prefers Israeli leaders to be honest about their intentions , and not raise hopes only to dash them later . He wants Likud leader and long-time hardliner Benjamin Netanyahu to win . `` At least he 's honest . He says he 'll expel us , and he will expel us . He says he 's slaughter us , and he will slaughter us . '' I 've covered almost every Israeli election since 1996 . With each election , the Palestinian feeling of despair and hopelessness only deepens . Since the last election in the spring of 2006 , Palestinians have seen Israel and Hezbollah go to war , West Bank settlements continue to expand , Hamas and Fatah fight it out in Gaza with Hamas taking control in June 2007 . They 've also seen a series of Israeli incursions into Gaza , culminating recently in the 22-day Israeli offensive that left large parts of the strip in ruins . Meanwhile many Palestinians say their leadership -- often described as moderate and pro-western -- in Ramallah is incapable of reversing the trend of settlement expansion . The same leadership has been unable to convince Israel to remove few of the hundreds of roadblocks and checkpoints that make travelling around the West Bank a test of patience and endurance . In short , when Palestinians look back over the last 15 years since the Oslo Accords were signed , they 've seen their lot only go from bad to worse . As a result , more and more Palestinians are convinced the only way to beat the Israelis is to join them , to discard failed attempts at creating a Palestinian state in an ever smaller , ever more economically unviable territory , and go for what is known as the one-state solution . That would mean Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza relinquishing their dream of an independent Palestinian state , and instead insisting on equal rights in the territory between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean , an area that is , for all intents and purposes , under Israel 's control anyway . The one-state solution is an anathema to many Israelis , who are well aware that , with their higher birth-rate , Palestinians ( those living within Israel proper , plus Jerusalem , the West Bank and Gaza ) could well become a majority within a generation . Israelis increasingly worry the national struggle between Israel and the Palestinians will be transformed into an internal struggle , for equal rights for all those living within historic Palestine . Those fears prompted Israel 's current caretaker prime minister , Ehud Olmert , to warn as far back as November 2007 that if Israel does n't move quickly to achieve a two-state solution , it will be in a position not unlike South Africa during the apartheid area , whereby a minority -- in this case Israeli Jews -- rules over a restive majority -- the Palestinians -- by means of force , repression and discriminatory laws . Many Palestinians argue that is already the case , citing Israeli restrictions on movement , residence , and work . The bedrock of Israeli antipathy toward the Palestinians is part of the reason for the growing strength of the Israel Beiteinu ( Israel is Our Home ) Party , led by Avigdor Leiberman . He argues that Israel 's Palestinian minority ( they make up about 20 percent of the population ) as a potential fifth column working against the aims of the Jewish majority . Leiberman has focused much of his fire on Palestinian Knesset members such as Ahmed Tibi , accusing him and others of sympathising with Israel 's enemies , Hamas and Hizballah . His solution is to compel all of Knesset members -- and possibly all Israeli citizens -- to take an oath of loyalty to the state . Another of Leiberman 's proposals is to redraw Israel 's boundaries to exclude as many of its Palestinians as possible . Tibi responds that Leiberman 's growing clout is symptomatic of `` an obvious fascist phenomena invading Israeli society . During the last years , racism became mainstream . '' Back in the town of Na'alin , the kids throwing stones at Israeli troops do have some odd companions . Young Israelis , some of them self-described anarchists , also take part in the protests . They do n't throw stones , but they do offer useful advice . `` Laththam ! Laththam ! '' one Israeli with black tattoos on his arms tells a young boy , no older than 12 , hurling rocks with a home-made sling . `` Laththam '' is Arabic for `` cover your face , '' the advice imparted because if Israeli troops can identify stone throwers , they arrest them . There still is cooperation of sorts between Palestinians and Israelis , but it 's an increasingly rare commodity . And this election probably wo n't do anything to bridge the growing gap between the two -- the curious friendship in Na'alin notwithstanding .
CNN also finds moods of universal pessimism in West Bank town . Israel - Tuesday after election campaign dominated by the country 's right . More and more Palestinians see ` ` one - state solution '' as only going forward . Israelis oppose one - state solution for fear Palestinians would be killed .