BRUSSELS, 23 October 2004 — The Palestinian Authority needs a general election to shake up the leadership, its foreign minister said yesterday, stressing the need for vibrant democracy in politics long dominated by Yasser Arafat. Nabil Shaath said elections could not take place until the security situation had improved, ruling out an early poll.
“Elections are the single most important act of reform because elections turn a stale democracy to a vibrant democracy,” Shaath told reporters after talks with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana. “Elections allow the rejuvenation of the leadership and allow greater participation by the people in decision-making about very important matters, about peace and war and the future.”
Palestinian general elections were originally scheduled for early 2003 but put off on security grounds. They are seen as the first concrete step to meet long-standing international and domestic demands for reforms. Palestinian politics have been dominated for decades by Arafat, who has widespread support among Palestinians, but a September poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research showed more than 90 percent of Palestinians wanted sweeping political reforms.
Shaath said that although local elections would go ahead starting in December, there was little chance of a general election in the near future. “We are going into a small step of local elections on Dec. 9 regardless of the situation,” he said. “But to go into national elections there needs to be a minimum amount of quiet, and withdrawal of Israelis from towns and villages,” he added.
Meanwhile, Israel’s killing of a top Hamas fighter in Gaza prompted calls for vengeance by the radical Islamic group yesterday, days ahead of a critical parliament vote on Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s plan to evacuate the territory. A Hamas political leader vowed a “very severe reply” after 47-year-old Adnan Al-Ghoul from the Ezzedin El-Qassam Brigades and his aide were killed in a targeted air strike on their car in northern Gaza City overnight.
“Our reply will be very severe and we will continue our resistance in spite of the campaign of assassinations” by Israel, Ismail Hanyeh told AFP yesterday as he and more than 30,000 people attended Ghoul’s funeral. “There will be no security for the Zionist occupiers if the assassinations continue,” he added, while accusing the United States of “supporting the crimes” of Israel and Arab nations of doing nothing.
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat condemned the strike, which he said “is part and parcel of (Israel’s) escalation of violence and aggression which shows that Israel has opted for weapons rather than negotiations.” The army has been battling for months to try and stop the firing of Qassam rockets at southern Israel.
The latest raid to stamp out such attacks — codenamed Operation Days of Penitence — ended last week and left 130 Palestinians dead and caused serious material damage in the northern Gaza Strip. Still, militants managed to fire a rocket at Sderot overnight and a mortar shell hit a southern Gaza settlement in the Gush Katif bloc yesterday morning. There were no casualties.
The first attack prompted an Israeli airstrike on Gaza City while troops fired at militants in Khan Yunis soon after the mortar landed in Neve Dekalim. In other violence yesterday, two men were killed in Khan Yunis, although the circumstances of the deaths were not immediately clear.
Medics said body parts belonging to 28-year-old Iyad Al-Sirr had been ferried to Khan Yunis’ Al-Nasser hospital along with another man was had been critically wounded. Witnesses said Sirr died and his fellow militant was wounded as the mortar they attempted to fire prematurely blew up. Hamas said Sirr was killed by Israeli fire.
Another Palestinian was killed by a burst of gunfire while following Sirr’s funeral procession after Friday prayers. Palestinian security sources and medics said Israeli troops had fired at the procession.
