RAMALLAH/GAZA CITY, 23 July 2007 — For the third time in two weeks, the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) yesterday failed to convene in Ramallah and Gaza as a result of the Hamas-Fatah disagreement, and the boycott of other Palestinian parliamentary blocs.
Acting PLC Speaker of Hamas Ahmad Bahar called for a confidence vote session on the emergency government of Salam Fayyad, which was established by President Mahmoud Abbas following Hamas’ violent takeover of Gaza last month.
Fatah called on its members to stay away from the meeting because Bahar’s term as PLC acting speaker had ended July 5, and as such he did not have the constitutional power to call a new session.
Boycotts have prevented the council from meeting since the Hamas military takeover in Gaza last month. Fayyad needs the support of 67 members in a vote of confidence, but 45 Hamas members cannot attend because they are being held by Israeli authorities.
The secretary-general of the PLC, Ibrahim Khraisheh, said yesterday that it became impossible to hold a PLC session, especially after Hamas rejected Abbas’ decree for convening the PLC session. Abbas issued a presidential decree calling on the PLC to convene in the West Bank and Gaza on July 11 in its second session to elect a new speaker and deputies and to discuss the state of the emergency government.
Khraisheh said that the exceptional session, which Bahar called, “is illegal.”
In light of the inactivity of the PLC, the basic law authorizes the Palestinian president to issue decrees, which are binding by law.
As the Palestinian parliamentary stalemate continued, Israel killed four Palestinian fighters in the Gaza Strip, two in a ground assault and two in an airstrike. The violence was the worst in coastal Gaza in 10 days, and came a day before Tony Blair makes his first visit to the region as envoy to the Quartet of Middle East power brokers.
Palestinian witnesses said an Israeli attack helicopter opened fire in northern Gaza, killing two fighters. The Islamic Jihad group said both were its members and that they had been firing rockets at Israel.
An Israeli military spokesman said the air attack was launched after two rockets slammed into the southern town of Sderot, one striking a school and lightly injuring an Israeli woman.
Israeli soldiers shot and killed two Hamas fighters earlier yesterday as they approached a border fence with Israel.
Blair will meet Abbas in Ramallah this afternoon and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Jerusalem in the evening, Palestinian and Israeli officials said.
— Additional input from agencies
